DALBY RESIDENTS HAVE CHANCE TO MAKE THEIR MARK ON THE MAP

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

As the Darling Downs was settled many of the areas were given names from the local Aboriginal dialects spoken in the area.

Many of these refer to local features of the area or incidents that occurred as the settlers passed through or formed their pastoral runs.

“It is not certain how the township of Warra got its name, but it is believed to be a corruption of warra warra, which is part of the Mandandanji Aboriginal language,” Minister Wallace said yesterday.

“That is where it gets a little murky because the word is believed to indicate a woman carrying a load or alternatively plenty of water, and it’s plain to see that these two meanings aren’t related,’’ he said.

“What we do know for certain is that name comes from the old Warra Warra pastoral run held by Henry Dennis in the late 1840s.

“Searching through the Department of Natural Resources and Water (NRW) website can reveal many interesting facts about the country we live in, especially how our towns were given their names.

“Many of Queensland’s suburb and town names echo the fascinating history of the area they occupy. Some reflect Aboriginal culture and language and others stem from a European background.

“There are many more intriguing place names throughout the state.”

Other examples of place name histories around Dalby include:

• Dalby was named in 1854 after one of the two towns of the same name in the United Kingdom. All have the approximate derivation of village in a valley (by and dale).

• Kumbia has two Aboriginal interpretations, one from the Waka language indicating white ant (termite) beds, while another is “small forest vine”.

• Taroom is derived from Waka language word “tarum”, meaning “wild lime tree”.

• Macalister was named after former Premier Arthur Macalister who served from 1866-67 and again 1874-76.

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.