Some 220 kilometres north-west of Townsville, along the upper Burdekin River in northern Queensland, lies the country of the Gugu Badhun nation, which today takes in the small town of Greenvale and several cattle stations. At its heart is the Valley of Lagoons, and the community numbers somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 people. The fullest modern account, Gugu Badhun: People of the Valley of Lagoons, appeared in 2017.
Country
Gugu Badhun land was shaped by lava from the Kinrara volcano, which erupted about 7,000 years ago. The Valley of Lagoons takes its name from broad, shallow lagoons near the Burdekin; some dry out in the long northern dry season, but others are fed by permanent springs rising through the fissured basalt. Away from the water the country is open ironbark woodland with grass beneath, home to grey kangaroos, wallabies, emus and bustards.
Tindale, who wrote the name as Kokopatun, gave them about 1,300 square miles (roughly 3,400 square kilometres) east of the Great Dividing Range, but the linguists Robert Dixon and Peter Sutton disputed his northern boundary, placing that area in Warungu country. Sutton described the Gugu Badhun as holding both banks of the upper Burdekin, meeting the Warungu to the north and the Gudjal at the Clarke River in the south, the three forming something of a unity.
Language
Linguists class Gugu Badhun as a dialect within the Warrongo subgroup of Greater Maric, closely related to Gudjal; on a standard 99-word list it shares about 90% of its vocabulary with Warrongo. It is distinguished by its dental consonants. Today the community speaks English.
Contact and resistance
The Gugu Badhun were among the first inland peoples of northern Australia to meet Europeans, when Ludwig Leichhardt's expedition passed through in 1845. In the 1860s the Native Police tried to "clear" the country by force for settlers, one episode in the Australian frontier wars. The scrubby terrain allowed the Gugu Badhun to hold out for about twenty years, until many "came in" to work on cattle stations; ties with some pastoral families in the region remain strong.
In the 1930s and 1940s many of those still on country moved to towns for schooling and work. Dick Hoolihan, a Gugu Badhun man said to have been born in a cave in the Valley of Lagoons, became a 1950s activist and served as the first president of Townsville's Aboriginal Advancement League, encouraging Aboriginal stockmen of the upper Burdekin to refuse the employment contracts of the time.
The present day
On 1 August 2012 a consent determination recognised Gugu Badhun native title over about 6,540 square kilometres. The Gugu Badhun Aboriginal Corporation holds and exercises those rights on the people's behalf. Each year families gather on country for a culture camp that strengthens community ties and connection to the land.
On our maps
From the atlas
Gugu-Badhun on our maps
Borders of Time draws Gugu-Badhun on 6 of its 54 world maps, from 1600 CE to 1800 CE. Its largest extent is on the 1600 CE map, covering about 62,300 km² (24,000 sq mi), roughly the size of Ireland today.
On that map it borders the Australian aboriginal hunter-gatherers.
On the map before it appears (1530 CE), the same area belongs to the Australian aboriginal hunter-gatherers. On the map after its last appearance (1815 CE), it belongs to the New South Wales.
- 1600 CE62,300 km²
- 1650 CE62,300 km²
- 1700 CE62,300 km²
- 1715 CE62,300 km²
- 1783 CE62,300 km²
- 1800 CE62,300 km²
Measured from the historical-basemaps snapshots this atlas uses. Borders in those maps are approximate, especially for early periods.
Quick answers
- When did Gugu-Badhun exist?
- It appears on the atlas’s maps from 1600 to 1800.
- Where was Gugu-Badhun?
- At its largest, on the 1600 map, its land lies in today’s Australia (100%). On that map it borders the Australian aboriginal hunter-gatherers.
- How big was Gugu-Badhun?
- Gugu-Badhun was largest on the 1600 map, at about 62,300 km² (24,000 sq mi).