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15

established a priviledged family, such as some of my correspondents have
spoken of. (p) Berak, the son of Bebejern, certainly has inheri
ted some authority, which I have never seen disputed by the few survivors
of Kulin tribes.

In tracing out these connections between the several Headmen
it became clear to me that they exercised much influence in making
Ngurung-aeta. Thus it was Ningulabul the Ngurung-aeta whose influence made
Bebejern and Bili-billeri Headman. Bili-billeri and other old men made
Bungerim a Ngurung-aeta.

The right to hunt and procure food in any particular area of
country belonged to the group of people born there, and could not be in-
fringed by others without their permission. But there were places
which such related groups claimed as theirs, to the exclusion
of others and ?????????????. Such an instance is that ofthe quarry at Mt William near
Lancefield, and from which the stone used for the heads of tomahawks
was procured.

At the time whenMelbourne was established the head of the
family which claimed this quarry was Bili-billeri whose wife was the
sister of Ningulabul, who was the brother of Berak's maternal grand-
mother,
(crossed out - in other words according to the aboriginal system of relation-
ships his (tribal), paternal grandfather)
The family propriatorship in this quarry included [???] and had wide ramific-
ations. On the one side it included the husband of [Bili-billeri]'s sister
one of the Headmen of the Kurning-ilun who lived at Bacchus Marsh,
named [Nurrum-nurrum-biin] or "moss growing on decayed wood". On another side
it included Ningulabul, and again in another direction it included Bebejern
the son of another heiress of rights in the quarry, and through her
an interest came to Berak by his father Bebejern. But it was Bili-billeri
the head of the family, whose food country included the quarry who lived
on it and took care of it for the whole of the Wurunjeri.
When he went away his place was taken by the son of his sister, the wife
Nurrum-nurrum-biin, who came to the quarry to take charge. I do not know
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