Meaning of Canowindra

Canowindra, between Orange and Cowra in NSW, is on the western side of the Wiradhuri nation or language group. As the March 2019 issue of Placenames Australia noted, the name Canowindra is clearly of Aboriginal origin, and was first recorded as the name of a pastoral property ‘Canoundra’ in 1829. The conventional view, commonly expressed in popular ‘name books’ and websites, is that it comes from a Wiradhuri word meaning ‘home’ or ‘camping place’. While European recorders might have had a predilection for using the word ‘home’ in their ‘glosses’ or translations of words, however, it is unlikely that Aboriginal languages had equivalents with the same emotional pull of the English word ‘home’.

The standard way to pronounce the name of the town is <kuh-'nown-druh>; if you are ‘misled’ by the current spelling and say <kan-uh-'win-druh>, you'll be promptly corrected! But what if that pronunciation is right after all?

The most curious or notable feature of the current name is the syllable -win-. Now win or wi is a common Aboriginal inland word for ‘fire’. The table below shows a selection from a large number of examples in early texts.

Australian	respelt	English	EngJSM	source
Weein	wIn	fire	fire	Mitchell, T.L.: 4: Wellington Valley [:380.4:20] [Wira]
Win	win	fire, fuel, wood	fire	Günther (Fraser) [:106:4] [Wira]
wi	wi	fire	fire	KAOL Ridley [45 Wlwn] [:49.2:4] [Wlwn]
wī	wi	fire	fire	AL&T Greenway (Ridley) [KML] [:236:27] [Kml]

Table 1 wi/win: ‘fire’ . A few of a large number of examples

This being so, it provides a hint as to the possible meaning of the first part of Canowindra, ‘Cano-’, which might be repelt by linguists as ganu- or gana-. gana is the stem of many inland words (dislike, all, kangaroo, tuber, beach, belly, excrement, fib, liver, shoulder), but one that really jumps out is ‘burn’.

“gannarra”	gana-ra	“to burn”	burn	Günther (Fraser) [:63:46.1] [Wira]
“Gannal-birra”	gana-l-bi-ra	“to burn”	burn	Günther (Fraser) [:84:35.1] [Wira]
“Gannanna”	gana-na	“to burn”	burn	Günther (Fraser) [:84:40] [Wira]

Table 2 gana: ‘burn’. Also just a few of a large number of examples

As for the final portion, -ndra or -ndara, this is a form of the proprietive suffix ‘having’ in several Aboriginal languages of New South Wales, and can be seen in placenames such as Bulgandramine, Gilgandra and Cootamundra, and in the form -bara(yi) in Narrabri and Boggabri and many others.

The above speculative analysis would suggest that Canowindra, properly pronounced in Aboriginal terms as gana-win-dara, might mean ‘burn-fire-having’, or ‘the place where there is/was a fire burning’.

To get an idea of how this name might have come about a century or so ago, imagine a European asking a local Aboriginal person one day what they were looking at after a recent bushfire in the region of what is now Canowindra. The Aboriginal might have responded ‘Gana. Wi-ndara’: ‘burn: fire-having’ or ‘it’s all burnt round here; there’s been a fire’. The European hears gana-wi-ndara, and writes down ‘cano-win-dra (Canowindra)’ as his understanding of the name of the place.

Jeremy Steele

25 May 2018