184 TRIBAL DIVISIONS OF THE 



however, be concluded that they were not originally 

 distinct tribes. They were hostile to the Northern 

 tribes. Gilbert Robertson (Evidence Aboriginal Com- 

 mittee) states that either the Stony Creek or Port 

 Dalrymple natives had killed many of the Oyster Bay 

 native-. 



4. Northern and North-Eastern Tribes. 



There remain to be considered the tribes of the North 

 and North-East. The language of the Ben Lomond 

 tribe is described as a distinct dialect by Kelly, Walker, 

 Backhouse, and others. Kelly (Boat Voyage, 1815) 

 states that Briggs, the sealer, could speak the language of 

 the North-East Coast tribes fluently. We may infer 

 that this was the fourth language of which Robertson 

 speaks, and it may have been common — with more or less 

 variation — to the North-East Coast and Ben Lomond 

 natives. It is difficult to determine the relationship- of 

 the tribes of the North Centre, the Port Dalrymple, and 

 the Stony Creek tribes. The balance of probabilities 

 inclines us to the belief that they were related rather to 

 the North-Eastern group than to their Southern neigh- 

 bours of the Oyster Bay tribe (with whom we know they 

 were at feud), or to the tribes of the North- West. There 

 is no mention of these tribes using canoes. 



(a) — The Stony Creek Tribe. 



The pastoral district now known as " The Midlands," 

 lying in the centre of the Island, to the north of the 

 Oyster Bay and Big River natives, was occupied by the 

 Stony Creek tribe. They took their name from a small 

 southern tributary of the South Esk, near Llewellyn, 

 to the north, of Campbell Town. They occupied the 

 Campbell Town and Ross districts, going south to Black- 

 man's River, Salt Pan Plains, and Antill Ponds, and up 

 to the foot of the Western Mountains, probably including 

 the valleys of the Macquarie, I sis, and Lake Rivers. 

 A mob of 200 were seen on the Macquarie River in 

 1819. It is stated that about 1829, under their Chief 

 Eumarrah, they frequented Norfolk Plains on the Lake 

 River. If so they must have been allies of the Port 

 Dalrymple natives. The country they occupied abounded 

 in game, being lightly timbered and well grassed. They 



