mia-mia

A word attributed to Wuywurung is the Australian slang term yabber 'talk,' which is probably from Wuywurung yaba 'speak'; another possibility is mia-mia, a synonym for gunyah 'a temporary shelter of the Aborigines, usu. a simple frame of branches covered with bark, leaves, or grass,' about which you can read in exhaustive detail here:In the Australian National Dictionary 1988 we are told that it comes from Wathawurung and Wuywurung.

languagehat.com: JINDYWOROBAK. 2005

How the secretary of the least flourishing turf club in Victoria nowadays would stare if he could see the humble shed where the riders weighed out, and the still more humble judge's box made of boughs, a bad imitation of a blackfellow's mia-mia.

The Moving Finger A Trotting Christmas Eve at Warwingie Lost! The Loss of the "Vanity" Dick Stanesby's Hutkeeper The Yanyilla Steeplechase A Digger's Christmas Mary Gaunt

On again next morning to another of the native camps; but, finding it empty, the wanderers took possession of the best mia-mia, and Wills and

The Red True Story Book Andrew Lang 1900

In his absence Burke, while frying some fish that the natives had given him, had set fire to the mia-mia (a shelter made by the blacks of bushes and trees).

The Red True Story Book Andrew Lang 1900

But as he drew near the mia-mia where he and poor Burke had left Wills a few days before, and saw his lonely figure in the distance lying much as they had left him, a sudden fear came upon him.

The Red True Story Book Andrew Lang 1900

Here they found King sitting alone in the mia-mia the natives had made for him, wasted and worn to a shadow, almost imbecile from the terrible hardships he had suffered.

The Red True Story Book Andrew Lang 1900

Wills had at last suddenly collapsed, and could only lie in the mia-mia, and philosophically contemplate the situation.

The Red True Story Book Andrew Lang 1900

King had already buried the rest of the field-books near the mia-mia.

The Red True Story Book Andrew Lang 1900

But the devil-devil came and sat down by King Jimmie's side one night, so he, too, moved out across the Old Man border, and the mia-mia rotted into the ground and the grass grew there.

Over the Sliprails Henry Lawson 1894

Jimmie moved promptly after each death, and left the evil one in possession, and built another mia-mia -- each one being less pretentious than the last.

Over the Sliprails Henry Lawson 1894