Jardwajali

Jardwajali country included parts of the Wimmera and the Gariwerd ranges of western Victoria, shared through relationships with neighbouring peoples including the Djab Wurrung. Tracks crossed the ranges between gathering places and culturally important sites. They were part of an inhabited landscape whose routes were already established when Thomas Mitchell's expedition entered in 1836.

Mitchell's party used some of these Aboriginal paths to travel through Gariwerd. His account also recorded a woven basket containing small fish, crayfish, snakes, rats and edible roots, a close glimpse of food gathering across several habitats. These observations show both the range of local resources and the infrastructure of Indigenous movement on the eve of extensive settler occupation. In the same journey, Mitchell applied the Scottish name Grampians to the ranges. The new name entered colonial maps, while the expedition's own progress had depended partly on paths made by the people whose country it traversed.