# aboriginal names for fish; bream



## bombora (Mar 8, 2006)

Hiya, was enthralled by The First Australians on SBS last night. Amazing stories of the ininitial contact tween first fleeters and local Sydney clans. We'll stay away from the sadness of the bastardry which went on (sad when you think of the forsight of blackfellas like Bennelong and white fellas like the Suttons of Bathurst). What got me was the true saltwater life of the local tribes. Did some net trolling and found a couple of names from Sydney dialects which fishos might like.
These two translations from a list written by first fleet fella David Blackburn (in his own words):
""Karooma _ a fish name, called by us the black bream."" 
""Waaragah _ the mackeral."" 
I'm guessing he was talking yellowfin bream (or maybe there were heaps and heaps of black bream in Sydney back then) and slimeys. 
I think both names are beautiful _ specially karooma _ and just adds to my own dislike of the anglicised names given by unimaginative colonials. Just think, we'd be watching the AKT comps on TV not the ABT. ANyone know any other (Sydney) aboriginal names for fish? In fact any aboriginal names for popular fish? I can off top of my head think only of Mulloway.


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## Junglefisher (Jun 2, 2008)

I was wondering just this morning if barramundi, barracouta and barracuda were aboriginal names.


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## bombora (Mar 8, 2006)

Hiya Jungle, pretty sure barra is, but cudas and coutas are from northern hemisphere fish, or bastardisations of them, I think.


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## Scott (Aug 29, 2005)

Luderick and Goodoo are two that spring to mind


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## bombora (Mar 8, 2006)

Ah didn't know luderick was aboriginal Scott. Cool. Yep thought of goodoo (murray cod?) Rod Harrison tried for years to get people to moveaway from cod to its koori name.


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## bombora (Mar 8, 2006)

Found another Sydney name, and this one really makes you wonder just how chock full of big fish the harbour was then. 
Ryde Council website has this, describing the local clan: 
""It is likely that the name Wallumedegal or Wallumattagal was derived from wallumai the snapper fish, combined with matta, a word used to describe a place, usually a water place, as with Parramatta and Cabramatta. That would mean they were the 'snapper clan' and the fish was their totem.
Wallumedegal territory followed the north bank of the Parramatta River from Turrumburra (Lane Cove River) in the east to Burramatta at the head of the river to the west. The northern boundary would logically be the Lane Cove River.''
I know snapper to more than 10 kilos were actually very common in the harbour, so I am guessing there were heaps of snapper all the way up past Ryde. Without nets now the harbour could get very interesting.......


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## grinner (May 15, 2008)

mate bombora i think means waves breaking is that aboriginal or hawaiian good story pete


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## RADISH (Oct 4, 2008)

Can absolutely confirm that the mighty barra is a aboriginal name originating in Queensland and meaning "large scales" or "mighty scales fighter". See that cultural awareness subject at uni has come in handy.

For anyone who has had the privilege of trying to land one of these, the meaning seems self explanatory . For those who haven't, its definitely one of the 100 things to do before dying if you know what I mean.

As far as barracouta and barracuda go, I would not have a clue


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## ryber (Mar 13, 2008)

I have been thinking along similiar lines - I wanted to name my kayak with a local Noongar name - for kayak or perhaps a name of a local fish perhaps bream or mulloway but been having hassles finding the resources online. I have asked a friend with access to a uni library to borrow a dictionary.


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## fishnfreak (Jun 22, 2007)

The aboriginals also refered to Saratoga as barrmundi at one time, but as the settlers took, over the name changed to avoid confusion


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## Shorty (May 11, 2008)

ryber said:


> I have been thinking along similiar lines - I wanted to name my kayak with a local Noongar name - for kayak or perhaps a name of a local fish perhaps bream or mulloway but been having hassles finding the resources online. I have asked a friend with access to a uni library to borrow a dictionary.


I was thinking the same thing,,,,,,,,,i will see what you come up with and get something different,,,,an unusual name could be a conversation piece,,,,,,,,,,Whats the Aboringinal name for Titanic ?


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## RedPhoenix (Jun 13, 2006)

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

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## L3GACY (Sep 2, 2007)

Kaurna represent yo! Thanks for the link Red.


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