Aboriginal Languages Australia

Turramurra is a leafy suburb on the North Shore of Sydney. The meaning given for Turramurra in popular placenames booklets is ‘high land’ or ‘high’, as shown in Table 1 below. The original source or sources for such claims did not form part of the information provided in these works. Richardson (n.d.) gives ‘Lane Cove’ as the meaning, or effectively Turramurra itself. Australian respelt English EngJSM source “Turramurra” daramara  “High land; small watercourse” hill  McCarthy

The Narinyiri language area is in the south-east corner of South Australia, shown orange on the accompanying map. It gained notoriety in 1994 when, at its western end, a proposed bridge from the mainland to Hindmarsh Island in the mouth of the River Murray was objected to by the local Aboriginal people because one of the abutments would have been built on special land connected with ‘secret women’s business’. After government investigation the bridge was built anyway.   Two E

It seems unlikely that any place name in Australia could have led to as many theories about how its name arose as Dee Why, a coastal suburb of northern Sydney. Here is how it all began: The source of it all was an entry made by Irish explorer-surveyor and ex-convict James Meehan (1774-1826). Transported for a political ‘offence’, Meehan arrived in Australia in 1800 and was soon to be working as a surveyor out of Sydney, his duties taking him around the State, and to Victoria

There is a place on Lake Macquarie, near Newcastle, in New South Wales, called Eleebana. Internet searches result in statements that it is an Aboriginal word meaning ‘place of beauty’. However, there is more to it than that. Eleebana, Lake Macquarie, NSW Lowanna Place, Hornsby, NSW Tangara train, Sydney Fig. 1 Tasmanian words out of place ‘Eleebana’ is not just an Aboriginal word, it is a Tasmanian Aboriginal word and so a long way out of place on Lake

Energy supply: when there is a power failure nothing at home works: the lights, the toaster, the microwave, the jug or anything else...

Your Amateur Researcher (YAR) happened to go to Glenorie recently, a rural suburb in the northwest of Sydney. On the way he wondered...

It is not only Your Amateur Researcher (YAR) who finds trying to make sense of the Tasmanian records difficult. Terry Crowley and R.M.W....

Among Australian languages the Tasmanian Aboriginal languages are a special case. The island of Tasmania has been separated from the...

Tyrell and McCarthy both give “Water breaking over rocks” as the meaning for Bondi, Sydney's famous beachside suburb.  McCarthy, F.D. ...

The name of Sydney's inner-city harbourside eastern suburb Woolloomooloo was first recorded in the Anon Sydney Language notebook around...

The somewhat awkward figure of the Rev. L.E. Threlkeld occupied the attentions of Your Amateur Researcher for several years, in...

At the end of March 2025 Your Amateur Researcher travelled with Aurora Coach Tours on a trip lasting about ten days to South Australia's...

It is often claimed that the Aboriginal the name for Sydney was Warang . Your Amateur Researcher previously speculated about this in the...

A package holiday coach tour in August 2024 went from Broome in Western Australia to Perth. One of the places visited was the Pinnacles,...

The following is a typical summary table from the Bayala databases presenting a few of the words for ‘kangaroo’ across the country. The...

Who was Mathews? One of the principal figures in the recording of Aboriginal languages, particularly in the Sydney region, was Robert...

How did this translation come about? An Aboriginal singer-songwriter acquaintance sent an email inviting Your Amateur Researcher (YAR) to...

The following entry from the Macquarie archive gives basic information about the brolga but does not explain where the term ‘native...

Dieri is an Aboriginal language once spoken to the east of Lake Eyre in Cooper Creek country  in the Sturt Stony Desert in north-west...

Lancelot Edward Threlkeld, born in 1788, is, or was, exactly 150 years older than your modern-day amateur student of Awabakal, the Lake...