Aboriginal People

When white settlement began in what is now the Litchfield Shire, the area was occupied by three groups of Aboriginal people. The Larakia occupied the Darwin area, extending eastward to Koolpinyah and almost to Humpty Doo, and south to just beyond Manton Dam and the Finniss River. To the east of the Larakia was the home of the Djerimanga (also Wulna or Woolner) people, whose country extended east to just beyond the Adelaide River. A third group, the Djowei, possessed a rectangular shaped area, easterly from the Larakia boundary, below the Djerimanga country, and running east across the Adelaide and Mary Rivers.