G'day again GuestQ,

The Australian National Dictionary is 1988 - compiled and published by the Oxford English Dictionary team/ in conjunction with their Australian language team. Presumably they had picked up the fallacy of the attribution to the East Coast Aboriginal language in the earlier OED supplement by the normal lexicographic processes of studying the earliest recorded uses of the word in question.

A lot of romantic 'folk etymology' has tried to match words to Aboriginal languages - simply on coincidence of form and sound. With some 600 languages, before European invasion, you can find almost any word you want ... somewhere ... more or less. (And Australian dictionary compilers, in the 19th and early 20th centuries were by no means immune to 'romantic' notions of language. I really liked the attempt to equate the Wiradhuri word Keradgeree [- medicine man, healer] with the classical Greek kheirougos - surgeon!)

Regards,

Bob Bolton