Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982), Wednesday 27 May 1964, page 43
The romance of Australian place names
Here are more Australian place names,
and notes about each. Watch this series for places
you know or are interested in -
or perhaps your own home town.
(NEW SOUTH WALES)
Grafton After Duke of Grafton (family name Fitzroy). It was the birthplace of the famous Professor
Graham Elliot Smith, who became Professor of Anatomy at the Cairo School of Medicine
and at Man chester University. During the 1914-
18 war he was engaged in psycho logical work among shell-shocked soldiers Also the birthplace of the distingished Australian soldier
Iven Mackay and Harry Searle,
the world's champion sculler, 1888-
1889.
Parramatta
Aboriginal: Stated by some to have meant "plenty of eels"; by others "head of the river. First
known as Rose Hill, after George Rose, Secretary of the British Treasury. A cabbage grown at
Rose Hill and cut for the King's Birthday is said to have weighed
27lb.
Wagga Wagga
Aboriginal: "Many crows." Thomas Mitchell, who served un-der Wellington, named the streets alter Peninsula War veterans. Here lived as a butcher last century Thomas Castro (Arthur Orton), who claimed to be heir to the Tich-borne estate. The case in London occupied 102 days (costing the estate £92,000). The court found against Orton and he was tried for perjury. This trial took from April 22, 1873, to February 28,
1874, when he was sentenced to 14 years. He weighed 24 stone. Wagga was the birthplace of Field-Marshal Sir Thomas Blamey, famous in World War II as Commander-in
Chief of the Australian Military
Forces.
(VICTORIA) Campaspe
Thomas Mitchell, who was a classical scholar as well as an ex-plorer, named it after a woman mend of Alexander the Great. Morwell
From an early hotel. Dimboola
Should really have been Dimbela the Ceylonese name bestowed by Surveyor J. G. W. Wilmott. who had been in the Indian
regiment. It means "land of figs"
Ouyen
Aboriginal: "Ghost waterhole." Prahran
From native Purraran, which means "nearly surrounded by water." Porepunkah
This town was christened in a
storm and its name is a combina
tion of Hindu words meaning "wind" and "blower". (QUEENSLAND)
Gympie. The original settlement was
known as Nashville (because James Nash found gold there in the late 'sixties) and was recorded officially as the Upper Mary River Field. The largest nugget from the Gympie diggings was the Curis, 96oz, valued at £3132. It was found in an abandoned shaft. The
name Gympie is derived from Gympi-Gympi, the aborigines' word
for the stinging tree. Maryborough
After the Mary River on which it stands. Lady Mary was fourth daughter of the fourth Duke of
Richmond and wife of Sir Charles Fitzroy, Governor of N.S.W. She was thrown from a carriage and killed when going to a dance at
Parramatta.
(SOUTH AUSTRALIA) Angaston
Formerly German Pass. Named
Angas Town after George Fife Angas, who sent the first shipment
of settlers to South Australia. Ceduna
The aboriginal name for a waterhole in the locality. Echunga
Aboriginal: "Close."
(WESTERN AUSTRALIA) Kimberley
Named after the Earl of Kim-berley.
Pinjarra
The scene in 1834 of a distress
ing battle with aborigines. The battle practically dispersed the Bubbulmun race, which had lived in the south for countless ages, making them wanderers.
(TASMANIA) Port Davey
Named after the Governor, "Mad" Tom Davey, who had a
turbulent career in Tasmania from
1813-17. He upset staid officials when arriving by carrying his coat over his arm. Tbe port was named by James Kelly, who, in 1817, sailed with four men from Hobart
in a whale boat and went right
round Tasmania. The native name for Port Davey, Poyndue. Marrawah
Native word for "gum trees."
(NORTHERN TERRITORY )
Victoria River
Named in 1839 by Captain Stokes, R.N., who wrote: "As we ran in between the frowning heights . . . 'This is indeed a noble river' burst from several lips at the same moment. 'And worthy,' con-tinued I, 'of being honored with the name of Her Most Gracious Majesty, the Queen!' "