Proper noun

1. An indigenous territory in New South Wales, Australia.
2. The Aboriginal people of that territory.
3. The extinct language of those people.

Quotations

• 1898: R. H. Mathews, Initiation in Australian Tribes, in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society Held at Philadelphia for Promoting Useful Knowledge, Vol. 37

  No. 4 represents the country occupied by the tribes speaking the Darkinung, Wannerawa, Warrimee, Wannungine, Dharrook and some other dialects.

• 1903: R. H. Mathews, Languages of the Kamilaroi and other Aboriginal tribes of New South Wales, in The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 33

  The Darkiñung speaking people adjoined the Kamilaroi on the south-east and occupied a considerable range of country in the counties of Hunter, Northumberland and Cook, extending from Wilberforce and Wiseman’s Ferry on the Hawkesbury river, to Jerry’s Plains and Singleton on the Hunter, and including the basins of the Colo and Macdonald rivers, Wollombi Brook and other streams.

• 1995: Tony Swain, Garry Trompf, The Religions of Oceania

  Another incident, this time from the country of the Darkinung people (near Newcastle, New South Wales) illustrates our point.

• 1996: Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas

  Aboriginal languages spoken in the settled areas of the Cumberland Plain, which lies to the east of the Blue Mountains in the immediate vicinity of Syndey, included speakers of Dharuk, Iyora, Guringgai, Dharawal, Gundungura, Darkinyung and Awabakal.

• 1999: The Archaeology of Rock Art

  Four languages are recognised as being spoken across the study area at contact: Darginyung, Guringai, Dharuk and Dharawal.

• 2002: R. M. W. Dixon, Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development

  Old materials on O1, Dharuk, give 1du as ŋala or ŋalu and there is no explanation for the final vowel (note, though, that ŋali is found in the closely related language O2, Darkinjung).