Theethnonym is formed from their word for "no", transcribed by early ethnographers asquie/koi,[1][2][3] and the suffixbal, which denotes a tribal grouping.[4]
On 27 October 1848, Commissioner Bligh from the Gwydir Crown Lands Department wrote a letter to the NSW Colonial Secretary. The letter proposed relocating the Ulleroy (Kamilaroi), Quinnenbul (Kwiambal), and Ginnenbal people from their original areas to Mr. Jones' station at Cranky Rock, near Warialda. The letter strongly recommended that "native" reserves be established to protect the tribes from the settlers, and to provide them with employment opportunities as laborers on the stations.[6]
In 1854, William Gardner suggested that the Kwiambal language group inhabited the districts of Myall Creek and Gwydir River.[7]
I came down theGwydir to theBundarra, and over that river toWarialda. The aborigines I found at Warialda, twelve in number, speakKamilaroi as well asUolaroi; but they were the last I met who spoke to me in the former language. Aday's journey northward from Warialda, I found blacks speaking Yukumba; and on theMacintyre, 70 miles from Warialda,Pikumbul is the prevailing language.[8]
During the 1856 delivery of blanket rations, the Kwiambal and Ginnenbal tribes were located at Myall Creek and Gwydir River. There were 25 members in each tribe.[9]
In his 1930 publication "The Social Organization of Australian Tribes. Part II", Radcliffe-Brown mentioned that the Anewan tribal social structure includes the Kwiambal, Ngarabal, and Juckenbal. Additionally, one of the Kwiambal informants was a survivor of the Slaughterhouse Creek massacre near Warialda.[10][11]
Tindale intuited that the geographic context a day's riding from Warialda would imply that these people, whom Ridley called Yukumba, must have been Kwiambal. At the same time he did not exclude the possibility that they may have been ahorde of theJukambal. The objections to merging the Kwiambal with Jukambal, or vice versa, were twofold: the size of their estimated territory was too large to refer to a clan or band society, and, secondly, theethnonymKwiambal has a -bal tribal suffix.[12]
^Commissioner Richard Bligh, Gwydir Lands Department. (1848, 27 October). Commissioner Richard Bligh letter to the NSW Colonial Secretary 48/12590. NSW Museums of History, NSW State Archives.
^Commissioner Richard Bligh. (1856, 12 January). Letter from Commissioner Richard Bligh to the Colonial Secretary 12 January 1856. 56/588. NSW Museums of History, NSW State Archives.
^Fennel, M & Gray, A in collaboration with the Aboriginal people of Tingha (1974).Nucoorilma. The Hague: Department of Adult Education, University of Sydney, Bernard Van Der Leer Foundation. p. 175.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Magistrates (1887)."Queenbulla, Ashford and Quiningguillan"(PDF). InCurr, Edward Micklethwaite (ed.).The Australian race: its origin, languages, customs, place of landing in Australia and the routes by which it spread itself over the continent. Vol. 3. Melbourne: J. Ferres. pp. 298–299.
Wafer, James William; Lissarrague, Amanda; Harkins, Jean (2008).A Handbook of Aboriginal Languages of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. Muurrbay Aboriginal Language and Culture Co-operative.ISBN978-0-977-53518-7.
