Kalaako, also written Kalarko, is the recorded name of an Aboriginal Australian people from Western Australia's Goldfields-Esperance region, whose Country includes the area around Norseman and Salmon Gums and reaches towards Coolgardie. Most of what is written about them comes from the anthropologist Norman Tindale's catalogue of 1974, which tried to map Aboriginal groups as they were at the time of European contact.
Country
Tindale gave the Kalaako an area of about 24,000 square miles, roughly 62,400 square kilometres. In his description their lands ran from Grass Patch and Scaddan in the south to beyond Widgiemooltha in the north, taking in Mount Monger, Golden Ridge and Burbanks. To the east they reached Karkanja, a red ochre deposit about 15 miles west of Fraser Range; to the west, the Bremer Range, the Johnston Lakes, Mount Holland, Barker Lake and Koongornin. Tindale noted a boundary camp about three miles south of Coolgardie.
Neighbours and names
The groups recorded around the Kalaako include the Maduwongga to the north, the Tjeraridjal to the north-east, the Ngadjunmaia, the Njunga to the south, the Wudjari, the Njakinjaki and the Kalamaia. The Wudjari applied the name Malba to them and to other groups immediately to the Wudjari's north; according to Tindale it meant the circumcised and subincised ones.
Language
Their language, known as Galaagu or Kallaargu and also as Malpa, belongs to the Pama-Nyungan family. In 2011 the linguist Claire Bowern classed it as the closest relative of the Nyungar languages. Linguists also list a Kalarko-Mirniny language, linking it with the speech of the Mirning.
On our maps
Our maps label this territory Kalaako/Malpa and draw it in 1600, 1650, 1700, 1715, 1783, 1800 and 1815; the outline is approximate, and the map years are not dates in the people's history. The region today lies in Australia.
From the atlas
Kalaako on our maps
Borders of Time draws Kalaako on 7 of its 54 world maps, from 1600 CE to 1815 CE. Its largest extent is on the 1600 CE map, covering about 63,800 km² (24,600 sq mi), roughly the size of Ireland today.
On that map it borders the Australian aboriginal hunter-gatherers, Kalaamaya, Nyaki-nyaki, Wangkathaa and Wudjari.
On the map before it appears (1530 CE), the same area belongs to the Australian aboriginal hunter-gatherers. On the map after its last appearance (1878 CE), it belongs to Western Australia (UK).
- 1600 CE63,800 km²
- 1650 CE63,800 km²
- 1700 CE63,800 km²
- 1715 CE63,800 km²
- 1783 CE63,800 km²
- 1800 CE63,800 km²
- 1815 CE63,800 km²
Measured from the historical-basemaps snapshots this atlas uses. Borders in those maps are approximate, especially for early periods.
Quick answers
- When did Kalaako exist?
- It appears on the atlas’s maps from 1600 to 1815.
- Where was Kalaako?
- At its largest, on the 1600 map, its land lies in today’s Australia (100%). On that map it borders the Australian aboriginal hunter-gatherers, Kalaamaya, Nyaki-nyaki and Wangkathaa, among others.
- How big was Kalaako?
- Kalaako was largest on the 1600 map, at about 63,800 km² (24,600 sq mi).