Breen (1971) says the name Mamwura (L20), given by Beckett, is probably a mishearing of Mambangura (L20) and that Sullivan and Eglington's word list 'Coopers Creek, near the Booloo River' in Curr (1886-87) may be of this language. Note that Oates (1975:175) treats Jarumarra L56 and Ngandangara L30 as alternative names of Mamwura (L20), while Tindale (1974) says that, according to Breen Mambanjura (L20) is the language of the Thereila L19 group. Breen (1971:18) says that Palpakunu L64 is a Jandruwanda L18 term for the 'Wilson River group of dialects, i.e. Mambangura, modern Wangkumara L25 and Kungatutji L16, Punthamara and others now extinct'. Breen (1967:2) also states that the languages (though he goes on to refer to them as tribes) spoken along the Wilson River are identical: Bundhamara L26, Gungadudji L16, Wanggumara L25 and Ngandangara L30.
Thereila: only South from Nockatunga and Noccundra to Grey Range; on Dingera Creek; west to Bransby and lower Warrywarry Creek (Tindale 1974). Only the southern part of the Thereila area given by Tindale (1974) is assigned to Mambangura in this database.
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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).
