Meaning of wurley | Babel Free

Definitions

1. An Australian indigenous shelter made from small branches with the leaves still attached.
   Australia, South
2. A settlement made up of such shelters.
   Australia, South, broadly

Examples

“I took a walk⟳ amongst them [the First Nations of the Adelaide Plains] who were in their wurlies, saw⟳ a collection of naked boys and girls, men and women, either entirely or half so. They are quite innocent in this respect⟳ and the women think⟳ nothing of (stalking) bolt upright in perfect nudity.”

“They were good wurleys at the beginning of the winter, but towards the latter end⟳ of the winter they got turned out of them by the fleas—which they frequently do. They have⟳ been turned out of the last⟳ wurley some time in August; and I gave them a lot of reeds and tried to persuade⟳ them to build⟳ some more wurleys. They said they did not require⟳ them as they were going to corroboree, and they did not like⟳ building new wurleys—they must have⟳ a make-shift wurley.”

“Poor [William John] Wills's remains we found lying in the wurly in which he died, and where [John] King, after his return⟳ from seeking the natives, had buried him with sand and rushes.”

“A woman is supposed to signify her consent to the marriage by carrying fire to her husband's wurley [footnote: This word wurley is from the language of the Adelaide tribe. The Narrinyeri word is mante. I have⟳ used "wurley" because it is more generally understood by the colonists.] and making his fire for him. An unwilling wife will say⟳, when she wishes to signify that she was forced into marriage with her husband, "I never made any fire in his wurley for him." In case of a man having two wives, the elder is always regarded as the mistress of the hut or wurley.”

“And so those boys with stealthy pace / Returned the saddles to their place⟳; / Then to their wurly quickly hied, / No doubt⟳ delighted with their ride⟳.”

“After hunting through the forest into the afternoon I came to the wurley that had inside it a coolamon and a possum-skin cape, a club, a hatchet with a metal head, and a knife with a horn handle⟳.”

“Before night fell, they made themselves a shelter⟳ like⟳ a wurly by collecting large Wollemi pine fronds from the forest floor, leaning them against each other to make⟳ a peaked hut and joining them together with vines. It would offer⟳ some protection while they slept.”

“But latterly they came in good numbers, and commenced a nightly system of annoyance by dancing their corroberies:[…]. Finding remonstrance of no avail, one evening, when they were all seated quietly at the wurlie [footnote: Encampment.], I fired a charge of small shot into the midst of them, and retired to the hut: in the morning they had all disappeared.”

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