'Manuscript notes on Blackfellow tribes and languages of Eyre's Peninsula'

Archive Collections / Robert Arthur Bedford / Series AA26/01 / 'Manuscript notes on Blackfellow tribes and languages of Eyre's Peninsula'

This series consists of an original document entitled 'Manuscript notes on Blackfellow tribes and languages of Eyre's Peninsula', and a carbon copy.

This manuscript includes information on the Australian Aboriginal people from the Eyre Peninsula and Gawler Ranges area both in South Australia apparently obtained from other documentary sources such as Taplin's Folklore, manners, customs and languages of the South Australian Aborigines, 1879 (see AA 319) and from Bedford's own enquiries amongst local Aboriginal people, including a man known as Whipstick Billy. The latter was evidently a Wilyaru (fully-initiated) man who Bedford believed was from the Gawler Ranges.

The manuscript includes vocabularies from the West Coast region, Australia, evidently obtained from Ernie Wilson and Guerkin, both from Koonibba Mission and from Ooldea, evidently obtained from Daisy Bates' (see AA 23) publications;, and comparative vocabularies of the 'Parnkalla', 'Ku-ka-tha' and Streaky Bay languages, evidently obtained from Taplin's book, and some words provided by Whipstick Billy.

The manuscript material includes additional miscellaneous notes, including an extract from the Chronicle (no date given) entitled 'More tales of Whipstick Billy' and some notes on early European settlement and European/Aboriginal relations on Eyre Peninsula.

Note that there is some additional information on Whipstick Billy in the book Grain amid granite, by E Franklin and E Heath, published by the District Council of LeHunte, 1986.

This series contains references to the following regions of South Australia: Eyre Peninsula; North Central; Nullarbor - Great Victoria Desert.

This series includes references to the following named groups: Ku-ka-tha; Parnkalla; Willeuroo.

Tindale Tribes: Kokata; Pangkala; Wirangu.

AIATSIS Language Groups: Kokatha; Banggarla; Wirangu.

CreatorRobert Arthur Bedford
ControlAA 26/1/1-2
Date Range1920  -  1952
Quantity 1cm,   2   original manuscript and carbon copy
FormatsLoose Notes
Series AA26/01