The Sydney Language and the Missing Notebooks of William Dawes

The notebooks of William Dawes, astronomer of the First Fleet, disappeared from public view for nearly 200 years before being uncovered in 1972. These weren’t just any old diaries, but instead contained an extensive account of the indigenous language of Sydney. This episode is about how these notebooks came to be written and then forgotten, and what we can learn from reading the conversations that Dawes recorded in them. Along the way, we too will learn a little about the local Aboriginal language of Sydney!