[2] Exchange among aboriginal groups was widely thought to be a mere matter of elementary barter.
In essence merbok, the word denoting both the act and the object exchanged, required 3 individuals, within a tribe or with one from an outside group, in which a material article (ninymer), never food, was given to one person, retained by them for a time, and then passed onto the third.
The objects exchanged seem to have followed a particular direction, with a trade circuit from north to south involving the Warrai Kungarakan, Djerait, Wogait, Ponga Ponga, Mulluk Mulluk, Madngella, Yunggor, Maranunggo, Marithiel, Marimanindji, Nangiomeri, Wagaman, Nangimeri, Kamor, Moiil, Nangor, Nordaniman, Kadjerawang and Jaminjang.
[3] They were almost decimated in the wake of the killing of 4 settlers in 1884 by members of the Wulwulam tribe,[4] as the Darwinian hinterlands were explored and occupied by traders, miners and settlers, from Macassan trepangers scouring the coasts for beche-de-mer, and Chinese hardscrabble farmers to European pastoralists, causing dispersal, deracination and decimation of numerous distinct tribes, the remnants of which tended to gather about stations or missions for hand-outs.
[5] A Jesuit mission established on the Daly in the Mulluk-Mullak heartland in 1886 noticed the influx from all quarters, and on closing three years later, relocated to Hermit Hill, 20 miles inland, westwards.