believed by them to be caused by the 
movements of Mindie's tail. 
Looking objectively at these beliefs, 
it seems clear that the aboriginal in- 
habitants of this region had invented 
Mindie in order to protect themselves 
from enemy raids, much in the same 
way as a being called Loan was said 
to protect the people living to the 
north of Wilson's Promontory. 
Buckrabanyule (Bukker-panyool) is 
a three-peaked hill a little to the east 
of Charlton, which is on the Avoca 
River. The Avoca River is believed 
to have been the boundary between 
two tribes, the Jajawurong (to the 
east), and the Wotjobaluk (to the 
west). However, this tribal demarca- 
tion is only arbitrary, because it ap- 
pears that the sub-roup who "owned" 
the mount formed part of a Wotjo- 
baluk group. As far as can be ascer- 
tained this group's name was Jaara, 
and its territory included all the land 
(and water and game) encompassed 
within a rough line between Buckra- 
banyule, Emu, Stuart Mill, Marnoo, 
Birchip, Wycheproof, and back to 
Buckrabanyule. This was, in fact, the 
territory over which Mindie roamed. 
The family, or sub-group to whom 
Buckrabanyule was allotted, was pro- 
bably called Panyool-boluk, the Hill- 
people; and Munnie Brumbrum was 
probably only the local name for two 
mythical heroes, generally known to 
the N.W. Tribes as Bram-Bram-Bult, 
the Two Bram-bram. These two 
heroes* eventually became the two 
stars known as The Pointers, but while 
on earth, they performed all kinds of 
mighty deeds. 
There is no doubt that the whole 
of this territory, despite Mindie, and 
dry as it is at times, did support a 
fairly large aboriginal population. This 
is indicated by the many occupational 
traces left behind by them, in the 
* See my book, Bunjil's Cave, for the ad- 
ventures of these two brothers. 
February, 1969 
guise of canoe and shield trees, rock 
water-holes, oven mounds, and camp 
sites, as well as the innumerable stone 
implements either held by local col- 
lectors or still awaiting to be picked 
up. Close to the foot of Buckraban- 
yule, on Mr. Jack Mitchell's property, 
there is a beautiful specimen of a tree 
from which timber for a shield has 
been removed. In the near vicinity 
there are several oven mounds, mark- 
ing native cooking places, which 
means that water was not far distant, 
although none is visible now, due, 
probably, to the clearing and tilling of 
the land, which often results in the 
destruction of native springs or soaks. 
Even the spring of mineralized, and 
therefore nasty-tasting water on the 
south-east flank of the hill only occa- 
sionally runs. Incidentally, this spring 
must have, in aboriginal days, given 
forth a lot of water, since it formed 
a well-defined bed down the side of 
Shield Tree near Buckrabanyule. 
photo : Author. 
43 
