of Carpentaria. The story cycle dealt with the wanderings of the western quoll. The Arerrnte central desert people retain details of the mythical events that are located far south, in Nukunu tribal lands. History of contact Colonisation of the area began in 1849, and a late estimate is that the tribe consisted of between 50 and 100 people. Before this, it is thought that the Nukunu had been ravaged by the spread of smallpox from the Murray River, some two decades earlier. The subsequent transformation of the land for pastoral and wheat-growing purposes devastated the Nukunu. Peter Ferguson and William Younghusband took up a "run" of some from Thalpiri, now known as Port Pirie, to Crystal Brook, which was stocked with 25,000 sheep and 3400 cattle. In late June 1852 Ferguson rounded up seven Nukunu after pursuing them to retrieve 54 sheep that had been taken from his flocks and they were remanded at Clare County Court for trial in Adelaide, but were released after two months when no plaintiffs appeared to assist the prosecution. In 1854, after cattle had been pilfered, Ferguson, together with his stockmen, killed a group of local Aboriginal people at Crystal Brook. Writing in 1880, J. C. Valentine stated that only eight Nukunu had survived these radical upheavals, five men and three women; the rest, in his view, had expired from phthisis. This enclosure of their tribal lands for pastoralism led to the dispossession, and decimation, of the Nukunu from the end of the 1840s onwards, and small remnants took refuge in scattered camps around Orroroo, Melrose, Wilmington, Stirling North, and Baroota. Some Nukunu managed to keep alive their direct attachment to their traditional lands by remaining at Port Germein, the Baroota reserve set aside for them, and at Port Augusta. With their fragmentation and dispersion, they could no longer adhere to their rigorous rules, and subsequently intermarried with people with Narungga, Barngarla and Wirangu descent, while maintaining a keen sense of their Nukunu identity. Alternative names Barutadura (men of Baroota) Doora Eura (generic ethnonym for several tribes) Nookoona, Nukunna, Noocoona, Nokunna Nu-guna Nugunu Nukuna (Barngarla exonym) Nukunnu Pukunna (misprint) Tura (man) Tyura Warra (name of language) Wongaidja Some words kutnyu (whiteman/ghost) ngami/ngangkayi (mother, breast, Milky Way) nhantu (western grey kangaroo) nyilka (dog); katli (dog, wild or tame); wilka (dog, dingo) yartli (father) Notable Nukunu people Jared Thomas, author, academic and museum curator Footnotes References