Guugu Yimithirr tribe

Location of the Guugu Yimithirr people

The Guugu Yimithirr are an Australian Aboriginal tribe of Far North Queensland, many of whom today live at Hopevale, which is the administrative centre of Hopevale Shire. At the 2011 census, Hopevale had a population of 1,005 people. It is about 46 km from Cooktown by road. It is also the name of their language. They were a both a coastal and inland people, the former clans referring to themselves as a "saltwater people."

Guugu Yimidhirr, meaning 'language/speaking (guugu) 'this way' (yimi-thirr), was one of the earliest Australian languages to be recorded, since Sydney Parkinson took down a list of 200 words during Captain Cook's stop-over in the area in 1770. The major dialects are dhalun-dhirr, spoken on the coastal areas, and waguurr-ga, the inland vernacular. It is still spoken by approximately 200 people, and was listed by Peter Austin as one of the languages at immediate risk of extinction.

Guugu Yimithirr had several dialects: dhalan-dhirr ('with the sea'); wagurrr-ga ('of the outside'); guugu nyiiguudyi; guugu nyalaadyi; guugu yinaa and guugu diirrurru. Because they intermarried widely with tribes speaking other tongues, it was not unusual for Guugu Yimithirr people to be familiar with several languages.

The traditional territory of the Guugu Yimithirr speakers extended from the Endeavour River outlet inland, ranged as far north as the mouth of the Starcke river, westwards to the source of the Jack River and south to Battle Camp, north-west of Cooktown. Dialects of the same language were spoken north of Cape Bedford and the McIvor River, and inland as far as the source of the Jack River. Captain Cook left a few pigs on the land, and they bred quickly, to become a major local source of food.

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