PORT DOUGLAS RESIDENTS HAVE CHANCE TO MAKE THEIR MARK ON THE MAP

Minister for Natural Resources and Water, Craig Wallace, today encouraged Port Douglas residents 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 place names database, Port Douglas was named after John Douglas, a politician and administrator who was Premier from 1877-79.

Mr Douglas was also a Magistrate on Thursday Island from 1885-1904.

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

“The Mossman River, for instance, derived its name from either Hugh Mosman, one of the discoverers of gold at Charters Towers, or his sister Harriette Ann Mosman, the second wife of Sir Thomas McIlwraith,’’ Mr Wallace said.

“And it is quite fitting that one of our most photogenic areas, the Daintree, was named after geologist and photographer Richard Daintree.

“Cape Kimberley was named after John Wodehouse who was the first Earl of Kimberley.”

Mr Wallace said some place names reflected more unusual circumstance.

“Cape Tribulation was named by Lieutenant James Cook aboard the HM Bark Endeavour, on June 10, 1770, just before the Endeavour stranded on a reef, because “ … here began all our troubles …”.

Mr Wallace said while many of the names on the database were European in origin, a huge number reflected Aboriginal culture and language.

“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.