List of Australian place names of Aboriginal origin

Welcome sign from Murwillumbah, New South Wales. The name derives from the Bandjalang word meaning "camping place".
Aboriginal names of suburbs of Brisbane, derived from the Turrbal language.

Place names in Australia have names originating in the Australian Aboriginal languages for three main reasons:

  • Historically, white explorers and surveyors may have asked local Aboriginal people the name of a place, and named it accordingly. Where they did not ask, they may have heard the place was so-named. Due to language difficulties, the results were often misheard and misunderstood names, such as the name of the Yarra River. There are a suspicious number of place names which translate as pretty and resting place, which may imply European romanticism, and no doubt a good deal of mispronunciation and corruption in general.
  • Australian governments have officially named many places, particularly suburbs, after Aboriginal people or language groups, such as Aranda or Tullamarine.
  • The place name has always been called thus by Aboriginal people, and Aboriginal people still live in the area. This is particularly so for Aboriginal communities, such as Maningrida in the Northern Territory. This is more frequent where white settlement has been less dense, particularly in Central Australia and the Top End.

Watkin Tench, who arrived on the First Fleet, observed of the Aboriginal languages of present-day Sydney:

We were at first inclined to stigmatise this language as harsh and barbarous in its sounds. Their combinations of words in the manner they utter them, frequently convey such an effect. But if not only their proper names of men and places, but many of their phrases and a majority of their words, be simply and unconnectedly considered, they will be found to abound with vowels and to produce sounds sometimes mellifluous and sometimes sonorous. What ear can object to the names of Colbee (pronounced exactly as Colby is with us), Bereewan, Bondel, Imeerawanyee, Deedora, Wolarawaree, or Baneelon, among the men; or to Wereeweea, Gooreedeeana, Milba,[1] or Matilba, among the women? Parramatta, Gweea, Cameera, Cadi, and Memel, are names of places. The tribes derive their appellations from the places they inhabit. Thus Cemeeragal, means the men who reside in the bay of Cameera; Cadigal, those who reside in the bay of Cadi; and so of the others.[2]

Towns and suburbs

Regions and shires not named after town, river, etc.

Natural features

Islands

Mountains, ranges etc

Deserts

Caves

  • Bendethera
  • Bungonia
  • Colong
  • Coolamon
  • Jenolan
  • Tuglow
  • Yarrongobilly

Dams

Parks and forests

National parks

Nature reserves

State forests

State Conservation Areas

Highways and main roads

Non-Aboriginal place names that are assumed to be Aboriginal

Place names over which uncertainty exists

  • Bruthen – a Celtic place name used in Britain (now named Breidden), between Shropshire, England and Powys, Wales; also a Scott's Gaelic word meaning striped or checked; and in Cornish the word means freckled or speckled.
  • Bodalla – a corruption of "boat alley".
  • Narrabeen – a corruption of "narrow bean".
  • Traralgon
  • Ulladulla – a corruption of "holey dollar".
  • Warracknabeal
  • Watanobbi – could be from Watanabe, Japanese surname, or a description of the hill to which the word refers.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Tench reports that: Mrs. Johnson, wife of the chaplain of the settlement, was so pleased with this name that she christened her little girl, born in Port Jackson, Milba Maria Johnson
  2. ↑ Watkin Tench, The Settlement of Port Jackson, Chapter 17. Archived 26 June 2007 at the Wayback Machine.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 "History of country town names". Landgate. n.d. Retrieved 31 December 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 "History of metropolitan suburb names". Landgate. n.d. Archived from the original on 19 May 2009. Retrieved 31 December 2014.
  5. ↑ "Wokalup". Shire of Harvey. n.d. Archived from the original on 6 December 2014. Retrieved 31 December 2014.
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