Words & TermsWork, bush and rural life
gilgai
A clay-soil hollow or mound formed by cycles of wetting and drying.
In a sentence
Rainwater pooled in the gilgais across the black-soil plain.
Where it came from
Gilgai is borrowed from an Aboriginal language of inland eastern Australia, but source-language attributions vary. It names the natural mound-and-hollow pattern formed in swelling clay soils.
- Initial era
- 1850–1899
- Where used
- Australian use; no narrower regional pattern established
- Use today
- Current specialist/regional