Jardwadjali

[3] It was originally thought that areas of traditional Jardwadjali land showed signs of human occupation dating back no more than 5,000 years.

[5] It is likely that first contact with Europeans was through smallpox epidemics which arrived with the First Fleet in 1788 and rapidly spread through the trading networks of indigenous Australians and killed many people in two waves before the 1830s.

One Wotjobaluk account called the disease thinba micka and that it killed large numbers of people, and disfigured many more with pock-marked faces, and came down the Murray River sent by malevolent sorcerers to the north.

[8] To the Jardwadjali and Djab Wurrung peoples Gariwerd was central to the dreaming of the creator, Bunjil, and buledji Brambimbula, the two Bram brothers, who were responsible for the creation and naming of many landscape features in western Victoria.

It is universally and distinctly understood that the chances are very small indeed of a person taking up a new run being able to maintain possession of his place and property without having recourse to such means -- sometimes by wholesale...[12] George Robinson, the Chief Protector of Aborigines wrote in his journal in 1841 referring to the Portland Bay area where the Whyte Brothers had settled: The settlers at the Bay spoke of the settlers up the country dropping the natives as coolly as if they were speaking of dropping cows.

Indeed, the doctrine is being promulgated that they are not human, or hardly so and thereby inculcating the principle that killing them is no murder[13] In 1989 there was a proposal by Victorian Minister for Tourism, Steve Crabb to rename many geographical place names associated with aboriginal heritage in the area.

[14] Some of the changes included: The Brambuk National Park and Cultural Centre in Halls Gap is owned and managed by Jardwadjali and Djab Wurrung people from five Aboriginal communities with historic links to the Gariwerd-Grampians ranges and the surrounding plains.

Descendants of the Jardwadjali had a partial recognition in 2005 of their land rights when a settlement was arranged, which included also the Wotjobaluk, Wergaia and Jupagalk, returning freehold title over a number of areas was transferred back to the traditional owners.