A Day in the Life of a Linguist (Remote Australia, Kununurra, WA)

Hi! I live and work in the small town of Kununurra in the far north of Western Australia in a region called the Kimberley. From my home city of Brisbane it's a 4hr flight to Darwin and then a 1hr flight to Kununurra. I work as a linguist helping to save the endangered Miriwoong language.

As you can see the town is pretty small. The nearest town is Wyndham (1hr away) and the nearest Mcdonalds is something like 500km away. The name Kununurra comes from the indigenous word "Gananoorrang" meaning big river. The population is about 4,000 people but this can swell up to 10,000 in the dry season and dwindle down to ~1,000 over NY and Xmas.

Kununurra is the 4th hottest town in Australia, so you KNOW it's hot! The roads melt, if you leave anything outside, it'll be too hot to touch within minutes. Fry an egg on the road, yadda yadda. I work during the Wet Season or "nyinggiyi-mageny" when we get monsoonal rains and ridiculous humidity. It's an amazing time of the year up here because huge beautiful storms crash over the town.

Everywhere has AC, its the only way to not sleep in a pool of sweat. Each morning I'm greeted by these windows which are always condensating.

I start work at 8am, but I'm at the office by 7 most days just so I can beat the heat (I cycle to work).This big rock in front me is called Kelly's Knob (yeh, yeh laugh it out), or "Thegoowiyeng" in Miriwoong. I see it everyday from my house and on the way to work. You can climb it too!

Work, sweet, work. This place is amazing. My job here as a linguist is to help "modernize" the Miriwoong language. In other words, consult with elders and language owners on possible new words to describe modern day objects. That way, it can be taught more effectively to kids and hopefully, kept alive! It's very interesting and it presents some really interesting challenges that I honestly never thought I'd experience in a workplace, (for example, through this job I have been "adopted" into a new family whereby my daughter is an 80 yr old woman and she calls me Dad.) but I love it and every day is a new experience.

The view from my office. That freaky looking tree is called a "Boab" or "Gerdewoon" in Miriwoong. It's incredibly useful - the seeds are edible, the pith is edible and the young roots are also edible and taste like a combination between an onion and a carrot.

Kinda unrelated, but we get deliveries of bread and food all the time so it's nice rocking up to work and finding donuts on my desk. I wonder the Miriwoong word for donut could be???

Another part of my role is to supervise the production of a local radio program broadcast in the Miriwoong language. Each week we write up, record and produce a short segment on a particular topic. It's one of the highlights of some of the workers weeks and it's a great opportunity for them to learn about audio-editing and radio broadcasting! WIN WIN!

Although I speak the language well enough to consult with elders, I'll admit, every now and then there's parts of this language which surprise me. (There's a seperate word for masturbate, this just appears to be an unrelated word with a similar, VERY specific meaning). Indigenous Australian language are SUPER interesting in terms of their descriptive qualities. The Miriwoong language can describe the natural world around it with scientific precision.

Because of the unique work schedule (some workers are part-time, casual, "when they feel like coming in") we spend a lot of time driving, picking up language workers, elders, guests etc. This is great because it can mean I get to see a lot of the town and take some nice photos. This is Kelly's Knob from another angle.

More driving... That's my "daughter" (left) Maggie as we take her back to her back to her community. She lives in a funny little place called Gulgagulganeng (Emu Creek) and we have a laugh everytime we have to pronounce that name. Maggie is one of the last fluent speakers of Miriwoong.

Gulgagulganeng. It's a rough place, but Maggie is surrounded by family and she gets to go "derdbany maye-geny" (look around for food) AKA 'shopping' every couple of days. I love her honestly she is so sharp and witty.

The view as a cycle back from work. Kelly's Knob from the side. By this stage, thumping bassy music envelops the town as most nights theres some kind of party going on. During the Wet Season, there's not a huge amount to do around town: most businesses are shut, a lot of roads are unsafe and storms sometimes cut the power off, but on Tuesday nights there's Trivia at the pub, Wednsday nights there's Karaoke and Friday there's a DJ so I'm happy :)

This is the road to the town of Wyndham, 100km away. It's a long, flat, rolling road and it's one of the prettiest drives. Dotted along the way are lots of springs and waterholes (billabongs or 'baliboong' in Miriwoong).

This is one of the springs on the side of the road. This one's called Molly Springs and the water is beautiful and refreshing. Not only that, but there's plenty of bush soap or "nyoomiling" which is a dried seed pod which, when rubbed in the water, suds up like dishsoap! It's also a great exfoliant.

My friend on top of some rocks in her backyard. Just thought the sunset made her look very majestic haha. The earth here is so red because of the iron in the soil. Also, the sunset makes it really stand out.

Coming up to Thompson Spring, you can see the size of the saddle!

The is a waterhole called Thompson Springs. Looming above is this massive red saddle and at the base is this awesome swimming hole. With my walking group, we climbed up the top (from the other side) and the views are amazing.

This is the old road out of Kununurra. As you can see, pretty dusty and flood-prone. Back in the day, kununurra used to get cut off from main roads in the Wet Season for weeks at a time (a lot of communities are still like that.) The scenery this time of year is beautiful though.

Shameless selfie showing off the beautiful landscape of Lake Argyle behind me. It's the best place to chill for an afternoon - there's an infinity pool, bar, food. Plus, you can go down to the lake and stand-up-paddle-board, or do a sunset cruise, or whatever!

Lake Argyle, WA. A ridiculously large body of water, just plonked in the middle of a relatively dry area. Apparently contains 20something times the amount of water that Sydney Harbour. This lake is seriously big! Every couple of weekends I come here to do the Sunset Tour, or kayak or just chill by the resort. I'm just always amazed at the air quality around here.

This is the sunset view from the resort over some of Lake Argyle (the water you can see would be ~1% of the total surface area. Perfect spot on the weekends to have a beer and watch the sunset

One of the falls around Lake Argyle called Homestead Falls. Just after a big rain, the wall behind wouldn't be visible and it would definitely NOT be safe to stand where I am currently taking the photo.

I hope you enjoyed hearing about my little life, buzzing around the most beautiful area of Australia. If you have any questions about more Miriwoong words, or funny stories, i have tons! (Some kind of weird bug-eyed marsupial tax.)