Mistakes, Typos and Archaisms
In Flynn of the Inland I came across three interesting words in two pages - pages 190 and 191 (in the earlier editions at least) of Chapter XIX - to be exact. These words were Pilbarra, De Gray and Noongan (as in Noongan River). Why these words were interesting is that Pilbarra, with two "r's" has been superseded by Pilbara with one "r" and De Gray should be De Grey and Noongan should be Coongan.
First, Pilbarra. Although Pilbarra seems to have been the earlier and more widespread spelling, it has now become outmoded as the preferred spelling and been largely replaced by Pilbara - though Pilbarra still crops up in a number of contexts, from tourism to business names. There is still a road in Perth called Pilbarra St (and another, just to be even-handed, called Pilbara St). It is aboriginal in origin - either meaning "dry" - or…
And a couple more, also from Flynn of the Inland. These places are on on the end paper maps as well as in the text. They are Marranboy and Tennant's Creek in the NT as Idriess has them. But Marranboy from early on was usually spelt Maranboy, as it is today (although surveyor's originally had the creek as Marranboy Creek). And Tennant's Creek seems to have been officially gazetted as Tennant Creek, which is the current name of the town. I have a 1934 NT map, printed just after the date of Flynn of the Inland, which has the modern-day spellings Maranboy and Tennant Creek. As an aside, it is quirky that Idriess introduces Taffy, an outback character, at Coober Pedy, SA, (p.215, Chapter 22), but then has this same Taffy and his story at Maranboy, NT, (p.222, end of Chapter 22).