Koreng lands began to be expropriated in 1859, at a time when white settlers estimated their numbers to be about 500. Within a little over two decades, these had been reduced to 200 (1880).[3]
Koreng people were buried in oval sandpits, roughly 3 feet (0.9 m) deep, facing east. The knees are bent up and then bound, with the right hand forefinger and thumb, the latter's nail having previously been burnt off, tied in a ligature. The purpose of this nail burning and bondage is to ensure that the dead person will not dig his way out of his grave, and, returning, be capable of wielding his spears. The overburden of earth dug out to excavate the burial site must not be used to fill the grave, which is otherwise covered with bark, rushes and sticks. A fire is then kindled, his worldly goods, including his broken spears, are then laid nearby, and trees are scarred with rings to mark the site.[3]
A considerable amount of information concerning Koreng mythology was written down in the 1880s by Edith Hassell, wife of Albert Young Hassell. The manuscript was neglected until it was turned up by the visiting American anthropologist Daniel Sutherland Davidson in 1930. Davidson edited the material for the English journal Folklore over 1934–1935, and this remains an important resource for reconstructing Koreng traditions.
Graham, W. H. (1886). "Kojonup and Eticup tribe"(PDF). In Curr, 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. 1. Melbourne: J. Ferres. pp. 348–351.
Hassell, Edith (September 1935b). Davidson, D. S. (ed.). "Myths and Folk-Tales of the Wheelman Tribe of South-Western Australia: IV". Folklore. 46 (3): 268–281. doi:10.1080/0015587X.1935.9718605. JSTOR1257385.
