Item 02: Kamilaroi, and other Australian Languages, by Rev. William Ridley, 2nd ed. (Sydney, 1875) - Page 11

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PREFATORY NOTE.

The information present in the following pages, on the Kamilaroi, Dippil, and Turrubul languages, was chiefly obtained by the author during three years' missionary effort among the Aborigines of Australia, including journeys over Liverpool Plains, the Barwan or Darling, and its tributaries, the Namoi, the Bundarra, the Macintyre, and the Mooni; also, along the Balonne or Condamine, across Darling Downs, by the Brisbane River, and in a circuit about Moreton Bay. In the year 1871 the author again visited the Namoi and the Barwan, for a few weeks, at the request of the Government, in order to obtain further information on the language and traditions of the Aborigines. The shortness of the time spent in the research will account for the fragmentary character of this contribution to the Philology of Australia. In seeking knowledge of the languages, with a view to the communication of instruction to the Aborigines, the author gladly accepted the aid of colonists who, during many years' residence among that people, had learned to converse with them in their own tongue. He was especially indebted for instruction in the Kamilaroi to the Rev. Charles C. Greenway, now of Bundarra, who had lived in his youth at Collemungool (a Kamilaroi name, meaning, Broadwater), on the Barwan; to James Davies, blacksmith, Brisbane, who lived thirteen years with the blacks near Wide Bay, Queensland, for instruction in Dippil; and