Austral English / A dictionary of Australasian words, phrases and usages with those aboriginal-Australian and Maori words which have become incorporated in the language, and the commoner scientific words that have had their origin in Australasia - Edward Ellis Morris

1890. A .J. Vogan, `Black Police,' p. 338:

"He struck right on top of them gibbers (stones)."

1894. Baldwin Spencer, in `The Argus,' Sept. 1, p. 4, col. 2:

"At first and for more than a hundred miles [from Oodnadatta northwards], our track led across what is called the gibber country, where the plains are covered with a thin layer of stones—the gibbers—of various sizes, derived from the breaking down of a hard rock which forms the top of endless low, table-topped hills belonging to the desert sandstone formation."

<hw>Gibber-gunyah</hw>, n. an aboriginal cave-dwelling. See Gibber and Gunyah, also Rock-shelter.

1852. `Settlers and Convicts; or, Recollections of Sixteen Years' Labour in the Australian Backwoods,' p. 211:

"I coincided in his opinion that it would be best for us to camp for the night in one of the ghibber-gunyahs. These are the hollows under overhanging rocks."

1863. Rev. R. W. Vanderkiste, `Lost, but not for Ever,' p. 210:

"Our home is the gibber-gunyah,
Where hill joins hill on high,
Where the turrama and berrambo
Like sleeping serpents lie."

1891. R. Etheridge, jun., `Records of the Australian Museum,' vol. i. no. viii. p. 171: