One of the earliest recorded names for Sydney, or Sydney Cove, was provided by Philip Gidley King: Australian respelt English Eng JSM source “ Warrane ” waran “The tribe of Wallumede inhabit the north shore opposite Warrane, or Sydney-Cove, and are called Walumetta. [Sydney Cove]”   : King in Hunter 1968 [:275:11] [BB] This was derived from King’s 1790 manuscript: “ Warrane ” waran “The tribe of Wallumede inhabit the North shore opposite Warrane or Sydney Cove & called Walume

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: “

The word “waan”, spelt with a long double-a, appears fairly frequently in the work of Lynette Oates: Oates, Lynette Frances. 1988. The Muruwari language . Canberra: Dept. of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University and is shown as meaning ‘tree’, or ‘stick’. So when wan arose in the following: wan puumpi-ta wii hey! blow-IMP fire-ABS Hey you, blow the fire up! it looked as possibly wrong. This was a sentence about ‘fire’, and it seemed a

Lynette Oates has produced a comprehensive introduction to Muruwari , a language group straddling the NSW-Qld border south of Cunnamulla and north of Bourke, Brewarrina and Lightning Ridge. The reference is: Oates, Lynette Frances. 1988. The Muruwari language . Canberra: Dept. of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University. It includes over 1100 sentences and verbs for which Oates has provided a grammatical analysis. Unsurprisingly, for suc

Maroubra is a beachside suburb of Sydney about 10km south-east of the Sydney CBD. Maroubra beach Morooberra One of the indigenous people encountered by the First Fleeters was Morooberra. The Judge-Advocate, David Collins, who wrote one of the principal accounts: Collins, David. 1975 [1798]. An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, With Remarks on the Dispositions, Customs, Manners. etc., of the Native Inhabitants of that Country : Volume I. Sydney: A.H. & A.W. Ree

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

The Rev. Lancelot Threlkeld ran a mission in the Newcastle, NSW, area in the period 1831-41, and while there studied the language that came to be known as Awabakal . He wrote copiously about it, in a manner that now appears opaque. Here is an example: kurraġtoanbuġgulliko : to cause by personal agency to foam This can be re-presented with simplified spelling and hyphens to separate component parts, together with source references, in the following manner: Australian respelt E

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

Bushland in Berowra, to the north of Sydney Everyone knows the bush call ‘cooee’. Not so many know that it is an Indigenous word, and that it means ‘come’. It was recorded by William Dawes in about April 1791: Australian respelt English Eng JSM source “Kaouwi´ Kaouwi´ …” gawi gawi … “Calling to come” come come : Dawes (b) [b:15:1] [BB] Dawes recorded a Biyal Biyal , Sydney language, remark made by the youngster Gunanguli: “Gon. Mama kaowi ngália bogía” mama GAWI ngaliya bugiy

On page 101 of the Rev. William Ridley's Kamilaroi and Other Languages (KAOL)* the following occurs in a list of 21 Dharawal words or expressions : *Ridley, William, Kamilaroi and other Australian Languages . [KAOL] (Sydney, Thomas Richards, Government Printer, 1875. The sixth from the bottom is: What do you want ? unijerunbi minku ? In attempting to analyse this, especially as the sentence is a question, it is tempting to consider that minku is related to common interrog

The Rev. William Ridley (1819-1878) wrote an article, ‘Australian languages and traditions’ (AL&T), published in the February 1878 issue of the Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland . On p. 263 he reproduced some words and phrases provided by “Lizzie, a half-caste, whose mother was a Shoalhaven aboriginal, and who is now the wife of John Malone". He had already provided a listing of “specimens of the language of the extinct Sydney Tribe (from

Reflecting on the wordlists from the Australian southwest, or no doubt from any area of the country, gives an occasional glimpse of the way the indigenous people perceived the world around them. This is sometimes termed ‘a world view’. For us English speakers. a ‘tooth’ is a ‘tooth’ more or less. We might say ‘toothless’ for someone without teeth; or figuratively for someone who is therefore harmless, because his bite without teeth is unthreatening. Someone might be ‘toothy’—

There are some transcontinental words, and bila is one of them. It means ‘stream’. WIRADHURI The following are from the Wiradhuri language, across the Blue Mountains from Sydney, stretching from Bathurst effectively to the Victorian border. It is the largest language area in New South Wales, and possibly the country. Australian respelt English Eng JSM source “Billa” bila “a river” stream : Günther WIRA (Fraser) [73:49] [WIRA] “Beelah” bila “a creek” stream : SofM 1896 09 12 [

Daisy Bates provided the following sentence, with general and literal translations: dajä wâ gäbälä? Any fish in the river (or water)? (fish where water?)   The sentence was the starting point in an investigative trail. 1. daja This is respelt as dadya , and from a search of the NYUNGAR database in the Bayala database series its meaning is confirmed: Australian respelt English Eng JSM source “dad-ja” dadya “animal fit to eat, any; the flesh of any animal fit to eat” meat : [

The word for ‘heart’ is gurd . Australian respelt English Eng JSM source “gurt” gurd “heart” heart: [9] Moore 1884 [:285:52] [NYUNGAR] “koort” gurd “heart, the” heart: [4 (b)] Grey [:286:7] [Minang] “Gurdu” gurdu “The heart” heart: Moore 1842 [:45:12] [] “goor-doo” gurdu “heart, the; desire” heart: [4] Grey 1840 [:286:9] [NYUNGAR] By extension, gurd is also used for someone loved: “kord” gurd “wife or husband” spouse: [14 (b) (cc)] Bates [:442:2] [Barlardung] “körd” gurd “wif

Lewis Jetta of the Sydney Swans celebrates his goal with an Indigenous Dance during the 2015 AFL round 17 match between the West Coast Eagles and the Sydney Swans at Domain Stadium, Perth, Australia on July 26, 2015. (Photo by Daniel Carson/AFL Media/Getty Images) - from < www.heraldsun.com.au > In 2010 a young indigenous AFL footballer from Western Australia began playing for the Sydney Swans. His name is Lewis Jetta. Could his uncommon surname be a Nyungar word, and if so,

The sky darkens. There is a heaviness in the air. It feels damp. The clouds are massing. Then the rumbling of thunder starts and it begins to rain, and lightning flashes. Then a deafening clash of thunder overhead. It is in the Australian south-west, and the people there had a word for it: Australian respelt English Eng JSM source “koon-dur-nan-gur” gundur nanGur “thunder or rend the clouds, to” thunder: [4 (b)] Grey [:415:33] [Minang] In fact they had two words, gundur and n

barang crops up a lot. It seems to mean ‘carry’, ‘bring’ and the like. Australian respelt English Eng JSM source “Bâr-rang” barang “bring” carry: Symmons, Charles [:16:2] [NYUNGAR] “burrung” barang “get; take: and note jinbu, ranga” carry: [23] Buller-Murphy [:26:14] [NYUNGAR] “baroŋ” barang “to fetch, to bring, to pick up” carry: Bates Grammar [:66:13] [NYUNGAR] “Barrang” barang “Take in the hand” carry: Moore 1842 [:163:11] [NYUNGAR] “barrang” barang “bring, to” carry: [9]

“Latitude 30° 29′ S Longitude 118° 07′ E The townsite of Wialki is … 341 km north east of Perth and 25 km east of Beacon. … Wialki was gazetted a townsite in 1933. The meaning of the name is not known.” [ http://www.landgate.wa.gov.au/corporate.nsf/web/History+of+country+town+names] The above is taken from the ‘Landgate’ website—as is the following: “Landgate is the Agency responsible for Western Australia’s land and property information. Landgate’s transition from the Depart