L86 i M BAL divisions of i in; 



Kellv ( Kvidenee Aboriginal Committee) states that 

 the tribes of the North and East take part with the 

 tribes in the interior. He probably means that the Port 

 Dalrymple natives (North) were in league with those of 

 Stony Creek ; and the Oyster Bay natives (East) with 

 those of the Big River. 



(<•) — The Ben Lomond Tribe. 



The Ben Lomond natives occupied the fertile valley 

 of the South Esk, abounding in game. Their neigh- 

 bours to the west were the Stony Creek tribe. They 

 may have had access to the sea coast at Falmouth, by 

 St. Mary's Pass, though this was a dense forest. They 

 took their name from the great Ben Lomond range, 

 rising to an elevation of over 5000 feet. The valleys of 

 the mountain were probably too densely wooded to afford 

 much game, but that they roamed over the highlands is 

 shown by their having given the name of Meenamata to 

 the lagoon on the plateau at the summit of the mountain. 

 Perhaps the strongest proof of the separateness of the 

 North-Eastern tribes — or, at least, that of Ben Lomond — 

 is afforded, by the variation in the word for " river." 

 The South Esk was Mangana lienta. Elsewhere the 

 word was linah : e.g., Huon, Tahune litiah (South) ; 

 Jordan, Kutah linah (S. interior). 



(d) — North-East Coast Tribes. 



We find mention of tribes or sub-tribes along the 

 whole stretch of coast from George's Bay, on the East 

 Coast, to the entrance to the Tamar (Port Dalrymple), 

 on the North. On various occasions mobs were met 

 with at George's Bay and George's River ; at the Bay 

 of Fires and Eddy stone Point ; at Cape Portland, in the 

 extreme north-east ; at Ringarooma Point ; at Foresters 

 River ; at Piper's River ; and on the east side of the 

 mouth of the Tamar. In 1806, a mob of 200 natives 

 came to the first settlement at George Town, just within 

 the entrance to Port Dalrymple, on the east bank of the 

 Tamar. In the north-east part of the island the country 

 is, in many places, open for some miles inland from the 

 coast, and in such places there would be game. The 

 interior is mountainous and heavily timbered, and, very 

 probably, was not occupied by the natives. 



