Australia 44

Listen to Australia 44, a 48-year-old man from Mount Magnet, Western Australia. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject. 

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 48

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 25/07/1975

PLACE OF BIRTH: Mount Magnet, Western Australia

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Australian/White (Danish and Irish ancestry)

OCCUPATION: pastoralist

EDUCATION: graduated high school

AREAS OF RESIDENCE OUTSIDE REPRESENTATIVE REGION FOR LONGER THAN SIX MONTHS:

The subject spent years 7-12 at boarding school in Perth and then served in the army for 18 months.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH: none

The text used in our recordings of scripted speech can be found by clicking here.

RECORDED BY: Debbie Dowden

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 29/09/2023

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

Most stations had people roughly my age group, I think. So, I don’t know, in my year group for Meekatharra School of the Air, there was probably 15 kids [interviewer: “yep”] in that area, including some, you know, a couple that lived out the other side of Wiluna. …

Well, it’s interesting, because you can always — you can pick someone that grew up, let’s say east of Meekatharra, or in the southern Pilbara, or here, you can, you can — there is a difference in the way they talk. I reckon, anyway. Certainly east of Wiluna. …

The fact that most stations around here have got Aboriginal names, I reckon says an abundance. Um, but we’ve got, I don’t know, obviously “Yoweragabbie” [name of subject’s station] itself means “running water.” Um, but most of our windmill names are, are Aboriginal. And all the hills and that are Aboriginal. Gululu, Dyambulya: They’re all Aboriginal names, um, which I think’s quite, yeah, pretty good.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Rhea Dowden

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 11/10/2023

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

Words from some Kartu language(s) (probably Badimaya or Wajarri) are used at multiple points, but the original meanings of the words, as with most local place names, have been lost with the languages. “Yoweragabbie” (despite its spelling) is pronounced identically to the Badimaya phrase “yara gabi,” which means “the water will go.” This resembles the commonly given meaning of “Yoweragabbie” as “running water,” but it can’t be known for certain if this is its etymology.

COMMENTARY BY: Rhea Dowden

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 11/10/2023

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