The Languages and Dialects of the Aborigines in New South Wales, Australia 1788

Rushcourt71

"When the British arrived at Sydney Cove, over 200 years ago, there were somewhere between 500, 000 and one million Aborigines in Australia, and more than 250 regional languages- many as distinct from each other as English is from Chinese.

Around what is now Sydney, there were approximately 3, 000 Aborigines using three main languages to communicate, encompassing several dialects and subgroups.

Although there was considerable overlap, Ku-ring-gai was generally spoken on the northern shore, Dharawal along the coast south of Botany Bay; Dharug and its dialects were spoken on the plains at the foot of the Blue Mountains."

(Source: Australia, Lonely Planet Series, 10th Edition, 2000, P 205)