They spoke Pitapita, one of the Karnic languages, which remains the best described dialect of an eastern group that comprised also Rangwa, Kunkalanya, Ngulupulu and Ringa-Ringa. It is otherwise closely related to the Western group consisting of Wangkajutjuru/Wangka-Yutjurru and Lhanima.[1]
The Pitapita's precise geographical borders are not known, since the earliest detailed account of them, by Walter Roth, included numerous subtribes and hordes in a somewhat confusing presentation.[a]Norman Tindale remarked that the precise tribal distribution was impossible to determine on the basis of Roth's data but that their area was in the present day Shire of Boulia, extending from Fort William in the north, through Boulia and some 50 miles south of the district, suggesting a territorial range of roughly 2,700 square miles (7,000 km2).[2]
Their land was adjacent to the Wanggamala people.[3]
Opening up the country to white settlement led to the displacement of numerous tribes in the area from their traditional grounds, and "with privation, disease, alcohol and lead", whole communities were annihilated. By the time of his sojourn at Boulia, Roth goes on to estimate that, as with most tribes in the area, the Pitapita were suffering from a rapid demographic collapse, and he stated that no more than 200 probably remained in the whole of the district.[4]
^"The tribes indigenous to the Boulia district can therefore only be located within certain limits, as follows:—The Boinji, Dungadungara, Tunnateunnea, Bingo-Hingo, &c., in the neighbourhood of Marion Downs, the Pitta-Pitta at Boulia, the Ooloopooloo at Bedouri, the Eukkia and Tinka-Tinki at Cooraboolka, the B, ungo-Eungo in the country between Herbert and Roxburgh Downs, the Koonkoolenya at Mooraboola, the Kwokwa and Weelko at PilJiou Creei, the Tellunga along Noranside and the Burke River, the Tunda at Booloo-Booloo, Warenda, Muckunda Creek, and Tooleybuck, the Karanya at Cluny, the Tuntauntaya at Breadalbane, the Ulaolinya at Carlo (vel Mungerebar) and Upper Mulligan River, the Miorli at Springvale, the Lakes, Cork, and Middle Diamantina River, the Wonkajera in the neighbourhood of Glenormiston (vel Idamea) and Herbert Downs, &c.." (Roth 1897, p. 41)
^Editor's note. Throughout Roth's grammar of Pitapita, he only cites the word 'piouli' for the Pitapita term for dog. (Roth 1897, pp. 7, 9, 11, 14–16, 19, 25, 29)
