Whadjuk, also called
Wadjuk,
Whajook,
Wajuk and
Wadjug, is the name of the
Noongar dialectical group inhabiting the
Western Australian region of the
Perth bioregion of the
Swan Coastal Plain, and extending below Walyunga into the surrounding
Jarrah Forests according to
Norman Tindale. The etymology is unknown but it has been suggested that it may come from Wirtj, meaning "those who went before" (i.e. ancestral ones), and implied that Tindale's informants considered all Whadjuk people were dead. The boundaries of this region are the watershed division north of
Yanchep between the
Swan-
Avon and the
Moore Rivers, in the north, the
Walyunga-
Gidgegannup (from Gidgie = spear, gan- = make, -up = place) region to the north east, the
Canning River catchment to the south east, to the coast at
Port Kennedy. The boundaries as outlined by Tindale are still disputed by elders in the community today. Within this region is
Cottesloe,
Karrakatta,
Bassendean sand dune systems and intervening
wetlands, extending out to the fertile loams of the
Guildford area, and the
Darling Scarp to the edge of the Wandoo region, inhabited by the
Balardong people to the east. To the north, according to
Tindale is the land of the Juat,
Yued or Yuat, and to the south, the
Pindjarup or Pinjareb peoples.
