The reader is reminded that the word meanings given in this glossary for Gadi Mirrabooka are related to the tribal group or storyteller from which the story evolved. There are at least 800 different Aboriginal dialects, many of which have different words to describe these creatures etc.

• Aunty: adult woman, not necessarily closely related
• Baa-lah: gum tree
• Banda Banda: grasshopper
• Beetha: worm
• Billabong: large waterhole
• Bogong: moth (considered a great delicacy)
• Boolie Boolie: whirlie whirlie wind
• Boomerang: flat curved wooden weapon, which was thrown some boomerangs return, but not all
• Boondis: weapons – Aboriginal sticks used as a club
• Brolga : large stilt legged bird known for its mating dance
• Buleene: death
• Bullroarer: powerful sacred musical instrument forbidden to women
• Bundah: the big grey kangaroo
• Buntha Buntha: poison or ghost dust
• Bunyip: large, scary monster which lives in billabongs
• Bura: thunder
• Caa-mah: spear
• Carbon dating: scientific method of establishing the age of objects
• Clapsticks: two sticks of uneven weight and different woods which are beaten together
• Cockatoo: large white or black parrot
• Coolamon: hollowed out wooden or bark dish used by women
• Corroboree: Aboriginal celebration with feasting, art dance, music, storytelling
• Dennewans: young emus
• Dhundi : boy’s name which means frog
• Dhurran: snake
• Didgeridoo: instrument made from long hollow branch
• Dilly bag: a carry bag made of string used by women
• Dingo: native wild dog
• Dreaming: all encompassing description of the Dreamtime Creation period
• Dreamtime: historical reference to an event in a specific period of the Creation
• Dunniah: wattle tree
• Echidna: spiky ant eating animal similar to hedgehog
• Elders: wise older members of the tribe
• Emu: very large long legged flightless bird
• Euree: the little hairy woman
• Euro: the Aboriginal name for Wallabys
• fella: man
• Gadi: below, beneath
• Gambil Gambil: the spirit woman
• Gammon: pretending
• Garnee: lizards
• Gian: moon
• Gilghi: small water hole
• Ginghi: cockatoo
• Girilambone: means the place of the falling star.
• Goanna: very large lizard
• Gondwanaland: the great prehistoric Southern Continent
• Googar: goanna or large lizard
• Goolbree: male emu
• Goondi: rough bark shelter
• Guddie Springs: which are soda water springs near Coonamble, now known as Cuddie Springs. Now dried up, archaeologists are excavating and making incredible discoveries there
• Gumleaf: eucalypt leaf used as a musical instrument
• Guriada: telepathy or long distance magic
• Kata Tjuta: formation of huge round boulders known as Olgas
• Kookaburra: bird known as laughing jackass
• Koolah: Koala in some tribal languages
• Marnghi: wattle tree
• Marsupials: animals which carried young in an external pouch
• Megafauna: giant creatures of the Pleistocene period
• Men’s Business: Sacred male inititian rites
• Message stick: small piece of wood, incised with marks carried by travelers to show they had good reason to be somewhere. Sometimes they told of good hunting sites
• Mirrabooka: the Southern Cross constellation of stars
• Mission: government reservations run by churches
• Mood diah: possum
• Malyan: eagle hawk
• Mungaleah: also means turtle
• Murrawah: red kangaroo
• Narrbang: dilly bag, carry bag made of string used by women
• Nardoo stone: stone on which seeds were ground to make flour
• Ngemba: Aboriginal tribe
• Nguree: emu or large flightless bird
• Nulla Nullas: weapons – heavy Aboriginal clubs
• Old fulla: nasty old man
• Payback : a system of punishment for crime by victim’s family
• Pikkuw: crocodile
• Pullah Pullah: butterfly
• Quongdong: a native fruit like a plum
• Reedbeds: now known as the Macquarie Marshes
• Rina dina: raindrops
• Sahul: Ice Age continent; Australia Tasmania and New Guinea
• Seanachie: Irish storyteller
• Sorry business: .bad karma
• Songlines: couplets giving custodianship to Tribal land
• Squatters: similar to homesteaders of the west
• Sugar bag: wild honey from native bees
• Symbolic art: art made up of dots, lines, zigzags, whorls, which tells a story
• Tar monadro: great gum tree
• Termites: white ants
• The dry river bed: where the early Aborigines said “the river runs upside down.” The water is under the sand.
• The Marthaguy: .one of the small rivers near the reedbeds
• Thermo luminescence..scientific method of establishing age of objects
• Thiggibilla: porcupine
• Tiridee: native bee
• Tongala: Aboriginal name for Murray river
• Totem: An animal or bird identity, conferred at birth. Part of a complex system of Aboriginal tribal identification
• Trowena: Aboriginal name for Tasmania
• Uluru: Ayers Rock, most sacred site
• Une: lightning
• Waaway: scary creature, mythical dog creature
• Walkabout: journey for education, gathering food, trade
• Wallaby: small kangaroo-type animal
• Wandjinas: spirit heroes of the Dreamtime in Kimberleys and Northern Territory
• Waratah: native rose, floral emblem of New South Wales
• Warrumbungles: Mountain range, is where the wallabys live