Pioneering days of Miriam Vale and district', Queensland by W. G. Blomfield, 1946-1947 - Page 54
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MIRIAM VALE is 44 miles from GLADSTONE & 284 miles North of BRISBANE by rail.
Most of their laws & customs appear to be much the same all over Australia but have heard of quite different marriage laws in other parts of Aus.
The elderly men often had more than one gin (GIN), a baby girl being allocated to a middle aged man, who of course was elderly by the time she had to live with him as wife.
This was the cause of many fights, the young men & young girls, naturally wanting each other, eloped together & he eventually had to fight the elderly man later on for possession. They had very strict laws about the fairness of their fights, & on one occasion many years NNago, when two men fought first with spears local name GUN-AI & (made out of BRIGALOW & WATTLE) & boomerangs, local name, BUG-UN (& made out of the roots of a scrub tree called BARR-GHIE) & if not satisfied then they got to close quarters with