G - Notes on the Language and Customs of the Tribe inhabiting the country known as Kotoopna, by William Locke

Summary

Campbellfield House, 5th December 1876.

Dear Sir,–The following is a corrected copy of a letter of mine which appeared in the Argus some years ago on the above subject. If it is of any use to you in the compilation of your book, I shall be pleased.

I am, dear Sir,

Yours faithfully,

WILLIAM LOCKE.

R. Brough Smyth, Esq.

When a very young man, I held a large tract of country, called in the native language Kotoopna (now wrongly spelled Kotupna), extending nearly across the angle formed by the Goulburn and Murray. This portion of country belonged to a small tribe of blacks called Pangorang, or Waningotbun. The men were very fine specimens of the Aboriginal, many of them being considerably upwards of six feet in stature, and exceedingly active and warlike in appearance. At that time they subsisted principally upon fish and wild-fowl, which they procured in great abundance on the Lower Moira. The ducks were caught wholesale in the following manner:–A large net was stretched across a narrow neck of a lagoon, when a blackfellow would go some distance up or down the creek, and drive or frighten the ducks towards the net, when numbers in their flight would be caught in the meshes. I have also seen them catch ducks by diving underneath them, and suddenly laying hold of them by the legs.