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II

Beyond the sources of the Yarra and the Goulburn the Dividing Range widens out into great alpine plateaux, with tracts of grassy downs and mountain summits, clothed in summer time with alpine flowers. Such tablelands extend through Victoria from near Woodspoint, at the sources of the Goulburn and Macalister Rivers, to New South Wales, where their highest elevation is reached in Mount Kosciusko. The highest plateaux are in winter covered deeply with snow, but the lower ones, such as that of Omeo, are habitable all the year round. On such elevated plateaux were located certain tribes, such as the Ya-itma-thang, the Wolgal, and the Ngarigo.

The Ya-itma-thang, commonly called the Omeo tribe, was divided into two sections—(a) the Theddora-mittung, occupying the sources of the Mitta-Mitta River and its tributaries down to about the Gibbo Mountain, the Upper Kiewa River and the Ovens River to the Buffalo Mountain, thus being the neighbours of the Mogullum-bitch, the furthest out of the Kulin tribes. (b) The Kandangora-mittung, who lived on the Omeo plains, the Limestone