Nari-Narian

The Nari Nari were an Aboriginal people of the Riverina in south-western New South Wales, centred on the lower Murrumbidgee around Balranald. Historians consider that they took shape from the amalgamation of several local groups, including Wiradjuri and Watiwati elements. Their speech was a dialect of Wemba-Wemba, a Kulin language of the Pama-Nyungan family, and their name doubles the word for no, nari.

River fishing, waterfowl, mussels and the roots and game of the floodplain supported semi-sedimentary camps along the bends and billabongs. In 1830 Charles Sturt's whaleboat expedition rowed down the Murrumbidgee through Nari Nari country on its way to the Murray, the first recorded European passage through their river.