The Noongar Place-Name Map

Gnarla Boodja Mili Mili (Our Country on Paper) is an interactive map of some of the original Noongar place-names for locations in what is now the Australian city of Perth. Perth itself is known as Boorlo or Burrell in the Noongar language. The map features the Noongar place-names for Noongar camping and hunting grounds, natural landmarks and sacred places.

The Noongar are the indigenous people of the south-west corner of Western Australia. The Noongar place-names used on Gnarla Boodja Mili Mili are displayed on top of a vintage map of Perth. This 1838 map by Alfred Hillman shows what was, at the time, the proposed layout for the city of Perth. This map includes many of the lakes and swamps that existed before they were drained for the city's construction.

If you click on a Noongar place-name on the map an information window opens with vintage photos of the location, a description of the landscape (before development) and a translation or explanation of the Noongar name for the area.

If you are interested in Aboriginal place-names then you might also like the Weemala map. This interactive map uses data from historical surveys undertaken by the Royal Anthropological Society of Australasia. This 100 year-old survey data includes information on Aboriginal place-names their locations and their meaning.

The Weemala map allows you to browse the surveys and letters of the Anthropological Society of Australasia Survey. Each time you open a survey page or letter in Weemala any indigenous place-names in the text are also geo-located on a Leaflet map. If you click on any of the locations marked on the map you can find out the aboriginal place-name's meaning in English.