Item 02: Kamilaroi, and other Australian Languages, by Rev. William Ridley, 2nd ed. (Sydney, 1875) - Page 129

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THE NAMES OF AUSTRALIA AND ITS INHABITANTS.

THE Aborigines of Australia are called, by Kamilaroi-speaking blacks and neighbouring tribes, "Murri"; westward of the Balonne they are called “Murdin," and about the Weir River, “Mial" (Mee-al); along the coast about Moreton Bay the name of the race is “Djān" or "Dān." As they have no knowledge of the extent of the country they inhabit, the names given to the land can only be regarded as the names of small districts. At Cape York, Australia as known to the inhabitants of that coast is called " Kai Dowdai" (which I suppose to mean "Little Country"), in contradistinction to "Muggi Dowdai" ("Great Country''), that is, New Guinea. Mr. M‘Gillivray, in his narrative of the Expedition of the “Rattlesnake," gives the above as the names used by the Aborigines for Australia and New Guinea. He renders “Kai Dowdai” Great Dowdai, and “Muggi Dowdai" Little Dowdai. But “Kai" means little in Kamilaroi ; and muggi looks like a modification of "murri," great. To those who live near Cape York, and pass to and fro across the Strait, without any means of knowing the real extent of Australia or New Guinea, the low narrow point of land which terminates in Cape York must appear very small, compared with the great mountain ranges of New Guinea. Regarding "dowdai” as a variation of "towrai," a country, I think it probable that " Little Country" was the name given by the Aborigines to Australia. It may