Pindiini (WA)

LocationNorthern margin of Nullarbor Plain from north of Hughes, So. Aust., to north of Loongana; northward from the plain margin for about 150 miles (240 km.). An important water is the unidentified place ['Kaluru] = ['Koljoruj]. This is not Queen Victoria Spring, which bears the same name. The name Pindiini was first heard at Ooldea in 1934; its definitive character was only learned after 1940 when some men objected to the term Wonggai. According to the Pitjandjara, who name them ['Wonggai :'wati], the term has the implication of 'thievery.' Thus, according to J. E. Johnson (verb. comm., 1960), mice stealing flour from a bag were referred to as Wonggai:. Most of them migrated to Ooldea in the 1930s and they are now at Yalata, So. Aust., where, along with the Ngalea, Abbie measured them, assuming they belonged to the south coast. The true Murrayian type people of the coast, the Miming and Wirangu, were measured by Birdwell in 1939 and by T. D. Campbell and others in 1928.
Co-ordinates127°30'E x 29°30'S
Area11,500 sq. m. (29,900 sq. km.)
ReferencesBates, 1918; Black, 1933; Tindale, 1934 MS, 1940, 1964 MS, 1966 MS, 1968 MS; Berndt, 1942; Australian Encyclopedia, 1958; Walsh, 1958 (verb. comm.), Tindale in Greenway, 1963; Abbie, 1967.
Alternative NamesBindinini, Bindunda, Wonggai, Wongaidya, Wongaii, Wonkai (variant pronunciation by a member of the tribe when deriding the name), Wanggada, Wanggaji.
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