Location: Headwaters of Stuart Creek from about Proston south to Kingaroy and the Cooyar Range. A small tribe; Mathews (1911:101) called it a 'tribelet,' and it may be one of the borderline cases not deserving full tribal status. The group is prominent in the literature because of a controversy between Howitt and Mathews over the supposed identification of descent as being in the male line instead of female. The people were allied to the Kabikabi and held their bora ceremonies near Kingaroy. They were one of four tribes collectively known to their eastern neighbors as Owari, meaning 'inlanders'; the others were Wakawaka, Djakunda, and Wulili. The same four were known as Wa:bar to the Darling Downs tribespeople of the west. Mathews (1910) included this as a horde (his term community) of the Kabikabi. In his paper (ibid. xxii) he says they are a local group of the Kabikabi and further discusses them on page 129ff. Tribal boundaries and relationships in this area were subject to the disturbances of periodic arrival of distant peoples to take part in the bunya pine harvests. In other years the people were relatively sedentary and the hordes therefore tended to behave like small tribes. It is possible that the Kaiabara should be linked with the five other Dalla small tribes, but it is probably too late to obtain direct evidence.
Co-ordinates: 151°45'E x 26°35'S
Area: 1,000 sq. m. (2,600 sq. km.)
References: Howitt, 1884, 1904; Brooke in Howitt, 1888, 1904; Mathews, 1895 (Gr. 6475), 1898 (Gr. 6417, 6444), 1900 (Gr. 6524), 1907 (Gr. 6508, 6511), 1909 (Gr. 6479), 1911 (Gr. 6494), 1912 (Gr. 6517); Lang, 1910, 1911; Mathew, 1910; Winterbotham, 1956 MS.
Alternative Names: Kaia = Cooyar Range and Mount, Kaibara (typographical error), Koiabara, Cooyarbara, Kaiyabora, Kiabara, Bujibara (buji = carpetsnake), Bujiebara, Booyieburra, Buijibara, Bujibada.