WHITSUNDAY RESIDENTS HAVE CHANCE TO MAKE THEIR MARK ON THE MAP

Minister for Natural Resources and Water Craig Wallace today encouraged Whitsunday Island 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.

“If you look up Hamilton or Dent Islands on the website, you will find that they were named by two British commanders in the 1800s,” Mr Wallace said.

“Both islands were originally shown on charts from 1820s to1860s as one island, under the name Passage Island.”

“But surveys by HMS Salamander Commander, George Nares in 1866 and HMS Virago Commander, H.M. Bingham in 1868, revealed the separation between the two.”

“Nares named Dent Island and Bingham's chart showed the name Hamilton Island for the first time.”

Commander Nares has also been credited with the discovery of another Whitsunday island on his journey.

“Commander Nares named Hayman Island in 1866 after the HMS Salamander’s Master Thomas Hayman,” Mr Wallace said.

Mr Wallace said many of the names on the database were European in origin while others reflected Aboriginal culture and language.

Other island place names:

Daydream – In 1932, Lee (Paddy) Murray and his wife Connie opened a small resort on the island which they dubbed Day Dream Island, after their yacht of that name. In about 1947 the name evolved to Daydream Island. Formally West Molle Island, this name derived from Port Molle and was given in May 1881 by Captain J.F.L.P. Maclear, RN in HMS Alert. The name Daydream Island was approved by Governor in Council 15 July 1989, as a name change from West Molle Island.

South Molle - Named Molle Island (Derived from Port Molle) in May 1881 by Captain J.F.L.P. Maclear, RN in HMS Alert. Re-named South Molle Island by Queensland Place Names Board 1 April 1966.

Minister Wallace said the place names database reflected the diverse and fascinating background of many of the state’s suburbs and towns.

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.