Item 02: Kamilaroi, and other Australian Languages, by Rev. William Ridley, 2nd ed. (Sydney, 1875) - Page 130

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THE NAMES OF AUSTRALIA AND ITS INHABITANTS

be that those of the race of Murri who first came into this land, passing from island to island, until they reached the low narrow point which forms the north-eastern extremity of this island continent, gave the name Kai Towrai (Little Country) to the newly-discovered land; and as they passed onward to the south and west, and found out some-what of the vast extent of the country, the necessities and jealousies of the numerous families that followed them forbade their return. The current of migration was ever onward towards the south and West; and, therefore, the north-eastern corner of Australia was always the dwelling-place of a people ignorant of the vast expanse beyond them, and willing to call it still "Kai Dowdai," the Little Country.

This is, of course, only a conjecture. And from the wide difference between the various languages it is not safe to assume that kai and towrai have the same meaning at Cape York as in Kamilaroi. But, as shown in a former part of the work, Kamilaroi is known, in some measure, far to the north of Brisbane. On the other hand, the Aborigines in various parts of the continent point to the north-west as the quarter from which their tribes came. And some travellers' tales have made public a tradition about the first landing of man on the north-west coast of Australia, from Java.