Parrigo

Parrigo is Jarraban’s second-smallest province by population and occupies much of its central and northern coastal areas. Its name derives from the saltbush species known as “parraga” found throughout its marshlands, which was corrupted to Parygawr with the arrival of Welsh settlers. However, the anglicised pronunication of Parrigo is far more commonly used and was formally adopted as the province’s name in 1887, even though the Welsh variant has co-official status. The capital and largest city is historic Salisbury in the Dwyrain region with roughly 122,000 inhabitants.

Initially inhabited by the Grio and Wauroppa peoples, the latter’s population was decimated following massacres from the Grio around 1500 AD that also took place in Diamantina. This then allowed the Goarra to advance into the province’s eastern half, where they claimed large tracts of land. Parrigo, along with Yeduan, is the only Jarrabanian province to have been founded as a penal colony, with British settlement beginning in 1822 along the Bulkeley River. In 1824, another penal colony was established near present-day Baineston. Both were abandoned in 1829 following corruption, drought and conflict with local Goarra, although by this time further settlement had taken place at Salisbury and along the western coast. In 1840, Captains Owain Baines and Geraint Pritchard commenced Welsh settlement in the Dwyrain region (meaning ‘east’ in English), where the idea of a “new Wales” attracted large numbers of Welsh immigrants. This gave rise to the province’s distinctly Welsh heritage that has an overarching presence to this day, with Parrigan English marked by its unique slang and accent known as the “Parrigan twang”. In recent years, efforts have surfaced to revive Parrigan Welsh, an extinct dialect once spoken locally, and include it as one of the province’s official languages.

Parrigo is the country’s driest province. The interior is rainshadowed by the Jarraban Ranges to the south and receives little precipitation, leading arid grasslands to predominate. Whilst summers in this area are hot (the country’s highest temperature of 45.8°C was recorded at Wiocke in the Riyaga Desert), winters often see highly variable temperatures with cold nights. The Wiyumarra region immediately to the north is the country’s second-largest producer of grain, meat and wine due to its fertile soil and stable conditions. Coastal regions are drier than the relatively wet coasts elsewhere throughout Jarraban, featuring extensive marshes and majestic wildlife such as the endangered Woobalog and Parrigan dragon.