Reverend Dr John Fraser was an Australian ethnologist, linguist, school headmaster and author of many scholarly works. He is known for his revised and expanded version of Lancelot Threlkeld's 1834 work, An Australian Grammar, with the new title An Australian language as spoken by the Awabakal, the people of Awaba or Lake Macquarie being an account of their language, traditions and customs / by L.E. Threlkeld; re-arranged, condensed and edited with an appendix by John Fraser. In this, Fraser created new divisions and terminology for some Aboriginal groups in New South Wales.
The work which won him most recognition was his much expanded and authoritative edition of L.E. Threlkeld's grammar of the Awabakal language, An Australian Grammar. Fraser's revised edition, containing much original material based on his own research, was published in 1892 as An Australian language as spoken by the Awabakal, the people of Awaba or Lake Macquarie being an account of their language, traditions and customs / by L.E. Threlkeld; re-arranged, condensed and edited with an appendix by John Fraser. In the preface, Fraser writes: "...but we have now come to know that this dialect was essentially the same as that spoken by the sub-tribes occupying the land where Sydney now stands, and that they all formed part of one great tribe, the Kuriggai". The book included a "Map of New South Wales as occupied by the native tribes", accompanied by descriptions and names decided upon by Fraser after "ten years' thought and inquiry on the location of our native tribes". In the text accompanying his map, Fraser writes: His major work was not without its later critics. Historian Niel Gunson wrote in 1974 that the work was "hampered by his peculiar theories of racial and linguistic origin". Anthropologist and ethnologist Norman Tindale wrote that there was such a He goes on to list the Bangarang ; Booandik ; Barkunjee , Kurnai, Thurrawal , Wiradjuri and Malegoondeet as some of these names, and mentions R.H. Mathews, A.W. Howitt and John Mathew as promulgators of the "nations" concept. Tindale later refers to Kuringgai as an "arbitrary term...applied by Fraser", the Awabakal being the central tribe of the several to which Fraser applied the group term.
Frontispiece: Map of New South Wales as occupied by the native tribes
The illustrations
Introduction
Part 1.
*An Australian grammar : comprehending the principles and natural rules of the language, as spoken by the aborigines, in the vicinity of Hunter's River, Lake Macquarie, &c. New South Wales / L.E. Threlkeld
*A key to the structure of the aboriginal language : being an analysis of the particles used as affixes, to form the various modifications of the verbs ; shewing the essential powers, abstract roots, and other peculiarities of the language spoken by the aborigines in the vicinity of Hunter River, lake Macquarie, etc., New South wales / L.E. Threlkeld
Part 2. The gospel by St. Luke translated into the language of the Awabakal / L.E. Threlkeld
Part 3. An Awabakal-English lexicon to the gospel according to Saint Luke / L.E. Threlkeld
Part 4.
*Appendix A. A short grammar and vocabulary of the dialect spoken by the Minyung people of the north-east coast of New South Wales / H. Livingstone
*B. Grammar of the language spoken by the Narrinyeri tribe in S. Australia / G. Taplin
*C. Grammar of the language spoken by the aborigines of Western Australia
*D. Grammar and vocabulary of the aboriginal dialect called the Wirradhuri
