The Gidabal, also known as Kitabal and Githabul, are an indigenous Australian tribe of southern Queensland,[1] who inhabited an area in south-east Queensland and north-east New South Wales, now within the Southern Downs, Tenterfield and Kyogle Local Government regions.
[3] According to Norman Tindale, the Githabul owned over some 1,700 square miles (4,400 km2) of territory which lay around the headwaters of the Clarence, Richmond, and Logan rivers on the Great Dividing Range.
[5] R. H. Mathews visited with the Githabul in 1898 and picked up the following information concerning their social divisions, which were fourfold.
[6] In September 1995 Githabul legal scholar Trevor Close, on behalf of his people, lodged a native title claim for 140,600 hectares in the Kyogle, Woodenbong and Tenterfield areas in northeast New South Wales and in Queensland, south of Rathdowney.
Justice Catherine Branson of the Federal Court of Australia, on 29 November 2007, made a consent determination recognising their non-exclusive native title rights and interests over 1,120 square kilometres (430 sq mi) in nine national parks and 13 state forests in northern New South Wales.