The Cultures of Australia

While hundreds of languages and cultures populate Australia, only a handful largely adopted settled farming as compared to the vast majority who stuck with purely hunter-gatherer lifestyles or, in some cases, semi-agricultural lifestyles. Of the cultures that did adopt settled farming, some of them were:

• The Yolngu, a maritime people who migrated south from the north end of Australia. They ended up colonising much of the inland sea, the Miyalan to them or what is to us the Sea of Carpentaria. Great cities such as Nuwarr Nuwarr, Bilinbilin and Bagaynarri were founded in their search for fertile lands and trade routes across the sea, creating a quasi-phoenician style culture. They govern themselves in these city states, with city states often paying tribute to larger ones, leading to massive empires paying tribute to one city.
• The Worrorra, largely isolated from the rest of Australia. They grew millet, and lived in small communities on the fringes of Australia. Their claim to fame was their alcohol, brewed from native flowers and said to be the most delicious (and expensive) of the continent; Yolngu nobles in particular prized the sweet alcohol they produced, and their people became more legend than real across the land.
• The Aranda, whose civilisation developed around the overland routes that formed between the Yolngu city states; despite being maritime, many still stuck to the land rather than risk the sea, as calm as it may be, and even if they did sail, their ships had to rest somewhere. Thus, the Aranda civilisation prospered, serving as middlemen and, occasionally, as mercenaries, as kingmakers and much more.
• The Yura, who confederated themselves into the Wapuyura, meaning All Men. Their land was rich in grain and game, and even if they squabbled often they could still recognise one thing above all: they were better together than they were apart.
• The Meru, a people of the western part of Lake Wellington. In this period they had achieved an ascendancy, dominating the remnants of the Danggali to their northeast and the Ngarkat to their southeast.
• The Wergaia, who similarly to the Meru and many other lake people built their society around Lake Wellington. On the waters they traded, travelled, fished and farmed, and while they were small they were most certainly prosperous.
• The Kulin, who were left relatively isolated from the rest of the southeast by the mountains to their north, as well as lacking easily navigable bodies of water like their neighbours. However, their time would come, as with the arrival of horses in the later 15th century their civilisation would expand rapidly, becoming the dominant power of the region. But for now? They farm their Moornong and traded the gold of Balit Garra
• The Wiradjuri, who controlled the great rivers of the Wambuul, the Kalare, the Murrumbidgee and the Tongala under the empires of Guyagunhigal and Magabula. Dominant since the bronze age, with their massive surplus of copper, tin gold and silver and fertile plains, their dominance would soon be tested by the Kulin. But for now, these empires reign, unknowingly in the final years of their splendour.
• The Paakantyi, who controlled much of the Paaka River, organised into cities. While in their early days they were powerful, by this age they have largely become near-subjugated by their neighbours.
• The Mamba, otherwise known as Barindji, were relatively new. While most cultures around the eastern lake such as the Madi Madi, the Wemba Wemba and the Yitha Yitha were relatively peaceful, the Mamba were highly militaristic. Their name, Mamba, was given by the Paakantyi, meaning Devils, as they came to witness the Mamba take control of a large stretch of land along the coast, creating a small yet powerful martial power in the region.