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

by Edward Ellis Morris

"We get a fair share of exercise without a twenty-mile hump on
Sundays."

<hw>Humpy</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) a native hut. The aboriginal word is Oompi; the initial h is a Cockney addition, and the word has been given an English look, the appearance of the huts suggesting the English word <i>hump</i>. [The forms <i>himbing</i> and <i>yamba</i> occur along the East coast of Australia. Probably it is kindred with <i>koombar</i>, bark, in Kabi dialect, Mary River, Queensland.] The old convict settlement in Moreton Bay, now broken up, was called Humpy Bong (see <i>Bung</i>), sc. <i>Oompi Bong</i>, a dead or deserted settlement. The aboriginal names for hut may be thus tabulated

Gunyah )
. . . New South Wales.
Goondie )

Humpy (Oompi) . . . Queensland.

Mia-mia . . . Victoria and Western Australia.

Wurley (Oorla) . . . South Australia.

Whare . . . New Zealand.

1846. C. P. Hodgson, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 228:

"A `gunyia' or `umpee.'"

1873. J. Brunton Stephens, `Black Gin,' p. 16: