A number of research problems have hindered the study of Australian aboriginal languages which are spoken by a steadily decreasing and vanishing population. Such research has been plagued by misunderstanding and poor communication between linguists and the remaining informants. Much of the previous research, because of funding policies, has been conducted by trainee linguists. While work in phonology and morphology has been adequate, work in syntax has been scanty. Although syntactic research may improve in future studies, there is the danger of producing a grammar based on a model fashionable at the moment, rather than a grammar which presents basic data and which could later be adapted to a particular model. Research in the aboriginal languages is worthwile for the study of language and culture in general and also for discoveries in dialect studies in language typology, classification, and development. (VM)