Wagga Wagga, and the evolution of Aboriginal names
| Australian Aborigines / Indigenous / First Nations archive |
Contents
- Crows or dances?
- Historical origins
- Dance not crows
- Conclusions
- References
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1. Crows or dances?
History exists as a record of the past; of events, thoughts, actions and realities. It is constantly being re-discovered, interpreted, re-written, censored or destroyed, ignored or expanded upon. The basic 'facts' of history are subject to the aforementioned manipulation, plus addition of things that never took place, i.e., facts that are not factual. Such actions in dealing with history can be carried out by individuals, groups and organisations, including governments. History ultimately provides us with the truth, or a truth; it also tells lies. It is a source of both revelation and deception, information and misinformation. As an historian the present writer seeks the truth, and what is found is then turned into a personal truth, and a truth which may or may not be passed on to the public for its consideration. The following article is an example of all of the above, and of the process of rediscovery......
Wagga Wagga is the name of a large regional town in south-western New South Wales, Australia. Inhabited for hundreds of thousands of years by the Aboriginal people, the region, or Country (according to the Indigenous definition of the term), suffered invasion by Europeans - primarily the British - after their arrival at Sydney Cove in January 1788. By the early 1800s escaped convicts and settlers had entered the area illegally - according to both British law and Indigenous law - bringing with them cattle, sheep, crops, guns, dogs, disease, and British civilisation and culture, with the latter supplanting all that which came before the invasion. They say that diversity (i.e., the British invasion) without unity (i.e., conquest) brings chaos (i.e., cultural genocide), and they were right in this instance.
Official settlement began in 1832. In this process the British engaged only to a very a minor degree with the Indigenous civilisation, largely acting as though it did not exist. One aspect of that engagement was the application of local Indigenous names to places on the maps then being drawn by wandering surveyors. Use of the word wagga and phrase wagga wagga is an example of that engagement, as Indigenous Country became private title owned by the invaders, with no compensation to the original owners of the land. Yes, the Aborigines did claim ownership of Country, and never ceded those claims.
The word wagga is Indigenous (Aboriginal). Its repetition to form the phrase wagga wagga indicates that it refers to a multiple, or plural. The original meaning of the word wagga and phrase wagga wagga was adopted by the British very early - likely by the 1820s, with settler Henry Baylis said to have been involved in adoption of the word / phrase (Roe 2022). However, over time it became shrouded in controversy as a result of a second meaning being cited by Indigenous people. Of the two meanings, one referred to a bird (crow), whilst the other to an activity (dance).
The present article discusses aspects of the historical meaning and use of the word wagga and phrase wagga wagga, It attempts to identify the origin of both meanings, based on a reading of the earliest historical records and Indigenous knowledge, especially where the latter is available and has, most importantly, recently come to prominence.
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2. Historical origins
Wagga (wogga) is the English spelling of a word in the language of the local Aboriginal people of the area now known as Wagga Wagga. What is its origin of this word? This is not a simple question to answer, because study of, and respect for, the Australian Indigenous languages was never a priority for the early settlers, and has only come to prominence within the new millennium. This can be seen in the fact that whilst in 2025 there are references to hundreds of Indigenous languages in Australia, it was only during the 1990s that the late mathematician and linguist Dr. Chris Illert identified a single Australian proto-language going back thousands of years as an ancient root language, and from which it was suggested all subsequent Australian Indigenous languages, dialects, and variants evolved (Illert 2022). A similar process had occurred over the millenia around the world, of course, as languages evolved and shed roots and branches likes trees. The continent known as Australia suffered a similar fate, though its physical isolation meant that the evolution of languages therein was largely subject to singular development rather than external influences as seen, for example, with Proto-European and the current diverse state of languages on that continent. Illert's research referred to that original, mythical local language as Proto-Australian, based on a collection of 7,000 early colonial period words and phrases from southeastern Australia, which he was able to use as the basis for reconstruction of the proto-language. Amongst the database of words and phrases utilised by Illert were those referring to dances and celebrations, and crows. The following are some of those variants, taken from the the Wiradjuri and Ngunnawal - Gudungarra languages in the vicinity of Wagga Wagga, and from the nearby Illawarra and South Coast languages of New South Wales, located towards the east. The combination and comparison of these variants indicates similarities across those areas of southeastern Australia. For example, the follow are terms referring to dance / celebration / ceremony:
* Dance
- corroboree - modern usage and spelling, southeastern Australia
- corrobary (Wagga Wagga 1865)
- korobra (1880s Illawarra and South Coast)
- krabre (1890s Illawarra and South Coast)
- wagga (Stan Grant, Wiradjuri)
- waga (Susan Green, Wiradjuri)
It can be seen from this short list that revelation of the connection between the word wagga and dance was revealed relatively recently by Dr. Grant and Professor Green, and that the word corroboree was a more common early reference to a specific, related, event involving dance, celebration and ceremony (Roe 2022). The word for crow was slightly more variable:
* Crow
- wagan (Stan Grant, Wiradjuri)
- wagaan (Susan Green, Wiradjuri)
- waang (Ngunnawal - Gudungarra)
- wagoora (1890s Illawarra and South Coast)
- wahga (Frank McCaffrey early 1900s)
- wahra (1890s Illawarra and South Coast)
- wahgon (1890s Illawarra and South Coast)
- wahnun (1890s Illawarra and South Coast)
- waawunna (1890s Illawarra and South Coast)
- warwanan (1890s Illawarra and South Coast)
- metiba (1910s Illawarra and South Coast)
It can be seen from the above that there is the word wahga which is close to the word wagga, and that the majority of other words have the wah root element at the beginning. Many Indigenous words were made up of generic root elements and were not specific as seen in the English language. A deeper analysis of the aforementioned words would reveals some of the aspects of there differences in both word construction, usage, and sound.
The origin of the British adoption of the phrase is presented in the Crows as a symbol of Wagga Wagga Waggapedia page as follows:
Shortly after the first European settled in the Wagga Wagga area in 1832, George Best established the Wagga Wagga 'run' on the south bank of the Murrumbidgee River, allegedly taken from the Wiradjuri name for the waterhole on the property, where crows tended to assemble in large numbers. This lead to crows coming to be seen as the city's primary symbol for years to come.
The earliest reference on TROVE to Wagga Wagga dates from 1846, concerning pasturage licenses published in the New South Wales Government Gazette. They do not provide any definition of the name at that point. In a newspaper article of 27 May 1847 the town is referred to as Warga Warga. The earliest reference to the meaning of the word identified by the present writer and reflecting the Waggapedia quote above comes from the Yass Courier of 16 September 1865. There it is within the context of a discussion around renaming the town Riverton due to some public objection to the use of the phrase wagga wagga:
Wagga Wagga.
From Our Correspondent. September 11.,—
The prospect of a new name for this flourishing township does not seem either sufficiently advantageous or agreeable to cause much exultation. I think it has excited more envy in the inhabitants of neighbouring towns than pleasure in its own populations. Whether the people like the old name for its derivation, its ugliness, or its associations, I cannot say. Probably for the same reason that a fresh-born stock rider, on a visit to Charing-cross [England], would long for his native wilderness. People like the ineuphonious name Wagga Wagga. It is the old, familiar name. They have never known the place by any other, nor do they wish to do so. It is not the Aboriginal name of the locale now known as Wagga Wagga, but belongs to a lagoon a little distance from the town, where "many crows" used to hold carnivorous feasts, when the "corrobary" of the Aborigines was a frequent occurrence in the vicinity of the Murrumbidgee. Without doubt "Riverton" is a more euphonic and suitable name for a town rising weekly in dignity and importance, delightfully situated on the bank of the majestic Murrumbidgee, and ambitious enough to aspire to the future honour of Metropolitan City of Riverina.
This and the Waggapedia article are significant texts with regard to the aim of the present article, for the reason that it reveals the precise physical (geographical) location from which the Aboriginal phrase wagga wagga originated, namely, a nearby lagoon on the south side of town where a large number of crows gathered to partake in carnivorous feast. The text is quite clear in this. Wagga is the word for crow, and wagga wagga is the phrase for many crows. It also points to the possible origin of the secondary aspect of the phrase, through the association with a time when corrobary, or Aboriginal dances and celebrations, were held in the vicinity of the Murrumbidgee. The newspaper items do not say that the location where the crows gathered was also a place of corrobary, but it does imply that such dances and celebrations took place in the vicinity of lagoons detached from the Murrumbidgee river which flows through the area of the present-day town of Wagga Wagga. Two such lagoons, and the river, are seen in blue in the following manuscript map of the area from 1849.
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| Wogga Wogga, manuscript map, 1849. Source: Archives Office of New South Wales. |
The two lagoons named on the map are Parkan pre-gan Lagoon, located east of the town, and Wollundry Lagoon, located to the south. Based on the statement in the Waggapedia article, it appears that the Wollundry Lagoon is the location from which the phrase wagga wagga originates.
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3. Dance not crow
Wagga Wagga has officially adopted the definition of its city name as 'dancing or celebrating.' The Mayor says the once-popular definition of 'crow' will still mean something to the city. A local elder and author of the first Wiradjuri dictionary hopes locals will embrace the updated, festive definition.
Popularly known as "the place of many crows", the city of Wagga Wagga now officially has a different definition to mean "many dances and celebrations". The new meaning was officially adopted in the city's first Reconciliation Action Plan at a Council meeting last night. Local elder and author of the first Wiradjuri dictionary, Uncle Stan Grant, told the meeting that in his mind there had never been any doubt. "I've been fighting this battle since I was about six years old," he said.
"A lot of people thinks it means a place of many crows [but] I'm here to tell you it has nothing to do with crows. Wagga is the word for dance, so if you're saying Wagga Wagga, you're saying dancing or celebrating."
The crow is a regular feature around Wagga Wagga. Uncle Stan Grant says references to Wagga as meaning crow have troubled him since he was a child. It is in the council's logo and has been adopted by local businesses, sporting clubs, and events.
Mayor Greg Conkey said the old meaning would still have a place in the local story. "These black birds are still there so we'll still recognise them as part of the city of Wagga Wagga," he said. "However, as part of this action plan, we'll now have it as a place of many celebrations or a place of many dances." Councillor Conkey said he did not expect there would be much resistance to the shift. "We've been told by the Aboriginal people that's the meaning and they have a different word for crow," he said. "Maybe the early settlers misunderstood the word, so let's correct the record." The crow is a key part of the City of Wagga Wagga logo.
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| Wagga Wagga coat of arms. |
Uncle Stan acknowledged that it might take some time for locals to get used to the definition and to change the many references around town. "I know it's not going to happen overnight; it might take 50 years to get this changed and I respect that, but you've got to start somewhere," he said. "I know it's going to cost a lot of money to change things, I know you've got to change all these signs around the place and I respect that. But please respect us and think about the fact that our word for Wagga Wagga means dancing and celebrating." Uncle Stan added that people should see this change as positive for the entire community, not just for Wiradjuri people. "What would you rather your town be known for — place of many crows, or a place of dancing and celebrations?" he asked. "You'd attract a lot more tourists, I assure you, if it was dancing and celebration."
A later, 2022 article discusses in some detail the reason for the confusion over the two meanings. This is explained by Professor Susan Green, as follows:
It’s on the Wagga City Council’s logo, it’s been adopted as a sporting mascot and adorns the front of many of the city’s long-standing establishments – but the crow has nothing to do with the Indigenous name for our neck of the river. Wiradjuri woman Susan Green is a professor in Indigenous Australian Studies at Charles Sturt University and says this is not news to the local Aboriginal community. “It’s been something that Wiradjuri people have been saying for a couple of generations now. It’s just no one was listening,” she says.
Since colonisation, it was believed among the settler communities that Wagga Wagga meant “place of many crows.”. But in 2019, as the council rolled out the city’s first Reconciliation Action Plan, the decision was made to heed expert advice and revise the official meaning to “many dances and celebrations”. Charles Sturt University professor Susan Green says Australians are beginning to listen to First Nations people. According to Professor Green people like Uncle Stan Grant, who pioneered the Wiradjuri language course at Charles Sturt University, had been correcting people for years. “Even from a young boy of six or seven he was correcting school teachers and other people. His parents and grandparents had also been correcting people,” she explains. “As language is being revived, people are becoming more accepting. They’re more prepared to listen to people about their language and acknowledge that non-Indigenous people sometimes got it wrong.”
So how did so many get it so wrong for so long? “In Wiradjuri, how you pronounce words is extremely different,” she says.
“What’s happened is when people in the early periods, and in this particular case [Wagga founder, Henry] Baylis, was hearing people talk, he was miss-hearing and trying to translate things into English.”
The Wiradjuri word for crow is “Waagan”. The opening vowels are stretched out like the cawing sound the bird makes. Professor Green says what the tribesmen were saying was not “Waagan Waagan” but “Waga Waga” – pronounced with a sharp “g” and short vowel sounds rather than the drawn-out “aa” used to describe a crow. But Baylis misunderstood what was being said, wrote it down and the rest is history. “The single word ‘Waga’ is ‘dance’ and with the ‘Waga Waga’, it means a place of great celebration,” she says. “And we do know that this area had large corroborees up until 150 years ago.”
Professor Green says there was some initial pushback, but people are gaining awareness and adjusting to the change. “We haven’t gone hard and fast. We’ve changed the meaning but it’s just been a gradual thing,” she says. “The Wiradjuri way of doing things is that you do things respectfully. Wherever there’s an opportunity to speak about it, we take it so that we’re educating people along the way, rather than hitting people over the head and forcing them to move on.” She says interest in learning the Wiradjuri language continues to increase with large numbers of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people enrolling in the Charles Sturt University courses. “The fact that we have moved to a place where people want to know and engage, it’s just incredible to be alive at this point of history,” she says.
Whilst at the outset it seemed to the present writer that the phrase wagga wagga referred to a place of many crows, supported by the fact that the word wahga meaning crow had been recorded in the Illawarra and South Coast during the early 1900s by Frank McCaffrey. However this may have been derived from a promotion of the England explanation. The comments by Susan Green are convincing in regards to a miss-hearing of the words spoken to Baylis. As a result, the truth of this aspect of Australian history has, since 2019, been altered.
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4. Conclusion
So what conclusions can we draw from the above information? Well, frankly, two scenarios appear for which there is evidence and historical facts. The first to be addressed here is the British (English) strand and a the following narrative which clearly lays that out.
What we can see from the the previous historical records is that it appears one of the first British settlers in the area - ?Henry Baylis - came to that area of the lagoon on the southern side of what became the town of Wagga Wagga, close to the Murrumbidgee River (refer 1849 map above). Accompanied by some local Aboriginal people as guides, or a single person, they probably asked: "What's is this [place] called?" as they stretched out their arm and pointed to the area before them. Two things then could have happened. First of all, they may have seen a gathering of crows feasting on a dead animal, and when the Aboriginal person responded with a word (wagga) or phrase (wagga wagga), they assumed the guide was referring to the crows, when in fact they may have been referring to the use of the land as in a place where corroboree - dance, celebration and ceremony - were held. Secondly, the European heard the Aboriginal person say a word or words which, to the English ear, sounded like wagga / wogga / wahga. They therefore made the connection between what they were looking at and what they heard. As a result, we have the European tradition of Wagga Wagga meaning a place of crows.
Immediately we can see some problems with this narrative. Firstly, the settler was speaking and hearing English, whilst the Aborigine was speaking and hearing the Indigenous language. Neither would have been expert in the other, or accurately hear or - in the case of the English - write down the spelling of the other. Therefore a miss-hearing, miss-spelling and misunderstanding appears to have taken place. This was common in the recording of aspects of Australian Indigenous languages during the early colonial period. There was no ill-intent involved on the part of the settler in this regard, though errors did occur. On the other hand, the settler may have accurately recorded the word/s spoken by the Indigenous informant due to the closeness in the Indigenous language between the words waga / wagga (dance) and wagan (crow), as described by Grant and Green.
The Aboriginal perspective is clearly presented in the account by Professor Susan Green. Therein the word for dance is expressed by the informant, but the meaning misrepresented. They likely responded to the question, saying (to use the English): "Well, this parcel of land here is used for corroborees, as a place where we come to dance, celebrate and have ceremonies."
So immediately we have an instance of miscommunication and misinterpretation between the settler and the Aboriginal person or people. Both have done the correct thing in their view, and both would have walked away satisfied with what was said and heard. Both of those strains would then have come down through history, one within the non-Indigenous community, and the other within the Indigenous community. One defines Wagga Wagga as a place of crows, the other as a place of dance and celebration. One is about a bird, whilst the other is about the use of the land. The reason for this is that we have two very different and complex civilizations, and two very different languages. The fact was the Europeans had great difficulty understanding and picking up and learning Indigenous languages when they first arrived in Australia, whereas the Aborigines had less trouble picking up and using English. So we have these two meanings for Wagga Wagga that have come down to us in history. It has only been in recent years that the long-held understanding of Indigenous people that Wagga Wagga was not a reference to crows, but rather to dance and celebration, has come to the fore.
We can see here, as was referred to at the beginning of this article, that history is fluid. There are a lot of influences that come into play in order to create a story, a narrative, which is factual, because there are lots of facts in both of these scenarios, and obvious misinterpretation of those facts. The present writer believes that, at the end of the day, the Indigenous perspective must take precedent, for a number of reasons. Firstly, the issue is related to the Indigenous language and knowledge of Country held by the local community. It is the original source. The likely, though honest, misinterpretation by Baylis, or whoever back in the 1820s or 30s first recorded in English the word/s and meaning of Wagga Wagga, can be seen as a genuine attempt to write down the local reference, understand what it meant, and then proceed to promote its use as the name of the town. The rest is history.......
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5. References
Crows as a symbol of Wagga Wagga, Waggapedia, accessed 8 April 2025.
Grant, Stan and John Rudder, A new Wiradjuri Dictionary, Restoration House, O'Connor, 2010, 579p.
Illert, Chris, The Proto-Australian Aboriginal language, blogger.com, 20 December 2022.
Pezet, Lauren, Wagga Wagga officially drops 'crow' and adopts city's Aboriginal meaning as 'dance and celebration', ABC News, 27 August 2019.
Roe, Chris, 'Crows' or 'Dancing', Are you still wondering what Wagga meats?, Region Riverina, 12 June 2022.
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| Australian Aborigines / Indigenous / First Nations archive |
Last updated: 9 April 2025
Michael Organ, Australia
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