Bunurong (VIC)

LocationFrom Mordiallac near Melbourne southeast to Anderson Inlet; on Western Port Bay and on Mornington peninsula; a coastal tribe; inland to near Dandenong Range; east to about Warragul. In the 1940 map the area of two hordes of the Wurundjeri were incorrectly drawn as Bunurong territory, following Smyth. The Bunurong spoke a dialect very close to Woiwuru, the language of their northern neighbors.
Co-ordinates145°30'E x 38°20'S
Area3,000 sq. m. (7,800 sq. km.)
ReferencesThomas, 1839 MS, 1854, 1862 MS; Byrne, 1848; Smyth, 1878; Thomas in Smyth, 1878; Green in Bonwick, 1883; Mathews, 1902 (Gr. 6401), 1903 (Gr. 6514), 1904 (Gr. 6451); Howitt, 1904; McCrae, 1911, 1917; Mathew, 1911; Tindale, 1940; Allchin, 1957; Massola, 1968.
Alternative NamesBoonurrong, Boonoorong, Boonoor-ong, Boon-oor-rong, Boongerong, Bunwurung, Bunwurru (language name ['bu:n] = no, ['wur:u] = lip or speech), Bunuron (man = [kulin]), Putnaroo, Putmaroo, Thurung (name applied by eastern neighbors = 'tiger snakes,' they came sneaking about to kill us), Toturin (general term applied to several tribes in west by the Kurnai = 'black snake'), Gippsland dialect (of Thomas, 1862), Mordialloc tribe (corruption of a place name).