Nation, not tribe
Bundjalung is usually described as a nation or language group rather than a single tribe: many clan groups with their own country, their own dialect and their own organisations, sharing a closely related language. These are the names you will run into, and where to go for each.
Nation and people are the terms most commonly used for Bundjalung as a whole. Tribe turns up constantly in search results and in nineteenth-century sources, but it is a colonial-era word that community members rarely use about themselves — if you are writing something, "Bundjalung people" or "Bundjalung nation" will almost always be the safer choice.
Clan group usually means one of the family-based groups within that nation, each with its own estate and its own dialect. Those are the names below. A person is normally both: Arakwal and Bundjalung, Githabul and Bundjalung. They are not alternatives, and one does not override the other.
Spelling varies enormously, because these words were first written down by English speakers using English spelling. Bundjalung, Bundjalang, Bandjalang and Banjalang are the same word; so are Githabul, Gidhabal and Kitabal. Different spellings are not different peoples. Where a group has its own organisation, use that organisation’s spelling.
Byron Bay, Cape Byron and Broken Head
The Bundjalung of Byron Bay Aboriginal Corporation (Arakwal) signed the first Indigenous Land Use Agreement of its kind in New South Wales in 2001, and native title was recognised by the Federal Court in 2019 after a process running more than two decades. The corporation jointly manages Arakwal National Park and parts of the Cape Byron State Conservation Area with NSW National Parks. Arakwal Country and culture
Kyogle, Woodenbong, Border Ranges and Tooloom
Also written Gidhabal and Kitabal. The Githabul People received a Federal Court consent determination in 2007 covering roughly 1,120 square kilometres of national parks and state forests in the Border Ranges — at the time one of the largest native title outcomes in New South Wales.
Evans Head, Woodburn, Coraki and the coastal park
The Bandjalang People hold native title determinations over areas around Evans Head and the coast south of the Richmond, including land in and around Bundjalung National Park, recognised by the Federal Court from 2013.
Lismore and the Wilsons River
The group most often named for the Lismore area and the Wilsons River valley. Their native title rights were recognized in a Federal Court consent determination in 2022. Ngulingah Local Aboriginal Land Council is the land council for this area.
Other community organisations: Bundjalung Tribal Society.
Ballina, Wardell and the lower Richmond
The group named for the Richmond River mouth and the country around Ballina and Cabbage Tree Island. Jali Local Aboriginal Land Council covers this area.
The Tweed, from the border to Brunswick Heads
The group named for the Tweed River and the northern beaches. The Minjungbal Aboriginal Cultural Centre at South Tweed Heads, beside the Ukerebagh Nature Reserve, is the long-running keeping place and cultural centre for this country.
Logan, Albert, Coomera and Nerang catchments, south-east Queensland
The northern group of the Bundjalung language family, covering Beaudesert, Logan, Beenleigh and the Gold Coast hinterland. The Yugambeh Museum Language and Heritage Research Centre at Beenleigh holds language, family history and archival collections. Yugambeh Museum The Jellurgal Aboriginal Cultural Centre is a locally Aboriginal-owned and operated Gold Coast cultural centre connected with local Traditional Custodians of the wider Yugambeh language-speaking group.
Baryulgil and the upper Clarence
The group named for the upper Clarence around Baryulgil and Malabugilmah, part of the Western Bundjalung Federal Court determination in 2017. Baryulgil Square Local Aboriginal Land Council serves this area.
Other names that appear in the published literature — Galibal, Dinggabal, Birihn, Baryulgil, Ngarahkwal and others — are recorded with varying reliability and varying agreement. Their absence or presence in a list like this one means nothing about anyone’s standing.
Every name, area and date on this page is drawn from public records: Federal Court native title determinations, the National Native Title Tribunal register, Local Aboriginal Land Council names and areas, published linguistic work, and the organisations’ own websites. Nothing here comes from community knowledge that was shared privately, and nothing here is a cultural authority’s account.
Treat it as a starting point for your own search, not a ruling. Groups define themselves, boundaries between them are not this website’s to draw, and questions about belonging, membership or family connection go to the organisations and to Elders — never to a website. If something here is wrong or out of date, the contact form below goes straight to a person and corrections are welcome, or email info@bundjalung.au directly.
Where Bundjalung Country runs, why no single map is official, and who holds the boundaries.
Dialects, why spellings differ, and the language centres that actually teach and publish.
Which Northern Rivers town names come from Bundjalung language, and which came from Britain.
The coastal park between Iluka and Evans Head, its campgrounds, and the Iluka rainforest.
Bundjalung is most often described as a nation or a language group rather than a tribe. “Tribe” is a colonial-era term that is rarely used by community members about themselves; you will more often hear nation, people, mob, clan group or language group. Bundjalung covers many distinct clan groups who share closely related dialects.
There is no agreed number. Published linguistic and historical sources name somewhere between about a dozen and twenty groups, but they disagree with each other and with community usage, and some names in the older literature are variant spellings of the same group. Counting groups from a book is not how belonging works.
Yes. Arakwal is the group whose Country takes in Byron Bay and Cape Byron, and the corporation that holds native title there is named the Bundjalung of Byron Bay Aboriginal Corporation (Arakwal). Being Arakwal and being Bundjalung are not alternatives.
Yugambeh is generally described as the northern part of the wider Bundjalung language group, covering the Logan, Albert, Coomera and Nerang catchments in south-east Queensland. How closely Yugambeh people identify with the wider Bundjalung grouping is for Yugambeh people to say, and the Yugambeh Museum at Beenleigh is the place to ask.
Bundjalung words were first written down by English speakers using English spelling conventions, and different recorders heard the same sounds differently. Bundjalung, Bundjalang, Bandjalang and Banjalang are the same word. When you are writing about a group, use the spelling that group's own organisation uses.
Contact
Use the form below or email info@bundjalung.au for email hosting, web hosting, corrections, or a new Bundjalung community page. Identity checks are used to reduce impersonation and protect the domain.