BOWEN RESIDENTS HAVE CHANCE TO MAKE THEIR MARK ON THE MAP

Minister for Natural Resources and Water, Craig Wallace, today encouraged residents of Bowen to become involved in the creation of their community’s history by suggesting new place names.

Minister Wallace is inviting residents to name a geographic feature or area of land by lodging an application with his department.

“The Department of Natural Resources and Water administers the Place Names Act 1994, which controls the official naming of localities, suburbs and geographical features within local government areas,” Mr Wallace said.

“Queensland has over 40,000 official place names and these are constantly being added to by the community,” Mr Wallace said.

“People have a chance to be part of history by creating a new Queensland place name,” he said.

“We do not accept place names that honour living people, we try to avoid duplicating names and commercial names but otherwise people are free to put their mark on the map.”

Some of Queensland’s more unusual names include Baking Board (Chinchilla Shire), Yorkeys Knob (Cairns), Macaroni (Carpentaria Shire), Hell Hole Gorge National Park (Quilpie Shire), Silver Spur (Inglewood Shire), Beer Creek (Esk Shire) and Ginger Beer Creek (Calliope Shire).

Close to 110 new and amended place names were added to the database over the past year.

According to the Department of Natural Resources and Water’s (NRW) place name database, Port Denison was named by master mariner and harbour master Henry Daniel Sinclair. He named the feature after Sir William Thomas Denison, Governor of New South Wales from 1856 to 1861.

Bowen itself was named after Sir George Ferguson Bowen, the first Governor of Queensland.

Minister for Natural Resources and Water, Craig Wallace, said the place names database reflected the diverse and fascinating background of many of the state’s suburbs and towns.

"While many of the names on the database reflected Aboriginal culture and language, others were European in origin," Mr Wallace said.

“Collinsville started out as a railway station named Moogunya - meaning coal, but was changed in 1921 to honour politician Charles Collins.

Other interesting names include:

• Cape Upstart - named by Lieutenant James Cook RN because of its appearance.
• Glouster Island –Lieutenant James Cook RN originally called the area Cape Gloucester after William Henry, Duke of Gloucester, younger brother of George III.
• Holbourne Island – another place named by Lieutenant James Cook RN, this time after Admiral of the White Francis Holburne RN, a naval officer who commanded the North American fleet in 1757, in which Cook served.
• Stone River - Reportedly named after Henry Stone, station manager at Valley of Lagoons and Herbert Vale for Anning Brothers. Stone was a pastoralist and later chairman of the Hinchinbrook Divisional Board.
• Saddleback Island - Named in 1866 by Commander G.S. Nares, RN of HMS Salamander, after the distinct grass-covered saddle between the hills at either end of the island.
• Rattray Island - Named by Commander George Stanley Nares RN naval officer in command HMS Salamander 1865-66, during 1866 Whitsunday survey, after Surgeon Alexander Rattray RN, of HMS Salamander.

Minister Wallace said the place names database reflected the diverse and fascinating background of many of the state’s suburbs and towns.

“While many of the names on the database are European in origin, a large number reflect Aboriginal culture and language,” Mr Wallace said.

Other interesting place names include:

Miallo – an Aboriginal word indicating wild country

Julatten – an Aboriginal word for small creek

Lake Eacham – Eacham is reportedly an Aboriginal word meaning big spring

Lake Barrine – Barrine is a corruption of “barrang”, an Aboriginal word indicating big water.

Malanda – an Aboriginal word indicating the stream known as the Upper Johnstone River, possibly with the connotation little stream with big stones.

Millaa Millaa – a corruption of “millai millai, possibly from the Yindinji language indicating a fruit bearing plant Eleagnus latifolia.

Mr Wallace said people could look up the name of their suburb or town by visiting: www.nrw.qld.gov.au/property/place_names.html

"The place names website is an evolving document and we are always on the lookout for new information about how a suburb, town or land feature got its name."