Nyoongar Legacy

The Nyoongar Legacy is the result of decades of research into Nyoongar language by the Rt. Rev. Bernard Rooney OSB, Emeritus Abbot of New Norcia. It is a study of the Indigenous place-names of the south-west of Western Australia, including over 300 Indigenous place names from the region.

Each entry offers an interpretation of the source for a particular place and the possible or probable meanings.

The book includes a comprehensive dictionary of the Nyoongar language focusing on what is now known as the northern dialect.

Divided into two sections, Nyoongar­English and English­Nyoongar, the dictionary is the result of the author’s own grass­roots experience of Nyoongar as a spoken language and offers the fruits of his extensive research into the available written sources.

These sources include published dictionaries as well as unpublished word­lists dating back to the foundation of the colony of Western Australia.