Wakabunga

The Wakabunga are an indigenous Australian people of the state of Queensland.

Language

Norman Tindale referred to material by two early correspondents, Urquhart and O'Reilley, in a publication by E. M. Curr for details about the Wakabunga and their language, but the word-list is not considered to contain elements of this tongue, about which the general belief is that no information survives regarding it. It has been suggested by Barry Blake however, that a word-list compiled in the Wakabunga domain by Curr's brother Montagu Curr, belong to a Mayi dialect. From this it has been inferred that Wakabunga may have belonged to the Mayi language family.

Country

The Wakabunga traditional lands covered an estimated 4,900 square miles (13,000 km²) in the area of the Upper Leichhardt River and Gunpowder Creek.

People

According to Norman Tindale they were related to the Kalkatungu. They were crocodile hunters, stalking with spears the Australian freshwater crocodile on the upper Leichhardt.

Alternative names

• Workabunga,
• Workoboongo,
• Wakobungo, Waukaboonia.
• Waggabundi.
• Waggaboonyah.
• Kabikabi.

Sources

• Blake, Barry (1990). "Languages of the Queensland/Northern Territory Border: Updating the classification". In Austin, Peter (ed.). Language and History: Essays in Honour of Luise A. Hercus. Research School of Pacific Studies. pp. 49–65. ISBN 978-0-858-83398-2.
• Curr, Montagu (1886). "Kamilaroi station, Leichardt River" (PDF). In Curr, Edward Micklethwaite (ed.). The Australian race: its origin, languages, customs, place of landing in Australia and the routes by which it spread itself over the continent. Vol. 2. Melbourne: J. Ferres. pp. 318–320.
• Roth, W. E. (1897). Ethnological Studies among the North-West-Central Queensland Aborigines (PDF). Brisbane: Edmund Gregory, Government Printer.
• Tindale, Norman Barnett (1974). "Wakabunga (QLD)". Aboriginal Tribes of Australia: Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits, and Proper Names. Australian National University Press.
• Urquhart, F.; Joseph, O'Reilley (1886). "Seymour, Templeton and Cloncurry Rivers" (PDF). In Curr, Edward Micklethwaite (ed.). The Australian race: its origin, languages, customs, place of landing in Australia and the routes by which it spread itself over the continent. Vol. 2. Melbourne: J. Ferres. pp. 326–329.