An author who has made his observations on the blacks of the Murrumbidgee River (New South Wales) and Moreton Bay (Queensland) writes: Each "tribe" (= local group) occupies a definite tract of country; a trespass of its boundaries by a stranger is punished with death.[401] This common district is subdivided among families of the local group. "During seasons when all the members of the tribe are not congregated together, each family hunts on its own grounds." The author quotes, also, instances where trees were marked and belonged to individuals.[402] This statement answers both our questions as to land ownership and modes of living; in both respects the "family" is the unit: it owns its area and it lives on and uses it normally in isolation from the others; proprietorship means here exclusive use. But we must bear in mind that what is called here family may as well be a small local group of closely related people, like those among the Kurnai. At any rate it certainly means that the blacks live in very small groups, perhaps in individual families, and that this scattered mode of living rests on a territorial basis. (In general the authority of G. S. Lang cannot be said to be of the best.) [401] G. S. Lang, _loc. cit._, p. 5. [402] G. S. Lang, _loc. cit._, p. 14. We read in the travels of Gerstaecker that natives carefully keep to the boundaries of their own district. So that a traveller, to be quite safe, should always change his guide when entering upon a new territory.[403] [403] Refers probably to the Murrumbidgee tribes. _Op. cit._, iii. p. 9. We read about the tribes of New South Wales in general: "Though they are constantly wandering about, yet they usually confine themselves to a radius of fifty or sixty miles from the place they consider their residence. If they venture beyond this, which they sometimes do with a party of whites, they always betray the greatest fear of falling in with some Myall or stranger blacks, who they say would put them to death immediately."[404] We find here again the local group owning its territory and having head-quarters; as well as the sacrosanctity of boundaries. [404] Chas. Wilkes (larger edition), ii. p. 187. Turnbull remarks about the New South Wales tribes that the best food supply, and consequently the largest gatherings, were possible on the sea-shore and on the banks of fishy rivers.[405] [405] _Loc. cit._, p. 89. An example of family proprietorship in land is mentioned by Collins.[406] From it, it appears that this sort of proprietorship meant rather some mystic claim than any exclusive right of economic character. [406] _Loc. cit._, i. p. 599.