Do you know the meaning of Ululah?

This photograph was created from a glass negative lent to the Maryborough Wide Bay & Burnett Historical Society by Bob Bauer, Maryborough Source: Fraser Coast Libraries Image Gallery

Ululah Lagoon located in Anzac Park Maryborough has stumped some people regarding the origin of its name. A letter received by Council in July, 1977 claims there are two possibilities.
The first is it comes from the poem The Last of His Tribe - a lament for a dying Aborigine, taught to pupils at Maryborough's Central State Primary School in the 1800s when Mr Hercules Smith was head teacher. Contained in the last verse of the  poem was the line
Ululah! behold him, the thunder breaks. 

The second suggestion was that the word Ulooloo is said to mean permanent water in the book Sugden, Joan H & Hodkinson, Frank, 1919-2001, (illustrator.) (1950). Aboriginal words and their meanings. Dymock's Book Arcade, Sydney. The Language group or origin is not listed. A copy can be found in the State Library of Queensland collections GSD 499.6 1954.

An article in the Courier Mail found in Trove was looking for the meaning in 1946. It stated 

"The Courier-Mail's appeal for help on behalf of the Queensland University Place Names Committee, which was stumped over the meaning of the Aboriginal words 'Ula Ula,' brought a swift response. The words mean water-lilies. The secretary of the committee (Mr. Sydney May) said yesterday that a woman solved the problem. She did not want her name mentioned, but he was satisfied the answer was correct. A Maryborough resident, in a letter to The Courier-Mail yesterday, also stated that the name meant water-lilies. Anzac Park, in Maryborough,formerly was named Ululah Park — a corruption of Ula Ula. The park contained a lagoon covered with water-lilies."

State Library of Queensland Indigenous Languages Coordinator Des Crump has suggested some other origins:

Ula Ula on the DNRM Placenames search provides following information:

The name of the parish is derived from an early pastoral run in the district. It can be seen on the western extremity of an 1883 Darling Downs Run Map. It is not known whether the creek or the run was named first. Ula is probably of Aboriginal origin. A.W. Reed identifies 'ulah' meaning a ripple on the water, in use in NSW rather than the local area. [Surveyor-General's Office Brisbane, Darling Downs Run Map; A.W. Reed; ANPS files.]

Trove/NLA indicates the placename was in use n South Australia and refers to “a continuous and permanent stream”; SA Placenames – “The name was applied to a creek 10 km north of Hallett by Captain E.C. Frome, Surveyor-General, in 1843. Aboriginal for 'permanent stream' or 'meandering creek'".

while another Trove source indicates there is a Gaelic origin derived from Uladh [pronounced Ulla] meaning a Cairn or Tomb.

There is a Ngadjuri language in South Australia which includes the placename on their website also with the meaning of ‘permanent and continuous stream’.

"So, the word as a placename was in use in South Australia in the 1840’s and South-West Queensland by 1880’s and most likely adopted for use on the Fraser Coast. This happened quite often particularly by surveyors or settlers moving from one part of Australia to another; for example, there are several Wiradjuri (NSW) placenames in the Cairns district as the surveyor who surveyed Cairns recently completed the survey of Dubbo in Central-West NSW" (Crump, D, 2019)

Do you know any more about the meaning of this place name? Do you agree with any of these suggestions?

References:

The Courier Mail, 8th February, 1946 'ULA ULA' no Poser retrieved from Trove on the 6th August, 2019.

Local History File Ululuh Lagoon LHVF ULUL Maryborough Library

Crump, D (2019) Indigenous Languages Coordinator, kuril dhagun, State Library of Queensland.

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