TOWNSVILLE RESIDENTS HAVE CHANCE TO MAKE THEIR MARK ON THE MAP

Minister for Natural Resources and Water, Craig Wallace, today encouraged Townsville 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.

"If you look up Wulguru on the website, you will find that the name was derived from Wulgurukaba, the language and group name of the Aboriginal people of the Cleveland Bay area.

"Similarly, Oonoonba is reportedly an Aboriginal word meaning water or wet ground, Balgal Beach takes its name from an Aboriginal word for 'stone,' and Townsville's most prominent feature, Castle Hill, is also known to have the Aboriginal name Cudtheringa.”

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

“There are some really interesting names throughout the Townsville/Thuringowa region,” he said.

Examples include:

• Palm Island, named by Lieutenant James Cook RN when Joseph Banks and Lieutenant Zachary Hicks RN went ashore to collect coconuts and discovered the palms were actually cabbage palms;

·Garbutt, which took its name from a railway station. It was originally called Garbutts Siding, and was renamed Garbutt by the Railways Department in 1940. The siding served the butchering firm originally associated with pastoralist Charles Garbutt;

·Hermit Park supposedly originated from the residence of Leopold Ferdinand Sachs, a businessman who headed a house of bachelors in the area;

·The Bohle River, which was reportedly named after Henry Mackinnon Bohle who brought cattle to the district in 1863.

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.