G'dat again,

I searched around the Australian National Dictionary (full Oxford English Dictionary on historical principles treatment of Australian words and terms ... now available on-line at http://203.166.81.53/and/index.php)and there is some suggestion that Jumbuck, if not merely a corruption of (~) "jump-up", could be an Aboriginal word from the Kamilaroi language.

Kamilaroi land was further north than Wiradhuri (north of Sydney, not south-west) but the nature of traditional seasonal use of natural resources meant that the different language groups would often cross paths in accessing a shared food source and, I believe this maintained a fairly smooth gradient between adjoining vocabularies.

Unfortunately, the text as reported to Mudcat by Fergie doesn't exactly present a scholarly translation ... let alone analysis. However, it is wonderful that, with the internet, we can now access full images of 19th century regional newspapers, like the 28th July 1855 The Moreton Bay Courier (Queensland)... or even the (earlier) Geelong Advertiser (Victoria) source - along with OCR scans, linked directly to the printed text.

Regards,

Bob