Nimmitabel (NSW) is an Aboriginal onomatopoeia for ‘dividing of the waters’. But seldom has a town undergone so many spelling phases, with this alpine village going by the names of Nimitybelle, Nimitybell, Nimithyball, Nimity-Bell and Nimoitebool in its 140-year history. Bizarrely, the hamlet was once a front-runner to be the new Australian capital. But those [...]
While most Australians were thinking ‘bicentenary’ in 1988, the people of Hervey Bay had ‘tercentenary’ in mind. They wanted to make a time capsule and fill it with the patriotic tie-ins that littered the present tense. What’s more, they wished to use a horned sea-mine as capsule, to fit in with the maritime feel of [...]
An extension of Bunbury (WA), the settlement of Australind is a portmanteau of the two nations, Australia and India. The name was hatched in hope of a strong trading relationship between both countries, especially in the famous ‘walers’ of New South Wales, robust horses used as cavalry chargers. These days the place is less noted [...]
A cut-above trivia book called The Australian Miscellany (David Morgan, Bantam Books) sets out a list of Suggestive Australian Place Names. Here’s a keyhole glimpse. Can you add to it? Bald Knob Boobyalla Bumalong Carapooee High Camp Koolyanobbing Mantung Missabotti Suggan Buggan Trouser Point (on Flinders Island) Upper Plenty Woodrising
Dunbogan, a bush town on Camden Haven Inlet (NSW), may well pass for Scottish or Aboriginal in origin. It’s neither. A sawmill set up shop in the early days call Donne & Bogan, not to be muddled with a transcendental poet accompanying a bourbon-swiller in black jeans. All the same, it’s rare to find a [...]