CAIRNS RESIDENTS HAVE CHANCE TO MAKE THEIR MARK ON THE MAP

Minister for Natural Resources and Water Craig Wallace today encouraged residents of far north Queensland 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 names database, Yorkeys Knob was named after George Lawson who was nicknamed Yorky because of his Yorkshire birthplace.

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.

“A large number of our suburbs and place names commemorate explorers, early settlers or well-known local identities," he said.

“Portsmith was named after William (Old Bill) Smith, European pioneer of the Cairns area and discoverer of Smith's Track to the Tableland area.

“Gordonvale was established in 1896, but was originally called Nelson after Sir Hugh Muir Nelson, Premier from 1893-98.

"The name was changed in 1914 after a great deal of postal confusion with two other places called Nelson, one in New South Wales and another in Victoria.

"Gordonvale was named after John Gordon, a butcher, pioneer dairyman, grazier and an early director of the Mulgrave Central sugar mill."

Mr Wallace said people were not the only ones to lend their names to local areas – the names of important ships were also commonly used.

"If you look up Manoora or Manunda on the website, you will find that both suburbs take their names from twin screw motor vessels built in Scotland for the Adelaide Steamship Company in the twenties and thirties," he said.

"Similarly, the suburb of Kanimbla was named after the MV Kanimbla, a coastal passenger liner that used Cairns as a cruise port of call from 1936 till 1961.

"The Kanimbla also served as a Landing Ship in the South West Pacific theatre from 1943-45."

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."

Media inquiries: Clare Gillic, Minister's Office, 3896 3688