Kalkadoon History
The Kalkadoon people also known as the Kalkatungu, Kalkatunga and the Kalkadungu ruled what is called the emu foot province and have been living on these lands for over 60 thousand years. They owned vast tracts of land extending from McKinley’s Gap in the east where they joined the Goa tribe of the Winton district to Gunpowder Creek which was the territory of the Waggaboongas. On the southern side of their territory the Kalkadoons were touched upon by the Pitta-Pitta tribe of the Boulia district, and on the northern side by the Mittakoodi of the Fort Constantine country.
The Kalkadoons would mark their territory boundaries with an emu or cranes foot that was either painted onto rocks and trees or carved into the hard granite rock, this was also a warning for other aboriginal clans not to pass these boundaries.
Kalkadoon people have always been an independent and proud people roving their hilly surrounds normally in groups of 20 adults. They would camp for a few weeks at a time and live off the land until resources thinned out then they would move to another campsite and not return for 2 or 3 years so the wildlife and vegetation could replenish and survive.
The Kalkadoon people were extremely territorial and would rarely leave their country, they protected their land ferociously and were known to surrounding tribes as fearsome warriors. The Kalkadoons acknowledged a leader and they always knew precisely where he was located. Once or twice a year delegates from the wandering bands of Kalkadoon people would assemble at the leader’s camp and be instructed on raids or attacks on neighbors and at times two or more of these wandering bands would join forces.
