CUNNAMULLA RESIDENTS HAVE CHANCE TO MAKE THEIR MARK ON THE MAP

Minister for Natural Resources and Water, Craig Wallace, today encouraged residents of Cunnamulla Mountain 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.

“The name Cunnamulla was derived from a nearby pastoral run by the same name in the 1860s. The name was translated from a local Aboriginal dialect meaning “deep waterhole”. That deep waterhole is still found on the town’s outskirts and is still a popular place to fish ... something that hasn’t changed in the area for well over 200 years.

“Thargomindah, which came from a pastoral run name is reportedly an Aboriginal word, indicating echidna, while nearby Toopine is an Aboriginal word for leech,” he said. “Then there is Mungallala which is the description given to the sound that the claws of running emus make.”

Other areas of interest in the area include:

·Adavale, which is possibly named after Ada Stevens, who was the wife of the Member for Warrego between 1878 and 1883, Ernest James Stevens. Ada is supposed to have lost her hat veil at the crossing where the Milo road crosses Blackwater Creek.

·Surveyor William Alcock Tully named Charleville. It origins are from an Irish town name of the same name located in County Cork near the boundary of County Limerick, currently (1995) known as Rath Luirc.

·Cheepie was originally used in 1917 by the Railways Department as a station name, and is reportedly an Aboriginal word representing the call of the whistling duck.

·Augathella is derived from a pastoral run, first used 1863, and is a possible corruption of an Aboriginal word “augathulla” meaning “camp on a waterhole”.

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."