There has been a lot of information recorded about the Kamilaroi people and their language. Much of the information is either unpublished, or difficult to get hold of. The following is a list of information sources for Gamilaraay language studies. Most items are available from AIATSIS:

The Librarian
Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
GPO Box 553
Canberra ACT 2601 AUSTRALIA
email: Librarian ref@aiatsis.gov.au

Older published sources

Most older materials are difficult to use because they do not use a consistent spelling system, and they mix words from different languages. The most valuable are Rev. William Ridley's book and articles by R.H. Mathews.

• Curr, E.M. 1887. The Australian Race. Melbourne: Government Printer (Gamilaraay vocabularies from several places in the north-west)
• Fison, L. and A.W. Howitt. 1880. Kamilaroi and Kurnai. London
• Greenway, Rev. C.C. 1910. The Kamilari Tribe. Science of Man Vol 2 No. 9, pp 217-218
• Howitt, A.W. 1904. Native Tribes of South East Australia. London: Macmillan
• Mathews, R.H. 1903. Language of the Kamilaroi and other Aboriginal tribes of N.S.W. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute Vol. 33, pp 259-283
• Ridley, Rev. W. 1875. Kamilaroi and other Languages. Sydney: Government Printer
• Ridley, Rev. W. 1877. Australian Languages and Traditions. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of N.S.W. Vol 7, pp 236-268

There have been a few things published on Gamilaraay over the last twenty years, but no major study of the language. John Ferry prepared some materials on Gamilaraay culture for use at Walgett school. There is also Corinne Williams' A Grammar of Yuwaalaraay. This is about the old form of the languages called Yuwaalaraay and Yuwaaliyaay that used to be spoken to the west of Gamilaraay. Those languages are quite similar to old Gamilaraay. There are also brief word lists in Nils Holmer's Linguistic Survey of South-Eastern Queensland, and Kay Kneale's A Mee Mee's Memories. Mrs Kneale's book also has lots of valuable information about traditional plants, foods and medicines, as well as some stories. The traditional story of Emu and Turkey in Gamilaraay has been published by Austin and Tindale.

• Austin, P. 1993. A Reference Dictionary of Gamilaraay, northern New South Wales. Bundoora, Vic: La Trobe University Department of Linguistics [the basis of this Web dictionary]
• Austin, P. 1986. Structural change in language obsolescence: some eastern Australian examples. Australian Journal of Linguistics, Vol 6, pp 201-230
• Austin, P., C. Williams and S.A. Wurm. 1980. The linguistic situation in north central New South Wales. In B. Rigsby and P. Sutton (eds) Papers in Australian linguistics No. 13: Contributions of Australian linguistics, 167-180. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics
• Austin, P. and N.B. Tindale. 1986. Emu and brolga, a Kamilaroi myth. Aboriginal History, Vol. 9, pp 8-21
• Ferry, J. 1978. Kamilaroi. Sydney: Hodder and Stoughton
• Ferry, J. 1982. Kamilaroi Culture Kits. D.C.A.P.
• Holmer, N.M. 1983. Linguistic Survey of South-Eastern Queensland. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics D54 (pp 438-455 on "Jualrai" contains many Gamilaraay words)
• Howell, R. 1982. The history and culture of the Aboriginal people of the Ashford district. Sydney: Government Printer (funded by N.S.W. Department of Education Multicultural Education Co-ordinating Committee)
• Williams, C.J. 1980. A grammar of Yuwaalaraay. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics B74.

Reference books for birds and animals

• Cayley, Neville W. 1984 What bird is that? Sydney: Angus and Robertson [revised edition edited by Terence R. Lindsey]
• Frauca, Harry 1982 What animal is that? Sydney: Doubleday.
• Ride, W.D.L. 1970 A guide to the native mammals of Australia Melbourne: Oxford University Press

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