No one name for the whole continent: just names for skin and language
areas (and that varied from the people who lived there and the other
people around - they often called areas by different names). I'm no
expert so I will ask the local elders, but they will give me a guarded
answer at best.
Andrew
On 05/12/2007, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Thanks for asking, Patrick...
>
> I missed census night in our park for frogs, emailed the leader afterwards,
> and was told No Frogs That Night!
> However we hear suitable croakings in many places now, including the
> pobblebonk call mentioned many months ago.
> And down at the bottom of the hill, towards which all moisture tends, at no
> 21 (we're at 11-13), their little front garden is kept moist and at nights
> is unendingly pobblebonky.
> Australians keep saying many species of frogs are vanishing, ominous sign of
> big bad changes.
> I fondly recall at night tiny frogs climbing uncurtained windows after
> moths.
> These are now seldom seen.
>
> As for Aboriginal names for Australia before the Europeans named it, I have
> not heard of one.
> My guess is they lacked the big picture, except in mythico-religious terms.
>
> (Many many Aboriginal languages, and no lingua franca...).
>
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