Aboriginal people are this country's traditional owners, inhabiting much of the Southern Fall of the Alpine National Park for many thousands of years before time began to be recorded. This area was home to the Gunai/Kurnai people who lived and raised their families in semi transient groups, living off the land and in harmony with the beautiful country in which they inhabited.

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The Gunai/Kurnai nation was made up of five major tribes, Bratowooloong, Brayakoolooong, Brabawooloong, Tatungooloong and Krowathunkooloong. Occasionally there were battles over tribal lands or women but mostly the Aboriginal people lived peacefully. Typically groups would come together from time to time for corroborees, marriages, initiations, trading of goods, feasting and ceremonies.

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One such feast was the Bogong Moth Festival held in early Autumn. The Bogong Moth flys to the Alps from hundreds of kilometres to the North to aestivate, a reverse hibernation which is a method of escaping the heat instead of the cold. Thousands of huge moths gather in cracks in the rocks and aboriginal people smoke them out and roast them.

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Care of the land was of utmost importance to Gunai/Kurnai people and many of their traditions revolved around the protection and preservation of the environment in which they lived.