The Wiradjuri people (; ) are a group of

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia 50,000 to 65,000 year ...

people from central

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, united by common descent through kinship and shared traditions. They survived as skilled hunter-fisher-gatherers, in family groups or clans, and many still use knowledge of hunting and gathering techniques as part of their customary life. In the 21st century, major Wiradjuri groups live in

Condobolin Condobolin is a town in the west of the Central West region of New South Wales, Australia, on the Lachlan River. At the , Condobolin had a population of 3,185. History Prior to European settlement, the area was inhabited by the Wiradjuri pe ...

, Peak Hill,

Narrandera Narrandera ( ), until around 1949 also spelled "Narandera", is a town located in the central Riverina region of south-western New South Wales, Australia. The town lies on the junction of the Newell Highway, Newell and Sturt Highway, Sturt highwa ...

and

Griffith Griffith may refer to: People * Griffith (name) * Griffith (surname) * Griffith (given name) Places Antarctica * Mount Griffith, Ross Dependency * Griffith Peak (Antarctica), Marie Byrd Land * Griffith Glacier, Marie Byrd Land * Griffith Ridge, ...

. There are significant populations at

Wagga Wagga Wagga Wagga (; informally called Wagga) is a major regional city in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. Straddling the Murrumbidgee River, with an urban population of more than 57,003 as of 2021, it is an important agricultural, m ...

and Leeton and smaller groups at

West Wyalong West Wyalong is the main town of the Bland Shire in the northern Riverina region of western New South Wales, Australia. In the 2021 Census, West Wyalong's population was 3,037. Located west of Sydney as well as being above sea level, it i ...

Parkes Parkes may refer to: * Sir Henry Parkes (1815–1896), Australian politician, one of the earliest and most prominent advocates for Australian federation Named for Henry Parkes * Parkes, New South Wales, a regional town * Parkes Observatory, a radi ...

Dubbo Dubbo (; ) is a city in the Orana (New South Wales), Orana Region of New South Wales, Australia. It is the largest population centre in the Orana region, with a population of 43,516 at June 2021. The city is located at the intersection of the ...

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

Cootamundra Cootamundra, nicknamed Coota, is a town in the South West Slopes region of New South Wales, Australia and within the Riverina. It is within the Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council. At the 2016 Census, Cootamundra had a population of 6,782. I ...

Darlington Point Darlington Point is a small town on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River in the central Riverina district of western New South Wales, Australia. It is part of the Murrumbidgee Council local government area. The centre of town is four kilomet ...

Cowra Cowra () is a town in the Central West, New South Wales, Central West region of New South Wales, Australia. It is the largest population centre and the council seat for the Cowra Shire, with a population of 8,254. Cowra is located approximate ...

and

Young Young may refer to: * Offspring, the product of reproduction of a new organism produced by one or more parents * Youth, the time of life when one's age is low, often meaning the time between childhood and adulthood Music * The Young, an America ...

Name

The Wiradjuri

autonym Autonym may refer to: * Autonym, the name used by a person to refer to themselves or their language; see Exonym and endonym * Autonym (botany), an automatically created infrageneric or infraspecific name See also * Nominotypical subspecies, in zo ...

is derived from , meaning "no" or "not", with the

comitative In grammar, the comitative case (abbreviated ) is a grammatical case that denotes accompaniment. In English, the preposition "with", in the sense of "in company with" or "together with", plays a substantially similar role. Other uses of "with", l ...

suffix or meaning "having". That the Wiradjuri said , as opposed to some other word for "no", was seen as a distinctive feature of their speech, and several other tribes in New South Wales, to the west of the

Great Dividing Range The Great Dividing Range, also known as the East Australian Cordillera or the Eastern Highlands, is a cordillera system in eastern Australia consisting of an expansive collection of mountain ranges, plateaus and rolling hills. It runs roughl ...

, are similarly named after their own words for "no". A similar distinction was made between

Romance languages The Romance languages, also known as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the languages that are Language family, directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-E ...

medieval France The Kingdom of France in the Middle Ages (roughly, from the 10th century to the middle of the 15th century) was marked by the fragmentation of the Carolingian Empire and West Francia (843–987); the expansion of royal control by the House of C ...

, with the ''

langues d'oc Occitan (; ), also known by its native speakers as (; ), sometimes also referred to as Provençal, is a Romance language spoken in Southern France, Monaco, Italy's Occitan Valleys, as well as Spain's Val d'Aran in Catalonia; collectively, thes ...

'' and the ''

langues d'oïl The ''langues d'oïl'' are a dialect continuum that includes standard French and its closest relatives historically spoken in the northern half of France, southern Belgium, and the Channel Islands. They belong to the larger category of Gallo- ...

'' distinguished by their word for "yes". In his book ''Aboriginal Tribes of Australia'' (1974),

Norman Tindale Norman Barnett Tindale AO (12 October 1900 – 19 November 1993) was an Australian anthropologist, archaeologist, entomologist and ethnologist. He is best remembered for his work mapping the various tribal groupings of Aboriginal Australians ...

wrote that ''Wiradjuri'' was one of several terms coined later, after the 1890s had seen a "rash of such terms", following the publication of a work by ethnologist John Fraser. In 1892, Fraser had published a revised and expanded edition of

Lancelot Threlkeld Lancelot Edward Threlkeld (20 October 1788 – 10 October 1859) was an English missionary, primarily based in Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of ...

's 1834 work on the Awabakal language, ''

An Australian Grammar ''An Australian grammar : comprehending the principles and natural rules of the language, as spoken by the Aborigines in the vicinity of Hunter's River, Lake Macquarie, &c. New South Wales'' is a book written by L. E. Threlkeld, Lancelot Edward ...

'', in which he created his own names for groupings, such as Yunggai, Wachigari and Yakkajari. Tindale says that some of the later terms had entered the literature, although not based on fieldwork and lacking Aboriginal support, as artificial, collective names for his "Great Tribes" of New South Wales. He writes that there was such a "literary need for major groupings that

raser A maser is a device that produces coherence (physics), coherent electromagnetic waves (microwaves), through amplification by stimulated emission. The term is an acronym for microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. Nikolay Ba ...

set out to provide them for New South Wales, coining entirely artificial terms for his 'Great tribes'. These were not based on field research and lacked aboriginal support. His names such as Yunggai, Wachigari and Yakkajari can be ignored as artifacts...During the 1890s the idea spread and soon there was a rash of such terms...Some of these have entered, unfortunately, into popular literature, despite their dubious origins." He lists Wiradjuri (NSW) as one of these artificial names, along with Bangarang (

Pangerang The Pangerang, also spelt Bangerang and Bangarang, are the Indigenous Australians who traditionally occupied much of what is now north-eastern Victoria stretching along the Murray River to Echuca and into the areas of the southern Riverina in ...

) (Vic.);

Booandik The Bungandidj people are an Aboriginal Australian people from the Mount Gambier, South Australia, Mount Gambier region in south-eastern South Australia, and also in western Victoria, Australia, Victoria. Their language is the Bungandidj langua ...

(Vic. & SA); Barkunjee (

Barkindji The Paakantyi, or Barkindji or Barkandji, are an Australian Aboriginal tribal group of the Darling River (known to them as the Baaka) basin in Far West New South Wales, Australia. Name The ethnonym Paakantyi means "River people", formed from ...

) (NSW), Kurnai (Vic.), Thurrawal (

Dharawal The Tharawal people and other variants, are an Aboriginal Australian people, identified by the Yuin language. Traditionally, they lived as hunter–fisher–gatherers in family groups or clans with ties of kinship, scattered along the coasta ...

) (NSW), and Malegoondeet (?) (Vic.). He also mentions R. H. Mathews, A. W. Howitt and John Mathew as promulgators of the "nations" concept. However, Tindale refers to Wiradjuri in his own work (p. 200): "Wiradjuri 'Wiradjuri (Wi'raduri)".

Wiradjuri language

Wiradjuri The Wiradjuri people (; ) are a group of Aboriginal Australian people from central New South Wales, united by common descent through kinship and shared traditions. They survived as skilled hunter-fisher-gatherers, in family groups or clans, a ...

is a Pama–Nyungan family and classified as a member of the small Wiradhuric branch of Australian languages of Central New South Wales. The Wiradjuri language is effectively extinct, but attempts are underway to revive it, with a reconstructed grammar, based on earlier ethnographic materials and wordlists and the memories of Wiradjuri families, which is now used to teach the language in schools. This reclamation work was originally propelled by elder Stan Grant and John Rudder who had previously studied

Australian Aboriginal languages The Indigenous languages of Australia number in the hundreds, the precise number being quite uncertain, although there is a range of estimates from a minimum of around 250 (using the technical definition of 'language' as non-mutually intellig ...

Arnhem Land Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around from the territorial capital, Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Compa ...

Country

The Wiradjuri are the largest Aboriginal group in New South Wales. They once occupied a vast area in central New South Wales, on the plains running north and south to the west of the Blue Mountains. The area was known as "the land of the three rivers", the ''Wambuul'' (Macquarie), the ''Kalare'' later known as the Lachlan and the Murrumbidgee, or ''Murrumbidjeri''.

estimated the territorial range of the Wiradjuri tribal lands at . Their eastern borders ran from north to south from above

Mudgee Mudgee () is a town in the Central West (New South Wales), Central West of New South Wales, Australia. It is in the broad fertile Cudgegong River valley north-west of Sydney and is the largest town in the Mid-Western Regional Council Local gov ...

, down to the foothills of the Blue Mountains east of Lithgow and

Oberon Oberon () is a king of the fairy, fairies in Middle Ages, medieval and Renaissance literature. He is best known as a character in William Shakespeare's play ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'', in which he is King of the Fairies and spouse of Titania ...

, and east of

and

Tumut Tumut () is a town in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia, situated on the banks of the Tumut River. Tumut sits on the north-west foothills of the Snowy Mountains and is located on the traditional lands of the Wiradjuri, Wolgalu ...

and south to the upper Murray at

Albury Albury (; ) is a major regional city that is located in the Murray River, Murray region of New South Wales, Australia. It is part of the twin city of Albury–Wodonga, Albury-Wodonga and is located on the Hume Highway and the northern side of ...

and east to about

Tumbarumba Tumbarumba ( ) is a town in New South Wales, Australia, about southwest of the state capital, Sydney. Tumbarumba is located in the South West Slopes (New South Wales), South West Slopes region at the western edge of the Snowy Mountains. The s ...

. The southern border ran to

Howlong Howlong is a town west of Albury, New South Wales, Albury, and is situated on the Murray River which separates the Australian states of New South Wales and Victoria (Australia), Victoria. The town is located on the Riverina Highway. There is a ...

. Its western reaches went along

Billabong Creek The Billabong Creek, a partly perennial stream of the Murray River catchment within the Murray-Darling basin, is located in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. At (with some estimates ranging up to ), Billabong Creek is believ ...

to beyond Mossgiel. They extended southwest to the vicinity of

Hay Hay is grass, legumes, or other herbaceous plants that have been cut and dried to be stored for use as animal fodder, either for large grazing animals raised as livestock, such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep, or for smaller domesticate ...

and

southwards to

Booligal Booligal is a village in the Riverina area of western New South Wales (NSW), Australia. It is located on the Cobb Highway, on the Lachlan River north of Hay. Booligal is a part of Hay Shire local government area. The name of the village is an ...

, Carrathool,

, Trundle;

Gundagai Gundagai is a town in New South Wales, Australia. Although a small town, Gundagai is a popular topic for writers and has become a representative icon of a typical Australian country town. Located along the Murrumbidgee River and Muniong, Honeys ...

Boorowa Boorowa () is a farming village in the Hilltops Council, Hilltops Region in the South West Slopes, south west slopes of New South Wales, Australia. It is located in a valley southwest of Sydney around above sea-level. The town is in Hilltops C ...

, and

Rylstone Rylstone is a village and civil parish in the county of North Yorkshire, England. It is situated very near to Cracoe and about south west of Grassington. The population of the civil parish as of the 2001 census was 122, and had risen to 160 ...

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

, and

Carcoar Carcoar is a small town in the Central West (New South Wales), Central West region of New South Wales, Australia, in Blayney Shire. In 2021, the town had a population of 271 people. It is situated just off the Mid-Western Highway 258 km west ...

all lay within Wiradjuri territory. The

Murray River The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray; Ngarrindjeri language, Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta language, Yorta Yorta: ''Dhungala'' or ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is List of rivers of Australia, Aust ...

forms the Wiradjuri's southern boundary and the change from woodland to open grassland marks their eastern boundary.

Social organisation

The Wiradjuri were organised into bands.

quotes

Alfred William Howitt Alfred William Howitt (17 April 1830 – 7 March 1908), also known by author abbreviation A. W. Howitt, was an Australian anthropologist, explorer and naturalist. He was known for leading the Victorian Relief Expedition, which set out to est ...

as mentioning several of these local groups of the tribe: * ''Narrandera'' (prickly lizard) * ''Cootamundra'' (, kutamun turtle) * ''Murranbulla'' (, two bark canoes).

Burial rite

The Wiradjuri, together with the

Gamilaraay The Gamilaroi, also known as Gomeroi, Kamilaroi, Kamillaroi and other variations, are an Aboriginal Australian people whose lands extend from New South Wales to southern Queensland. They form one of the four largest Indigenous nations in Austr ...

(who however used them in bora ceremonies), were particularly known for their use of carved trees which functioned as taphoglyphs, marking the burial site of a notable medicine-man, ceremonial leader, warrior or orator of a tribe. On the death of a distinguished Wiradjuri, initiated men would strip the bark off a tree to allow them to incise symbols on the side of the trunk which faced the

burial mound Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...

. The craftsmanship on remaining examples of this funeral artwork displays notable artistic power. Four still stand near

Molong Molong is a small town in the Central West (New South Wales), Central West region of New South Wales, Australia, in Cabonne Shire Council, Cabonne Shire. History The name Molong comes from the indigenous Australians, Aboriginal word for 'all ro ...

at the Grave of Yuranigh. They are generally to be found near rivers where the softer earth allowed easier burial.

remarked that these trees incised with taphoglyphs served both as transit points to allow mythological cultural heroes to ascend to, and descend from, the firmament as well as a means for the deceased to return to the sky.

Lifestyle

The Wiradjuri diet included yabbies and fish such as

Murray cod The Murray cod (''Maccullochella peelii'') is a large Australian predatory freshwater fish of the genus '' Maccullochella'' in the family Percichthyidae.Dianne J. Bray & Vanessa J. Thompson (2011Murray Cod, Maccullochella peelii Fishes of Au ...

from the rivers. In dry seasons, they ate kangaroos, emus and food gathered from the land, including fruit, nuts, yam daisies (''

Microseris lanceolata ''Microseris lanceolata'' is an Australian alpine herb with yellow flowers and one of three plants known as murnong or yam daisy along with '' Microseris scapigera'' and '' Microseris walteri.'' The plant is found in southern parts of Australi ...

''), wattle seeds, and orchid tubers. The Wiradjuri travelled into Alpine areas in the summer to feast on

Bogong moth The bogong moth (''Agrotis infusa'') is a temperate species of Nocturnal, night-flying moth, notable for its biannual long-distance seasonal Lepidoptera migration, migrations towards and from the Australian Alps, similar to the diurnal monarch ...

s. The Wiradjuri were also known for their handsome possum-skin cloaks stitched together from several possum furs.

Governor Macquarie Major General Lachlan Macquarie, CB (; ; 31 January 1762 – 1 July 1824) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator from Scotland. Macquarie served as the fifth Governor of New South Wales from 1810 to 1821, and had a leading role ...

was presented with one of these cloaks by a Wiradjuri man when he visited Bathurst in 1815.

British penetration

Wiradjuri territory was first penetrated by

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

colonists in 1813. In 1822 George Suttor took up an extensive lot of land, later known as Brucedale Station, after Wiradjuri guides showed him an area with ample water sources. Suttor learnt their language, and befriended Windradyne, nicknamed "Saturday", and attributed conflict to the harshness of his own people's behaviour, since the Wiradjuri were in his view, fond of white people, as they would call them. Clashes between the British settlers and the Wiradjuri, however, multiplied as the influx of colonists increased, and became known as the

Bathurst War The Bathurst War (1824) was a war between the Wiradjuri nation and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Following the successful Blaxland, Lawson, and Wentworth expedition to find a route through the "impenetrable" Blue Mountains ...

s. The occupation of their lands and their cultivation caused famine among the Wiradjuri, who had a different notion of what constituted property. In the 1850s there were still

corroboree A corroboree is a generic word for a meeting of Australian Aboriginal peoples. It may be a sacred ceremony, a festive celebration, or of a warlike character. A word coined by the first British settlers in the Sydney area from a word in the ...

s around

, but there were fewer clashes.

Notable people

Historical

Turandurey Turandurey (1806 - ?) was a Wiradjuri woman from the Lachlan River area in central New South Wales near where the town of Hillston is now located. Turandurey is noted for her work as a guide and interpreter to the explorer Thomas Mitchell, whil ...

, explorer, guide and interpreter * William Punch, massacre survivor and World War One serviceman *

Windradyne Windradyne ( 1800 – 21 March 1829) was an Aboriginal warrior and resistance leader of the Wiradjuri nation, in what is now central-western New South Wales, Australia; he was also known to the British settlers as Saturday. Windradyne led his ...

, important Aboriginal leader during the

* Yuranigh, a much prized guide for the explorer Thomas Mitchell, especially during his expedition to the Gulf of Carpentaria in 1845–1846. On hearing of Yuranigh's death in 1852, Mitchell put up £200 to have his gravesite marked with a tombstone. *

Diana Mudgee Diana Mudgee ( - 4 May 1902) was a Wiradjuri Aboriginal Australian woman from Mudgee, New South Wales who raised ten children and gained ownership of over 500 acres of land, which according to the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Stra ...

, massacre survivor and early Aboriginal land owner

Modern

Kirsten Banks Kirsten Alexandra Banks is an Indigenous Australian astrophysicist and science communicator of the Wiradjuri people, known for her work in promoting mainstream and Aboriginal astronomy. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Physics from the Un ...

, astronomer *

Tony Briggs Tony Briggs (born 3 July 1967) is an Aboriginal Australian actor. He is best known for creating the stage play '' The Sapphires'' (later a 2012 film), which tells the true story of an Aboriginal singing girl group who toured Vietnam during th ...

, actor, writer and producer *

Linda Burney Linda Jean Burney (born 25 April 1957) is an Australian Labor Party (ALP) politician who was the member of Parliament (MP) for the division of Barton from 2016 to 2025. She was the minister for Indigenous Australians from 2022 to July 2024. S ...

, member of the Australian House of Representatives *

Evonne Goolagong Cawley Evonne Fay Goolagong Cawley (née Goolagong; born 31 July 1951) is an Australian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis ...

, tennis great *

Jimmy Clements Jimmy Clements ( – 28 August 1927) was an Aboriginal elder from the Wiradjuri tribe in Australia, and was present at the opening of the Provisional Parliament House in Canberra on 9 May 1927. He explained that he was there to demonstrate hi ...

, present at the opening of

Provisional Parliament House Parliament House is the meeting place of the Parliament of Australia, the legislative body of Australia's federal system of government. The building also houses the core of the executive (the Australian Government), containing the Cabinet ro ...

in 1927 * Faye McMillan, academic * Kevin Gilbert, 20th century author * Stan Grant, journalist, son of Stan Grant Sr * Stan Grant Sr, a Wiradjuri elder and linguist *

Anita Heiss Anita Marianne Heiss (born 1968) is an Aboriginal Australian author, poet, cultural activist and social commentator. She is an advocate for Indigenous Australian literature and literacy, through her writing for adults and children and her memb ...

contemporary novelist * Kate Howarth author * Faye McMillan, academic *

Kerry Reed-Gilbert Kerry Reed-Gilbert (24 October 1956 – 13 July 2019) was an Australian poet, author, collector, editor, educator, a champion of Indigenous writers and an Aboriginal rights activist. She was a Wiradjuri woman. Early life Born on 24 October 1956 ...

, poet, author and elder * Aunty Isabel Reid (born 1932), elder and advocate for the

Stolen Generation The Stolen Generations (also known as Stolen Children) were the children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian federal and state government agencies and church mis ...

; NSW State Recipient of Senior

Australian of the Year The Australian of the Year is a national award conferred on an Australian citizen by the National Australia Day Council, a not-for-profit Australian Government-owned social enterprise. Similar awards are also conferred at the state and territor ...

2021; oldest living survivor of those forcibly removed under the ''

Aborigines Protection Act 1909 The ''Aborigines Protection Act 1909'' (NSW) was an Act of the Parliament of New South Wales that repealed the ''Supply of Liquors to Aborigines Prevention Act 1867'', with the aim of providing for the paternalistic protection and care of Ab ...

'' (NSW), having been sent to the

Cootamundra Domestic Training Home for Aboriginal Girls The Cootamundra Domestic Training Home for Aboriginal Girls, commonly known as "Bimbadeen" and Cootamundra Girls' Home, located at Cootamundra, New South Wales, was a home and training college for Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal girls durin ...

* Jessa Rogers, founding principal of the Cape York Girl Academy *

Mum (Shirl) Smith Coleen Shirley Perry Smith AM MBE (22 November 1924 – 28 April 1998), better known as Mum Shirl, was a prominent Wiradjuri woman, social worker and humanitarian activist committed to justice and welfare of Aboriginal Australians. She w ...

MBE OAM, community activist * Malcolm Towney aka MFC, Mayor's Office Queanbeyan NSW *

Margaret Tucker Margaret Lilardia Tucker MBE (28 March 1904 – 23 August 1996) was an Aboriginal Australian activist and writer who was among the first Aboriginal authors to publish an autobiography ''If Everyone Cared'', in 1977; a new edition of this ...

, co-founder of the Australian Aborigines League * Joyce Williams, Wiradjuri elder, health campaigner, native title activist * Neville "Uncle Chappy" Williams, land activist and proponent in the Lake Cowal Campaign *

Tara June Winch Tara June Winch (born 2 December 1983) is an Australian writer. She is the 2020 winner of the Miles Franklin Award for her book '' The Yield''. Biography Tara June Winch was born in Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia on 2 December 1983. He ...

, author *

Jack Charles Jack Charles (5 September 1943 – 13 September 2022), also known as Uncle Jack Charles, was an Australian stage and screen actor and activist, known for his advocacy for Aboriginal people. He was involved in establishing the first Indigenous t ...

(1943–2022), actor, Elder, activist * Jeanine Leane, poet and academic

Music/the arts

Brook Andrew Brook Andrew (born 1970 in Sydney, Australia) is an Australian contemporary artist. Work Andrew has exhibited internationally since 1996. His work focuses on Western narratives, especially relating to colonialism in the Australian context, and ...

, contemporary artist * Bianca Beetson, contemporary artist *

Luke Carroll Luke Carroll is an Australian stage, television, and film actor. He is known for his role in the television drama '' The Alice'' (2005), and as a host of the children's program '' Play School''. Early life and education Luke Carroll was born in ...

, actor, presenter *

Alan Dargin Alan Dargin (13 July 196724 February 2008) was an indigenous Australian musician and songwriter known for being a didgeridoo player. He grew up in Wee Waa and started learning the instrument at age five from his grandfather and other Wiradjuri ...

didgeridoo The didgeridoo (;()), also spelt didjeridu, among other variants, is a wind instrument, played with vibrating lips to produce a continuous Drone (music), drone while using a special breathing technique called circular breathing. The didgerido ...

player *

Ella Havelka Ella Havelka (born 1989) is an Australian ballet dancer who is the first Indigenous person to join The Australian Ballet. Early life Havelka was born in Dubbo, New South Wales, and is a descendant of the Wiradjuri people. She was raised by a ...

, dancer, first Indigenous person to join

The Australian Ballet The Australian Ballet (TAB) is the largest classical ballet company in Australia. It was founded by J. C. Williamson Theatres Ltd and the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust in 1962, with the English-born dancer, teacher, repetiteur a ...

* Melanie Horsnell, singer-songwriter * Mo'Ju, musician * Lin Onus, artist * Harry Wedge, artist * YNG Martyr, rapper/singer-songwriter

Sporting

Rugby league

* Josh Addo-Carr, rugby league footballer * Braidon Burns, rugby league footballer * Laurie Daley, rugby league footballer * Scott Drinkwater, rugby league footballer * Adam Elliott, rugby league footballer * Blake Ferguson (rugby league), Blake Ferguson, rugby league footballer * Jai Field, rugby league footballer * Andrew Fifita, rugby league footballer * Tyrell Fuimaono, rugby league footballer * David Grant (rugby league), David Grant, rugby league footballer * Nicho Hynes, rugby league footballer * Ben Jones (Australian rugby league, born 1990), Ben Jones, rugby league footballer * Latrell Mitchell, rugby league footballer * Brent Naden, rugby league footballer * David Peachey, rugby league footballer * Tyrone Peachey, rugby league footballer * Jesse Ramien, rugby league footballer * Will Robinson (rugby league), Will Robinson, rugby league footballer * George Rose (rugby league), George Rose, rugby league footballer * Ron Saddler, rugby league footballer * Reimis Smith, rugby league footballer * Kotoni Staggs, rugby league footballer * Robbie Simpson (rugby league), Robbie Simpson, rugby league footballer * Joel Thompson (rugby league), Joel Thompson, rugby league footballer * Brad Tighe, rugby league footballer * Esikeli Tonga, rugby league footballer * Willie Tonga, rugby league footballer * Connor Watson, rugby league footballer * Jack Wighton, rugby league footballer * Joe Williams (rugby league), Joe Williams, rugby league footballer * Jonathan Wright (rugby league), Jonathan Wright, rugby league footballer

Australian rules football

* Jarrod Atkinson, Australian rules footballer * Sean Charles, Australian rules footballer * Aidyn Johnson, Australian rules footballer * Zac Williams (Australian footballer), Zac Williams, Australian Rules footballer

Other sports

* Wally Carr, Australian Commonwealth Boxing Champion * Daniel Christian, member of the Australian cricket team * Evonne Goolagong, champion tennis player * John Kinsela, first Aboriginal Olympic wrestler * Dylan Pietsch, rugby union player for the NSW Waratahs * Joel Swift, Australian and Olympic water polo player * Tai Tuivasa, mixed martial arts (MMA) and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighter * Mariah Williams Australian Olympic hockey player

Places of significance

* Koonadan Historic Site, located 9 km north-west of Leeton * The Wellington Convict and Mission Site in

, a former convict settlement and Aboriginal Mission (station), mission. * 56 historical sites were found during survey work at Yathong Nature Reserve, including Scarred tree, scar trees, camp sites and Cave painting, cave art. * A historical site, consisting of an open campsite, was found during survey work at Nombinnie Nature Reserve. * Mungabareena Reserve, a meeting place at Albury.

Wiradjuri culture in fiction

The short story ''Death in the Dawntime'', originally published in ''The Mammoth Book of Historical Detectives'' (Mike Ashley, editor; 1995), is a murder mystery that takes place entirely among the Wiradjuri people before the arrival of Europeans in Australia. In Bryce Courtenay's novel ''Jessica (novel), Jessica'', the plot is centred in Wiradjuri region. Jessica's best friend (Mary Simpson) was from Wiradjuri. Noel Beddoe's novel ''The Yalda Crossing'' also explores Wiradjuri history from an early settler perspective, bringing to life a little-known massacre that occurred in the 1830s. Andy Kissane's poem, "The Station Owner's Daughter, Narrandera" tells a story about the aftermath of that same massacre, and was the inspiration for Alex Ryan's short film, ''Ngurrumbang''.

Alternative names

The variety of spellings for the name Wiradjuri is extensive, with over 60 ways of transcribing the word registered.

Some words

* 'Santalum acuminatum, native peach'. The English word for this in Australia, ''quandong,'' is thought to derive from the Wirandjuri term. * 'crow'. The Wiradjeri term perhaps lies behind the toponym for the town of

. The reduplication may be a pluralizer suggesting the idea of "(place of) many crows". This has recently been questioned by Wiradjuri elder Stan Grant Sr and Tim Wess, an academic. The word behind the toponym is, they claim, , meaning "dance", and the reduplicative would mean "many dances/much dancing".

Notes

Citations

Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{Authority control Wiradjuri, Aboriginal peoples of New South Wales South Coast (New South Wales)