Mamu
The Mamu are an Indigenous Australian people from the coastal and rainforest region of Far North Queensland. They inhabited the region of the Johnstone River at Innisfail, from Murdering Point in the south to Tolga in the north.
Survival
There were five clans within the Mamu; they were Mandubara, Tulkubara (Dulgabara), Bagirgabara, Waribara (Wardi-bara), and Djiribara. The Waribara were physically shorter and lived in the dense forests that were adjacent to the Johnstone River. The Djiribara lived near the present day town of Mourilyan and the Tulkubara near Jordan Creek. The Mandubara lived on the South Johnstone River. The Tulkubara, or "The Cassowary Tribe", distinguished themselved by their head-dresses that consisted of red and yellow feathers.
The Mamu existed in a hunter-gatherer type community.
History
The Mamu strongly resisted the occupation of their tribal lands by European settlers.
The first dispute with settlers occurred in 1872 when the survivors of the ship "Maria" that was shipwrecked near Johnstone River on the coast. Sub-Inspector Robert Johnstone sent a search party to look for survivors and to punish the Mamu who abused them. With the Native Troopers, he attacked the Mamu when he was escorting an explorer by the name of Dalrymple.
In the late 1870s and early 1880s, European redcedar cutters and Chinese that were prospecting for gold arrived in the region. The Mamu fought with them and inflicted numerous casualties upon them. The Mamu community were later broken down and dispersed or were assimilated with the settlers.
The Mamu have also been known by the name of Morruburra (and possibly Dulgabara).
References
Norman B. Tindale, Aboriginal Tribes of Australia: Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits and Proper Names, University of California Press, 1974, ISBN 0-520-02005-7.