TOOWOOMBA RESIDENTS HAVE CHANCE TO MAKE THEIR MARK ON THE MAP

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

Popular opinion has the origins of the name of the city Toowoomba as an Aboriginal word for “swamp”.

The first recognised use of the city’s name is by the enterprising storekeeper Thomas Alford, who named his shop and home Toowoomba in 1852, adapting an Aboriginal word for “swamp”.

It was a happy time for the Alford family with the birth of their sixth child Henry, who is reported in some circles to be the first white child to be born in Toowoomba.

At the very least his birth certificate recorded the place as Toowoomba – a full seven years before the name was to be publicly aired in a newspaper article referring to New Year’s celebrations in the centre.

The settlement’s residents said the Aboriginal translation was “a place where water sits”, which sounds like a euphemism for “swamp” as early residents tried to make their home sound more appealing.

Minister Wallace said many other explanations had been offered over the years.

“Journalist Archibald Meston claimed in 1870 the name for Toowoomba had sprung from the Aboriginal word “choowoomba” indicating place of melon, while various other people offered explanation of similar Aboriginal words with translations like “place where reeds grow”, “berries place” and “many white men,” Mr Wallace said.

“Most stick with the original suggestion that Toowoomba meant ‘the swamp’.

“Toowoomba is just one of many names in Queensland that echo the fascinating history of the area they occupy.”

Mr Wallace said a search of the NRW online place names database also showed the storekeeper Thomas Alford had also named the suburb of Drayton, which was known as ‘The Springs’ before he settled there.

“He was an enterprising man who moved to the Darling Downs in 1842 and set up the first store in the district where Cambooya stands today,” he said.

“This location was unsuccessful and he moved to ‘The Springs’ on Westbrook Creek to be closer to Gorman’s and Hodgson’s Gap, where he set up a store and inn. He operated there until 1852 when he was forced to sell because he was insolvent.

“During that time, however, his inn had become licensed as a post office and his name for the township of 200 was referred to in official documents. It is thought that he had named the town Drayton after the town in Somersetshire, England, where his father Charles Alford was vicar.”

Other examples of place name histories in Toowoomba include:

• Middle Ridge was first named in the 1860s, as the area between East and West Creeks where the teamsters who camped at the swamp (Toowoomba) turned their teams loose to graze.

• Harlaxton was named after the 19^th Century residence of explorer Francis Thomas Gregory, who was also the Commissioner of Crown Lands on the Darling Downs. The Governor of Queensland, Lord Lamington, used Harlaxton as a summer residence between 1896 and 1901.

• Wilsonton was possibly named after Toowoomba businessman James T. Wilson who was a known supporter of the Toowoomba Agricultural Society and an unsuccessful contender for the Legislative Assembly seat of Darling Downs in 1878.

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.