Guwa
The AIATSIS Map of Indigenous Australia places the Guwa (alternatively, Koa, Goa, Goamulgo, Coa, Coah) in the upper Diamantina River catchment northwest of Winton with the Wunumara to their north, the Yirandali to the east, the Iningai to the southeast, the Maiawali to the south and the Yanda to the west.
In Norman Tindale's Aboriginal Tribes of Australia, they appear as the Koa, on 26,000 square kilometres of wooded dissected plateau extending as far north as Kynuna and Hamilton Creek. Their territory stretched south to around Cork, with an eastern frontier around Winton and Sesbania and a western border around Middleton Creek. It includes the towns of Winton, Kynuna, Corfield, and Middleton.
Walter Roth thought their language had affinities with that of their southern neighbours, the Maiawali, forming a linguistic bridge between it and the languages spoken to their north by the Wunumara and Mayi-Thakuri. Like other groups in the area, they had an extensive sign language, using gestures to indicate a large number of meanings.
Although comparatively little is known about them—according to local European tradition, they 'melted away' when the settlers arrived—their initiation rites did not include circumcision or subincision. Their language seems to have belonged to a subgroup of the Pama-Maric group, with eastern and western dialects.
Sources:
AIATSIS AustLang Project: Guwa (G9.1): https://aiatsis.gov.au/austlang/language/G9.1
Norman Tindale, Aboriginal Tribes of Australia, p.
Wikipedia: Koa people: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koa_people
