176 TRIHAL DIVISIONS OF THE 



SOME NOTES ON THE TRIBAL DIVISIONS 

 OF THE ABORIGINES OF TASMANIA. 



By James B. Walker. 



The estimates of the aboriginal population of Tas- 

 mania before the advent of Europeans vary very 

 considerably. G. A. Robinson always maintained that, 

 in 1804, the number of the aborigines was from 6000 to 

 8000. Captain Kelly, in his evidence before Colonel 

 Arthur's Committee in 1830, estimated the native popu- 

 lation at 5000 ; but he supposed that the number was 

 still very great in the unsettled parts of the colony, 

 which we now know was not the case. On the other 

 hand, Backhouse put the number as low as 700 to 1000. 

 Dr. Milligan says : " Assuming that the number of tribes 

 and sub-tribes throughout the territory was about twenty, 

 and that each mustered, of men, women, and children, 50 

 to 250 individuals, and allowing them numbers propor- 

 tioned to the means of subsistence within the limits of 

 their respective hunting-grounds, it does not appear 

 probable that the aggregate aboriginal population did 

 materially, if at all, exceed 2000." 



A like uncertainty exists as to their tribal divisions. 

 G. A. Robinson, in a speech made in Sydney in 1838, 

 shortly after he had left Flinders Island, states "that he 

 had necessarily learnt four languages to make himself 

 understood by the natives generally. But, as regarded 

 nations, he could truly say that the island was divided 

 and subdivided by the natives into districts and con- 

 tained many nations. Their divisions he intended at 

 some future time to point out, as he intended to execute 

 a map of the island on aboriginal principles, with the 

 aborigines' names for mountains, rivers, and districts." 



Unfortunately, this map — if ever made — has been lost 

 with the rest of Robinson's papers on the natives, and 

 the information available is not sufficient to enable us to 

 determine with any accuracy either the total number of 

 the aborigines or the limits of the respective tribes. 



In considering the question of their numbers, it must 

 be borne in mind that the parts of Tasmania capable of 

 affording subsistence to a hunting people were limited in 

 area. The West Coast is shut off from the Centre and 

 JEast— -for long the only settled parts — by a wide region 



