Maiawali facts for kids
The Maiawali, other wise known as the Mayuli, are an indigenous Australian people of the state of Queensland.
Language
The Maiawali spoke a dialect of Pitta Pitta. A number of brief records of their language were made by early European settlers in their area.
Country
Norman Tindale estimated their tribal lands as covering 12,200 square miles (32,000 km2), taking in the areas of the Diamantina River, from Davenport Downs and the Diamantina lakes north to Old Cork, and the land from the Mayne River to Mount Vergemont. Their westerly limits were at Spring Vale. To their southeast the territory went as far as Farrars Creek. Connemara and Brighton Downs were part of Maiawali lands.
History of contact
Mary Durack, writing of the pastoral empires staked out by her grandfather Patrick Durack and John Costello in the 1870s, lists the tribal territories of the Maiawali among the 13,000 square miles (34,000 km2) Costello took over.
Writing in 1901, Sid Hill of Brighton Downs remarked that the Maiawali made excellent stockmen, and estimated that their numbers were still around 500, though rapidly diminishing due, in his view, to the devastating impact of disease and tobacco.
Native title
The descendants of the Maiawali and Karuwali underwrote an agreement regarding mining rights in the area south west of Winton covering 49,110 square kilometres (18,960 sq mi).
Alternative names
- Maiali.
- Majawali.
- Mailly.
- Myall, Myallee.
- Myoli.
- Miorli.
- Majuli (error)
