It often seems to us that most placenames have meanings which are unknown and mysterious. Does Warsaw have a meaning? Do Pisa , Calais , Berlin ? It would appear, however, that Kalamunda , in the foothills of the Darling Ranges outside Perth, is not one of these: we’re told that ‘everybody knows’ what it means. Wikipedia confidently tells us that the word is derived from two Noongar (an Indigenous Australian language) words: kala meaning ‘home’ and munda meaning ‘forest’, hen

Your Amateur Researcher received an email enquiring about the meaning of Eurimbla: I am hoping to establish the English meaning of Eurimbla , as in Eurimbla Avenue, Randwick. So far, I am wondering if it may have an Indigenous origin as a compound word from eurimanan (a large toothed monster, ie horse) and the ending derived from bulah , more than one, or many. The reason being that a Trove newspaper reference of 1857 announces the birth of a child to Mrs G W Lord at Eurimbla

Turramurra is a leafy suburb on the North Shore of Sydney. The meaning given for Turramurra in popular placenames booklets is ‘high land’ or ‘high’, as shown in Table 1 below. The original source or sources for such claims did not form part of the information provided in these works. Richardson (n.d.) gives ‘Lane Cove’ as the meaning, or effectively Turramurra itself. Australian respelt English EngJSM source “Turramurra” daramara  “High land; small watercourse” hill  McCarthy

The Narinyiri language area is in the south-east corner of South Australia, shown orange on the accompanying map. It gained notoriety in 1994 when, at its western end, a proposed bridge from the mainland to Hindmarsh Island in the mouth of the River Murray was objected to by the local Aboriginal people because one of the abutments would have been built on special land connected with ‘secret women’s business’. After government investigation the bridge was built anyway.   Two E

It seems unlikely that any place name in Australia could have led to as many theories about how its name arose as Dee Why, a coastal suburb of northern Sydney. Here is how it all began: The source of it all was an entry made by Irish explorer-surveyor and ex-convict James Meehan (1774-1826). Transported for a political ‘offence’, Meehan arrived in Australia in 1800 and was soon to be working as a surveyor out of Sydney, his duties taking him around the State, and to Victoria

There is a place on Lake Macquarie, near Newcastle, in New South Wales, called Eleebana. Internet searches result in statements that it is an Aboriginal word meaning ‘place of beauty’. However, there is more to it than that. Eleebana, Lake Macquarie, NSW Lowanna Place, Hornsby, NSW Tangara train, Sydney Fig. 1 Tasmanian words out of place ‘Eleebana’ is not just an Aboriginal word, it is a Tasmanian Aboriginal word and so a long way out of place on Lake

Energy supply: when there is a power failure nothing at home works: the lights, the toaster, the microwave, the jug or anything else electrical. Some may recall the petrol strikes in the 1970s and 80s that threw domestic and commercial motor fleets into chaos: as each strike dragged on, drivers were forced to rely on only what was left in their fuel tanks. At the time of the First Fleet, the source of power for the fleet of sailing ships was winds. No wind—and a ship was beca

Your Amateur Researcher (YAR) happened to go to Glenorie recently, a rural suburb in the northwest of Sydney. On the way he wondered about the name. Was it Aboriginal? It looked more Scottish. On arrival he had the chance to consult Google. This is what came up: ‘The name Glenorie, a suburb in Sydney's northwest, has two possible origins. One suggests it's an Aboriginal name meaning "much water," while another proposes it's named after a town in Scotland. The name was officia

It is not only Your Amateur Researcher (YAR) who finds trying to make sense of the Tasmanian records difficult. Terry Crowley and R.M.W. Dixon wrote in their chapter "Tasmanian" in Handbook of Australian Languages , edited by R.M.W. Dixon and Barry Blake, J., 1981, as follows: on p.420: “The material on Tasmanian is so poor that almost nothing can be inferred with any degree of confidence.” on p.400: “The materials on Tasmanian dialects range from poor to almost non-existent;

Among Australian languages the Tasmanian Aboriginal languages are a special case. The island of Tasmania has been separated from the mainland for perhaps 12 000 years, since the ending of the last ice age. While there is some speculation about whether Tasmanian languages—and scholars estimate there were between half a dozen and as many as twelve—were Australian languages at all, they probably were. Since prior to the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, the Aboriginal people h

Tyrell and McCarthy both give “Water breaking over rocks” as the meaning for Bondi, Sydney's famous beachside suburb.  McCarthy, F.D.  New South Wales Aboriginal Place Names and Euphonious Words, with Their Meanings . Sydney: The Australian Museum, 1963. Tyrrell, James R. Australian Aboriginal Place-Names and Their Meanings . Sydney: Tyrrell's Pty. Ltd., 1933 (reprinted 1944, 1949, 1951, 1953). They are two of a number of people who compiled and published lists of Aboriginal

The name of Sydney's inner-city harbourside eastern suburb Woolloomooloo was first recorded in the Anon Sydney Language notebook around 1790: Australian respelt English EngJSM source "Walla-mool" wala-mul "Cove next to Farm Cove" Woolloomooloo Anon (c) [c:36:17] [BB] [NSW] [1790-91] No meaning is given, but the word is shown in two parts. It crops up again and again after this, but rarely with a meaning attached. Such meanings as do occur include the following:     "Wullamull

The somewhat awkward figure of the Rev. L.E. Threlkeld occupied the attentions of Your Amateur Researcher for several years, in connection with the Aboriginal language to the northward of Sydney, Awabakal , also known as the Hunter River-Lake Macquarie language. Lancelot Edward Threlkeld was born in south London in 1788, and after a chequered start was ordained as a Congregational minister at the age of 27, beginning a career as a missionary. His first posting was to the isla

At the end of March 2025 Your Amateur Researcher travelled with Aurora Coach Tours on a trip lasting about ten days to South Australia's Flinders Ranges, joining the coach in Adelaide. While the main destination was the Flinders Ranges, there were places and things of interest to see on the way. First urban, then outback, Australia rolled by as the coach gradually worked its way northwards past buildings, farmland, fields, transmission lines and occasional power stations, exp

It is often claimed that the Aboriginal the name for Sydney was Warang . Your Amateur Researcher previously speculated about this in the post ‘ Warrang or Warrane — or ngurang? ’ Certainly the compiler of the Anon notebook thought Sydney Cove was Waran : Anon Notebook c:36:1 https://www.williamdawes.org/ms/msview.php?image-id=book-c-pages-52-53 Even William Dawes used the name Warang for Sydney Cove, or Sydney: Dawes Notebook b:33:4.2 https://www.williamdawes.org/ms/msview.

A package holiday coach tour in August 2024 went from Broome in Western Australia to Perth. One of the places visited was the Pinnacles, in Nambung National Park, south of Cervantes, about half way between Geraldton and Perth. This would probably be in Amangu country, indicated in green on the map above right. The Pinnacles are a landscape of limestone pillars in profusion extending for what seems square kilometres, commonly about one metre tall but often larger as in this il

What are the Bayala databases? The Bayala databases  are a set of relational databases containing words and sentences in Aboriginal languages from across the country. In the databases, words appear in full and also as broken up into their stem and one or several suffixes (and sometimes prefixes). The databases began simply as lists of Aboriginal words and their corresponding English meanings. Since then they have become increasingly complex, and now provide much more. To give

Who was Mathews? One of the principal figures in the recording of Aboriginal languages, particularly in the Sydney region, was Robert Hamilton Mathews (1841-1918), originally from near Goulburn in New South Wales. He became a surveyor, a post that took him to different parts of the country, and, having an interest in the indigenous people, he had the opportunity to make contact with people over a wide area. He recorded his findings in notebooks. From these he wrote academic p

How did this translation come about? An Aboriginal singer-songwriter acquaintance sent an email inviting Your Amateur Researcher (YAR) to look at what he had just done. He had produced a draft of a translation of the Australian National Anthem. It was soon apparent that this was more a collection of concepts than a grammatical narrative. It prompted a new attempt, one that a speaker such as Mr Bennelong might have understood. A line-by-line consideration of this alternative t

The following entry from the Macquarie archive gives basic information about the brolga but does not explain where the term ‘native companion’ comes from: BROLGA From the Macquarie archive: (also known as 'native companion' in colonial times) Scientific name: Grus rubicunda One of two species of crane found in Australia. (Fifteen species occur throughout the world) . Brolgas are large, long-legged, long-necked birds noted for their impressive dancing displays, in which they