Jagera people

Country

The precise territorial boundaries of the Jagera are not clear. Norman Tindale defined the "Jagara" (Jagera) lands as encompassing the area around the Brisbane River from the Cleveland district west to the dividing range and north to the vicinity of Esk. According to Watson, the "Yugarabul tribe" (Jagera) inhabited the territories from Moreton Bay to Toowoomba to the west, extending almost to Nanango in the northwest. He also describes their territory as "the basins of the Brisbane and Caboolture Rivers" and states that a sub-group of the Yugarabul was the "Turaubul" (Turrbal) people whose territory included the site of the modern city of Brisbane. According to Steele, the territory of the "Yuggera people" (Jagera) extended south to the Logan river, north almost to Caboolture and west to Toowoomba. However, he considered that Turrbal speakers covered much of Brisbane from the Logan river to the Pine river. Ford and Blake state that the Jagera and Turrbal were distinct peoples, the Jagera generally living south of the Brisbane river and the Turrbal mostly living north.

At the time of European settlement, the Jagera people comprised local groups each of which had a specific territory. The European names for the locality groups, sometimes called clans, of the Brisbane area include the Coorpooroo, Chepara, Yerongpan and others.

Jagera territory adjoined that of the Wakka Wakka and the Gubbi Gubbi (also written Kabi Kabi or Gabi Gabi) to the north, and that of the Yugambeh and the Bundjalung people to the south.

Native title

Descendants of both the Jagera (Yugara) and the Turrbal consider themselves traditional custodians of the land over which much of Brisbane is built. Native claim applications were lodged respectively by the Turrbal in 1998 and the Jagera in 2011, and the two separate claims were combined in 2013. In January 2015, Justice Christopher Jessup for the Federal Court of Australia, in Sandy on behalf of the Yugara People v State of Queensland (No 2), rejected the claims on the basis that under traditional law, which was now lacking, none of the claimants would be considered to have such a land right. The decision was appealed before the full bench of the Federal Court, which on 25 July 2017 rejected both appeals, confirming the 2015 decision that native title does not exist in the greater Brisbane area.

An Indigenous land use agreement (ILUA) was signed over the site of the historic 1843 Battle of One Tree Hill, now known as Table Top Mountain, when the warrior Multuggerah from the Ugarapul tribe and a group of men ambushed and won a battle with settlers in the area. The ILUA was signed between Toowoomba City Council and a body representing the "Jagera, Yuggera and Ugarapul people" as the traditional owners of the area, in 2008 (Ilua 2008).

Variant names and spellings

• Jagarabal (jagara = no)
• Jergarbal
• Yagara
• Yaggara
• Yuggara
• Yugg-ari
• Yackarabul
• Turubul (language name)
• Turrbal
• Turrubul
• Turrubal
• Terabul
• Torbul
• Turibul
• Yerongban
• Yeronghan
• Ninghi
• Yerongpan
• Biriin

Place names

• Meebatboogan, Mount Greville, Moogerah Peaks National Park
• Cooyinnirra, Mount Mitchell, Main Range National Park
• Booroongapah, Flinders Peak, Flinders Peak Group
• Ginginbaar, Mount Blaine, Flinders Peak Group

Notable people

• Multuggerah, 19th-century warrior
• Hon. Neville Bonner, former Australian senator, Jagera elder
• Jeanie Bell, Australian linguist
• Faye Carr, 2017 National NAIDOC Awards Winner Female Elder of the Year
• Latia Schefe, 2017 National NAIDOC Awards Winner Youth of the Year
• Susan McCarthy, originally Bunjoey, daughter of Moonpago

• Uncle Desmond Sandy, Aunty Ruth James and Aunty Pearl Sandy, claimants in the 2015 native title case