Your Amateur Researcher received an email enquiring about the meaning of Eurimbla: I am hoping to establish the English meaning of Eurimbla , as in Eurimbla Avenue, Randwick. So far, I am wondering if it may have an Indigenous origin as a compound word from eurimanan (a large toothed monster, ie horse) and the ending derived from bulah , more than one, or many. The reason being that a Trove newspaper reference of 1857 announces the birth of a child to Mrs G W Lord at Eurimbla

What are the Bayala databases? The Bayala databases  are a set of relational databases containing words and sentences in Aboriginal languages from across the country. In the databases, words appear in full and also as broken up into their stem and one or several suffixes (and sometimes prefixes). The databases began simply as lists of Aboriginal words and their corresponding English meanings. Since then they have become increasingly complex, and now provide much more. To give

Who was Mathews? One of the principal figures in the recording of Aboriginal languages, particularly in the Sydney region, was Robert Hamilton Mathews (1841-1918), originally from near Goulburn in New South Wales. He became a surveyor, a post that took him to different parts of the country, and, having an interest in the indigenous people, he had the opportunity to make contact with people over a wide area. He recorded his findings in notebooks. From these he wrote academic p

Lancelot Edward Threlkeld, born in 1788, is, or was, exactly 150 years older than your modern-day amateur student of Awabakal , the Lake Macquarie language he worked on, all by himself, with no-one to discuss things with. Your amateur researcher [YAR] knows the feeling well, as probably no-one else has worked closely on this language, apart from book editor John Fraser in 1892. So for Threlkeld in the 1830s, translating the gospels must have been a lonely business, especially

Picture the lonely austere missionary the Rev. Lancelot Edward Threlkeld, deep in Aboriginal country sometime between 1834 and 1837 in his property at what is now Toronto on the peninsula on the western side of Lake Macquarie. He is in the throes of translating the obscure Biblical prose of St Mark’s Gospel into the local Aboriginal language spoken in the vicinity of this lake north of Sydney. This was a language that had developed to cover daily indigenous life of living, h

The Lake Macquarie missionary the Rev. Lancelot Threlkeld produced a grammar of the language where his mission was established. This language came to be known as Awabakal , though now also referred to as the Lake Macquarie–Hunter River language. Threlkeld’s grammar and other language works are remarkable for their volume and detail. But as his record is virtually the only one for the language, there is nothing against which to check his assertions about meaning and usage. One

Body parts are the best documented category of words for many Aboriginal languages because they were the most immediate and most unambiguous items to enquire about, when investigating a new language without shared vocabulary between the investigator and the informant. The earliest records of the Sydney language were made at Botany Bay by three members of Captain James Cook’s party in 1770, two of whom noted the word for ‘hand’: Australian respelt English EngJSM source "dammir

The word marama in the Tasmanian word lists caught the attention again today. The meaning given for it is ‘star’. DEEP TIME No-one quite knows when the last person was able to walk from the Australian mainland to Tasmania. Why it was possible at all was because it was the ice age — or more precisely the last ice age. In fact we are still in the remnants of that ice age, because ice is still piled up, sometimes kilometres thick it is said, in Antarctica. If it all melted, they

One can only surmise what the euphonious NSW place name Trunketabella  might mean. We yearn for a translation such as ‘pretty trinkets’, and for an account of the exchanging of beads and looking glasses with the local people by explorers. It is commonly said that Parramatta means ‘the place where eels lie down’, Berowra the  ‘place of many winds’, and Wahroonga ‘our home’.  Where did these endlessly repeated interpretations come from? The reality is that place names can be ha

Mooney Mooney is a suburb in the north of Sydney on the Hawkesbury River. There is a club there where lunch may be had, with a balcony offering a view over the water; noisy mynas tormented a kookaburra sitting on telegraph wires. The question presented itself as to what this placename might mean. The receptionist at the club visited for the lunch, a resident for the past forty years, asserted it meant ‘many rivers‘ — something he had learnt from other locals. This explanation

When reviewing Wiradhuri records made by Archdeacon James Günther around 1837, your amateur researcher chanced upon: Australian respelt English EngJSM source “Yarbarra” yarba-ra = “to dig, scrape with the spade.” dig  : Günther (Fraser) [:108:31] [Wira] This called to mind a Threlkeld entry from Awabakal (or the Hunter River language), which was then found: “yarr-bulliko” yarba-li-gu = “to saw …” saw  : Tkld/Frsr AWA 1892 [:101:27] [Awa] “yarr-bulla” yarba-la = “saw (mandator

A koala is one of Australia’s favourite treasures of the animal kingdom. It looks almost unbearably attractive and cuddly. On closer scrutiny koalas seem to spend most of their time asleep, and they are scarcely cuddly, with claws, and perhaps with a temperament that has never made them household pets in the manner of cats and dogs. ‘Koala’ is an indigenous word that might have been retranscribed as guwala , but probably more properly as gula as the following examples suggest

Yarrangobilly is a rural locality in the Snowy Mountains known for its limestone caves, thermal pool and historic Caves House. Located about 40 km west from the southern portion of the ACT, this places it in Ngarigo country. Consequently yarangu-bili  might be a Ngarigu word. It probably comprises two or three parts: — yarang (or one of yarang , yarung ; yurang , yurung ; yirang , yirung ) — gu — bili -bili bili is a widespread suffix in NSW languages and appears to convey

The local zoo was looking for guidance for a name for a walking tour of the zoo, and offered its preliminary ideas: 1 Burraga Nura … Zoo’s Aboriginal Discovery Tour Language words burraga : long nosed bandicoot;  nura : country;  2 Yana Nura … Zoo’s Aboriginal Discovery Tour Language words yana : walk; nura : country What follows is the reply sent to the zoo. ===================================== I would like to suggest a walking tour name such as : manyinyi guwalang I do

A personal diary entry from January 1984 has the record: “Later we all set off by car headed for Twofold Bay 150 km away approx. Did this via Bermagui and Merimbula.”  Two placenames of interest, coastal towns in south-eastern New South Wales, are mentioned. What might they mean? As usual, McCarthy and Tyrell have something to say: Bermagui: Australian respelt English EngJSM source “Bermagui” barmaguwi “Resembling a canoe with paddles” canoe— : McCarthy [:6:3] [] Merimbula: “

A generation after the upheaval of 1788 and the arrival of the First Fleet, and around 150 km north of Sydney, Lancelot Edward Threlkeld was superintending the outpost he had set up at what is now Belmont on Lake Macquarie on behalf of the London Missionary Society. The purpose was to make contact with the local indigenous people and to undertake all that missionaries normally hope to do. Threlkeld believed that he would better achieve this objective if he could communicate,

Bokhara In a press report in the Sydney Morning Herald for the last day of 2010, there was the following entry: Moderate to major flooding is expected along the Culgoa, Bokhara, Birrie and Narran rivers over the coming weeks. And a little further on in the article: … floodwater from west-flowing NSW rivers is still causing minor to moderate flowing along the Barwon River. Perhaps this was a clue to a puzzle of bagara in the Minyung language, on the far north NSW coastal regi

Sometime in 1791, William Dawes recorded the verb ‘to tear’, as in ‘tearing a piece of paper’: Australian respelt English EngJSM source “Tilbánga” dilbanga “To tear (as paper)” tear : Dawes (b) [b:19:15] [BB] This was to prove one of many instances of misunderstanding between an indigenous informant and the immigrant interlocutor. For the word did not mean ‘tear’ but rather the sound that tearing a piece of paper makes. Dawes himself provided an essential clue to the true mea