A bilingual dictionary of Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay was prepared in 1993
by Peter Austin as part of a project funded by the Minister for
Aboriginal Affairs, Hon. Mr Robert Tickner, and
administered by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander Studies.
The book version of the dictionary has both
a Gamilaraay to English section, and an English-Gamilaraay section
which gives the Gamilaraay equivalent of English words.
Both parts are arranged in alphabetical order, following the
usual order. But note that the sound system of Gamilaraay allows
words to start with only consonant sounds written B, D,
G, M, N, T, W, and Y. Later, Peter Austin also
prepared a thematically-organised thesaurus.
Peter Austin's work is the result of over twenty years' study
of the Gamilaraay language, beginning in 1972 when he first
visited Moree and Boggabilla. This was followed by further field work and
researching historical documents.
More recently, he has been in contact with people in the
north-west of New South Wales, and has recorded additional
Gamilaraay materials with Bill Reid.
Peter Austin says:
I owe a great debt also to the language scholars who
preceded me and who have kindly made their materials
available for study and inclusion in this work. I thank N.B.
Tindale who collected important linguistic and
anthropological data in 1938, S.A. Wurm who worked with
the last fluent speaker in 1955, and R.M.W. Dixon who
made a tape recording and notes in 1971 that led to my
beginning to study the language. I have also profitted from
discussions on Gamilaraay and neighbouring languages with
Corinne Williams, Tamsin Donaldson, and Lynette
Oates."
The original book version was produced using databases and custom-built software
running on mainframe computers. The system was used for information entry, storage, manipulation, and
production of print-ready files, and eventually paved the way for this World Wide Web
version.
"I wish to express my gratitude to all the Gamilaraay
people who assisted me in my studies of their language,
especially Mary Brown, Burt Draper, Hanna Duncan, Ron
McIntosh, Florence Munro, Grace Munro, Leila Orcher,
Arthur Pitt, and Bill Reid. I am grateful for the time they
took to share their knowledge with me and hope that they and
their descendants will be able to make use of the materials
presented here so that the true history and heritage of the
Murri people in the north-west can be made available for all
to learn.