Wuli-Wuli and Wulili (E89) are variant forms of the language name (Kite & Wurm 2004: 4) which is based on the third person plural nominative pronoun wuli (they) (Holmer, 1983:42). This language is described as a dialect of Wakka Wakka E28 in the literature; others in this group include Barunggam D40; Dalla E25; Djagunda E27; Dungibara E87; Duungidjawu E20 and Wakka Wakka E28 (Kite and Wurm, 2004:4). Note that this refers to grammatical relationships between these varieties, and does not imply a dominant language or description of group identity. There is a small word list collected by Allen Hall.
The Wulli Wulli language region includes the landscape within the local government boundaries of the North Burnett Regional Council, particularly the town of Eidsvold and the Auburn River catchment, including the properties of Walloon, Camboon and Hawkwood (State Library Queensland viewed 10/03/2021).
North of Djangunda, ranges east of the Dawson River. Their northern boundary was at Waloon and Camboon and their eastern border was near Eidsvold. Their territory included Hawkwood station and the headwaters of the Auburn River (Kite and Wurm 2004).
Headwaters of Auburn River and Redbank Creek; north to Walloon and Camboon and on the ranges east of Dawson River; eastern boundary near Eidsvold (Tindale 1974).
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Speaker numbers were measured differently across the censuses and various other sources listed in AUSTLANG. You are encouraged to refer to the sources.
Speaker numbers for ‘NILS 2004’ and ‘2005 estimate’ come from 'Table F.3: Numbers of speakers of Australian Indigenous languages (various surveys)' in 'Appendix F NILS endangerment and absolute number results' in McConvell, Marmion and McNicol 2005, pages 198-230 (PDF, 2.5MB).
Holmer, Nils Magnus. j1983. 'Wuli Wuli' in Linguistic survey of south-eastern Queensland: Pacific Linguistics D-54. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
