ROMA RESIDENTS HAVE CHANCE TO MAKE THEIR MARK ON THE MAP

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

Minister for Natural Resources and Water Craig Wallace said many of Queensland’s suburb and town names echoed the fascinating history of the area they occupy.

“Some reflect Aboriginal culture and language and others stem from a European background,” Mr Wallace said.

“Roma in South West Queensland was named after the wife of the Governor of Queensland between 1859 and 1867, so the city has a link to the European aristocracy,” he said.

“Lady Diamantina Bowen’s maiden name was di Roma and she was the daughter of the president of the Senate of the Ionian Islands, Greece.

“On the same stretch of road the town of Miles was named after the long-serving politician William Miles, who served the region from 1864 through to 1887.”

Other examples of place name histories around Roma include:

• Yuleba, which has a colourful history including three name changes. The original settlement in 1865 was on nearby Yuleba Creek but moved in 1879 to the railway crossing where it stands today, however, it was then called Baltinglass. This was changed to Yuleba in 1901, was later misspelled Yeulba and then around 1939 reverted back to Yuleba.

• Amby, which was named by Sir Thomas Mitchell on May 14, 1846. Amby is possibly a word indicating “little girl” in the Mandandanji language.

• Dulacca is reportedly derived from an Aboriginal word “doolucah” indicating an emu nest.

• Wallumbilla is derived from pastoral run name in the same area. It is reportedly a corruption of the Aboriginal words wallu meaning “plenty” and billa meaning “jew fish” which is presumably from the Mandandanji language.

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.

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.