ROCKHAMPTON RESIDENTS HAVE CHANCE TO MAKE THEIR MARK ON THE MAP

Minister for Natural Resources and Water Craig Wallace today encouraged residents of Rockhampton 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 Rockhampton on the database you will find it’s actually an artificial name indicating town near the rocks in the river,” he said.

“It was coined by brothers Charles, William and Colin Archer, who were pastoralists in company with William Henry Wiseman, the Crown Land Commissioner.”

“The name Rockhampton was first officially used in October of 1856.”

“The Place Names Database is a cumulated list of approved, unapproved, alternative and obsolete place names,” he said.

“It provides the name, descriptive code, status, coordinates and if available, alternative names and historical information of towns and cities across Queensland.”

For example:

·Gladstone - Named in 1847, after William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898) politician, Secretary of State for the Colonies 1845-46, when decision was taken to form a settlement at Port Curtis. Gladstone was British Prime Minister 1868-74, 1880-85, 1886, and 1892-94.

·Gracemere - Derived from pastoral run name first used in 1854 by Colin Archer (1832-1921) and Thomas Archer (1823-1905) pastoralists, in honour of Grace Lindsay Archer (nee Morison), wife of Thomas Archer, who lived on Eidsvold run 1854-55 and on Gracemere 1872-79.

·Biloela - Name used by Queensland Railways for railway station, 31 January 1924, using an Aboriginal (probably Sydney NSW area language) word indicating cockatoo.

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.