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Between Cardwell and Cooktown, Nth-East Qld, lays the largest area of natural rainforest in Australia. The southern part of this region with the neighbouring tract of open forest is the traditional territory of the Aboriginal people who speak the six languages shown on the map. Giramay, Jirrbal, Mamu, Djiru, Gulngay and Ngadjon. The speakers of these languages belong to separate tribes, linguistically their dialects are considered one language group.

Before European contact the Ngadjonji "enjoyed a lifestyle based on hunting, gathering and fishing to satisfy day to day needs. They gathered a wide variety of plants, using nuts, seeds, fruits, leaves and stems, roots and tubers, some of which were eaten raw and others cooked or processed in various ways. One of the distinctive cultural traits of the rainforest people was the regular and frequent use of poisonous plants as food sources. In other societies such foods were only occasionally utilised, but the rainforest people used soph...