Although Aboriginal tribes throughout Australia communicated with carved message sticks and paintings, there was no written form for Aboriginal languages before 1788.  For this reason there are still many variations in spelling.
     "Gunai" (sometimes written "Kurnai") is the name of the tribal group which inhabited the Gippsland region for at least 18,000 years.  "Koorie" or "Koori" is a term widely used by Aboriginal people living in south eastern Australia as an expression of shared identity.

     Here are some English place names with their possible Gunai equivalent:

• Bairnsdale - Wy-yung
• Bruthen - Brewdthan Mungie
• Buchan - Bukkan Mungie
• Cann River - Kam
• Cape Conran - Kerlip
• Den of Nargun - Nrung-a-Narguna
• Lakes Entrance - Ngrungit
• Lake Tyers - Bung Yarnda
• Marlo - Murraloo
• Metung - Metung
• Nowa Nowa - Nowre Nowre
• Orbost - Dura
• Sale - Wayput
• Stratford - Nuntin
• Swan Reach - Wookgook

     Here is a description from an elder of how canoes were made:
"..when they took a canoe from the big trees they made the toeholds first in a white stringy bark.  The Aborigine would split some bark from a sapling and tie it around the tree and then to the back of himself, fastening it with more bark.  He used that to support himself while he worked on the tree with his tomahawk, and when he was ready to move up the tree into another toehold he just leaned forward and moved the supporting bark sling up the tree.  When the bark was off the tree for the canoe it was put down on the ground and fired - the heat softens the bark, the smoke pours through it like a chimney.  Then the bark is put inside-out over a big log and hit with a tomahawk to get it soft enough to pull into shape.  One end is curved in and fastened with bark and a sapling poked in the nose with soft bark to plug it.  They would fix a couple of ribs and there it was, ready for fishing."

Borun the Pelican:
     The first Gunai came down from the mountains in the north west, carrying his canoe on his head.  He was Borun, the pelican.  He crossed over the Tribal River by what is now Sale and walked on alone to Tarra Warackel (Port Albert) in the west.  As he walked, he heard a constant tapping sound but could not identify it.  When he reached the deep water of the inlets Borun put down his canoe and, much to his surprise, there was a woman in it.  She was Tuk, the musk duck.  He was very happy to see her and she became his wife and the mother of us all - the Gunai people.

The story of the Southern Cross:
     Narran the moon was a mighty warrior and a fearless hunter.  One day, after travelling a long way, he couldn't find any food at all.  At last he saw Ngooran (the emu) on the other side of a wide creek, but the water was very deep and he could not get across.  Narran thought he could cross over the creek on a log, but Brewin, a mischievous spirit, was hiding nearby.  As Narran reached the deepest part of the water, Brewin upset the log and Narran fell off it into the water and drowned.  Narran's spirit went to the sky where he is now the moon.  Ngooran also went to the sky and is now the Southern Cross.  Narran still hunts through the sky trying to catch Ngooran.

How Bung Yarnda (Lake Tyers) was formed:
     Narkabungdha, the sea, was tired from playing with fish, rushing over rocks and rolling up and back on the sand.  He searched the coast for somewhere to rest.  At last he found a quiet place with tall gum trees for shade and soft earth to lie on.  Narkabungdha lay down to sleep.  he wriggled down into the soft sand, turning his body this way and that until he was comfortable.  This place became Bung Yarnda (Lake Tyers), a place where Narkabungdha still rests among the trees.

     The Aboriginal people of East Gippsland fought against the European invasion of their land.  However the technical superiority of the Europeans' weapons gave them an absolute advantage.  It is extremely difficult to be certain about the real death toll as so few records still exist or were even made at the time.  Diseases introduced from the 1820s by European sealers and whalers also caused a rapid decline in Aboriginal numbers.  The following list was compiled from such things as letters and diaries for an exhibition called simply "Koorie" which was mounted by the Museum of Victoria in 1991.

• 1840 - Nuntin- unknown number killed by Angus McMillan's men
• 1840 - Boney Point - "Angus McMillan and his men took a heavy toll of Aboriginal lives"
• 1841 - Butchers Creek - 30-35 shot by Angus McMillan's men
• 1841 - Maffra - unknown number shot by Angus McMillan's men
• 1842 - Skull Creek - unknown number killed
• 1842 - Bruthen Creek - "hundreds killed"
• 1843 - Warrigal Creek - between 60 and 180 shot by Angus McMillan and his men
• 1844 - Maffra - unknown number killed
• 1846 - South Gippsland - 14 killed
• 1846 - Snowy River - 8 killed by Captain Dana and the Aboriginal Police
• 1846-47 - Central Gippsland - 50 or more shot by armed party hunting for a white woman supposedly held by Aborigines; no such woman was ever found
• 1850 - East Gippsland - 15-20 killed
• 1850 - Murrindal - 16 poisoned
• 1850 - Brodribb River - 15-20 killed

     The word Ramahyuck is a composite of the Biblical "Ramah" meaning home of Samuel and the Gunai word "yuck" meaning mother or own.
     Rahahyuck Mission was established on the banks of the Avon River near Lake Wellington by Rev Friedrich Hagenauer in 1863, to house the remaining survivors from the tribes of the western part of Gippsland.  Noongar women from southern Western Australia were brought to Ramahyuck as brides for the men.  The settlement was built around a large square common.  Arrowroot, hops and vegetables were farmed.  In 1872 the students at Ramahyuck school received the highest marks in Victoria in colony-wide examinations.  The Mission closed in 1908 and the few remaining residents were moved to Lake Tyers.  The ambivalent nature of relations between Koories and the missions are summed up in this comment:
     "Rev Hagenauer saved the people in them days; ' course he stopped all the tribal business on the mission.  He got them to bring all their weapons and things and put 'em in a heap and burnt them.  Once they was Christians there was no more of the corroborees either."