Meaning of Eurimbla

Jeremy Steele
1 day ago
4 min read

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, a property described in 1865 as being 30 acres originally granted to Andrew Byrne on the Georges River at Botany Bay. Byrne had (after his emancipation) specialised in the care of horses on his property, due to the benefits of the salt grass. Could this have led to Byrne's indigenous neighbours on the northern shores of Botany Bay referring to the area as a 'place of many horses'?

The Lord family used the name Eurimbla, or Eurimbula for later land holdings near Wellington, and in northern NSW, (giving rise to a parish name) as well as at least one other residence in Sydney. One of these properties was acquired in 1906 by Thomas Longworth junior and became a very successful horse stud.

In 1912 his uncle, builder Harold Longworth was responsible for the sub-division of 6 acres in Randwick, during which he created a new access road he named Eurimbla Avenue.

The name was also given to two ships and later crops up in general use as house and at least one other street name.

I understand there is a cattle property in southern NSW with this name, however their website says it refers to the colour red.

Do you have any references that may assist?

I have looked at Reeds Dictionaries, and various other sources.

Many thanks,

Aerial view of Eurimbla Avenue, Randwick NSW — Eurimbla Avenue, Randwick NSW

Where is Eurimbla?

Placenames Gazetteer 2010 provides the following information:

Extract from Placenames Gazetteer showing locations of Eurimbla in NSW and Queensland

Map of NSW and Queensland indicating locations of Eurimbla

Locations of these places, based on the longitude/latitude (latitude are ‘minus’ entries)

coordinates in the last two columns can be found from <https://gps-coordinates.org/

australia-latitude.php>, as shown below. Consequently, one group (151 series) is in Queensland and the rest (148 series) in NSW.

From the Gazetteer, the word can be spelt either ending in -bla or -bula. No variants are

given ending in -bila, a word in central NSW (Wiradhuri etc.) indicating ‘stream’. So the

final part of the word, if -bula, would suggest ‘two’, or plurality.

In the Bayala Databases, there is only one record for this place name:

Australian	respelt	English	EngJSM	source
"Eurimbala (Station)"	yurimbala	"Ironbark tree"	ironbark	SofM 19000521 [60: Blackman–Brisbane] [: 60.2:47] [Bjla]

Could this be the meaning? Ironbark? Regrettably, most unlikely. The entry is from Queensland, and 10-20 languages away from similarly named places in NSW. It might not even mean ‘ironbark’ in Queensland, too, at least based on the admittedly very limited Bayala Database information available for that State.

So what might Eurimbla/yurimbula mean in NSW? The databases threw up no word matches for:

yurim bula	NIL
yurimbula, yurim bala	NIL
yurimba, yarimba	1 match: ‘clumps of trees’: language/place unknown
yirinba	1 match: ‘dog’: language/place unknown
yirim	1 match: ‘tongue’: NSW Bunjalung
yarimab	1 match: ‘hill’: WA Nyungar
yurim	NIL
yuri	many matches from around the country, including WA and Tasmania
yura	many matches from around the country, including WA , but not Tasmania

When a search was made of the databases, without specifying the vowels (hence y@r@mb*, where @ = any single letter, and * = any number of letters), the following resulted:

"Kīndjarlōng būng yērrōōmbar"	gindyalang bang yirumba	"I'm very frightened of you"	fear I thee	Tkld KRE c. 1835 [:140:17] [Kre]
"Mirreekoo yirrumbulling "	mirigu yirimbaling	"The dogs are barking"	dog woofing	Scott, William [:38.3:23] [Wnra]
"Yarraman"	yaraman	"Horse"	horse	Larmer (RSNSW) BBay [: 226.1:33] [DGA]
"yarramba"	yaramba	"spear-throwing instrument"	spear-thrower	Endacott Place Names 1959 [:62:29] []
"yarumpa"	yaramba	"black honeyant"	ant black honeyant	Endacott Place Names 1959 [:62:51] []
"yarrambal"	yarambal	"Long"	long	Mathews KML/ Dwl [:278.7:5] [Dwl]
"yarrimbah"	yarimba	"clumps of trees"		Endacott Place Names 1959 [:62:43] []
"Irambang"	yirambang	"Big mountain; mountainous; steep; dangerous"	steep	McCarthy [: 25:46] []
"Yerranbi"	yirambayi	"Headland"		McCarthy [: 32:43] [Syd]
"Erambie"	yirambi	"Crayfish"	crayfish	Tyrrell [:19:15] []
"Ea-ramboo"	yirambu	"Small smoke."	smoke	SofM 19000122 [226 H-Williams] [:226:59] []
"Yerumbola"	yirambula	""	two	McGarvie, Rev. John: Hawkesbury [:25.1:15.2] [DG Dark [?]]
"Yerreemamb ula gâmmi"	yirimanbul a gamayi	"They 2 [are throwing a spear]"	throw they-two spear they-two	Mathews 8006/3/5 -5 [:99:11] [Dwl]
"Yiremba"	yirimba	"Dog"	dog	McCarthy [: 32:47] []
"Ir-rim-bâ´-goon"	yirimbagun	"Jew-fish"	jewfish	Mathews DGA 1901 [:70.1:11] [DGA]
"Ir-rim-bâ´-goon"	yirimbagun	"Jew-fish"	jewfish	Mathews DGA 1901 [:70.1:11] [DGA]
"irrumburri"	yirumbari	"Fish hawk"	hawk fish	Mathews DARK 1903 [:280.3:44] [Dark]
"Eurambi"	yurambayi	"Darling Point"		McCarthy [: 19:20.1] [Syd]
"Urambi"	yurambayi	"Sleep"	sleep	McCarthy [: 16:40] []
"Eurambie"	yurambi	"Darling Point"		James R. Tyrrell, 1933 [:19:25] [Syd]
"Eurimbala (Station)"	yurimbala	"Ironbark tree"	ironbark	SofM 19000521 [60: Blackman–Brisbane] [:60.2:47] [Bjla]

In the table, the language, where known, is indicated in square parentheses in the final (pink) column.

The speculation that Eurimbla might refer to ‘horse’ is supported in the table, especially if one allows that the recorder of the word did not hear it correctly, or did not write it down correctly. It would need to have been yaraman bula rather than ‘eurimbla’ or yurimbala.

The most famous near-match is the one for Darling Point on the Harbour in Sydney, yurambi. It is a pity that the meanings of many of the place names that were recorded were not captured along with the names themselves. But then, perhaps when the place names were recorded the meanings of the names were unknown to the local inhabitants, just as we do not know the meanings of the names London, Paris, Berlin and Moscow.

As the localities listed in the Gazetteer were all to the west of the Great Dividing Range, a further check on just inland words was made, resulting in the following:

"Yarraman"	yaraman	"A plain"	plain	SofM 19030724 [87a POLICE] [:87.3:27] [Kml]
"Yarraman"	yaraman	"White green tree"	timber white green	SofM 19030824 [100a POLICE] [: 100.3:6] [Kml]
"yerramutta"	yaramuda	"Grass, collectively"	grass	Mathews KML/Dwl [: 277.1:23] [Kml]
"[yarimulli or yarumulli]"	yarimali	"To enter (as one stream into another, or water into a vessel) ..."	merge	AL&T Greenway (Ridley) [KML] [:240:28.1] [Kml]
"yīramurrun "	yiramaran	"young man"	youth	KAOL Ridley [KML] [:18:8] [Kml]
"irramurrung irba"	yiramarun girba	"All uninitiated"	uninitiated plenty	Mathews NYMBA 1904 [:225.2:36] [Nymba]
"Ee’ ra-moi"	yiramayi	"The banks of a river or lake; cliffs"	bank	SofM 19030123 [198 Richards] [:200.3:12] [Wira]
"yirrambin"	yirambin	"necklace"	necklace	Mathews 8006/3/7/ - CRITERION [: 32:12] [Wira]
"Ea-rambo"	yirambu	"Small smoke. Name of a waterhole, Barringum district."	smoke	SofM 19011122 [166 MINES–NSW] [:166.2:21] [Gunu]
"Iramir"	yiramir	"Steep river bank; a precipice"	cliff	McCarthy [: 25:47] []
"yiramurung "	yiramurung	"a youth"	youth	Mathews 1904 [:286:23.1] [Wira]
"Eremeran"	yirimaran	"Rock "	stone	SofM 19030123 [205: LANDS] [:206.1:2] [Wira]
"Iremillan"	yirimilan	"Dawn"	sunrise	McCarthy [: 25:48] []
"Eremeran"	yirimiran	"Rock"	stone	McCarthy [: 24:32] []
"yirrimu"	yirimu	"wild parsnip"		Oates [:399:8] [Mrwi]
"Yurummulló "	yuramalu	"a dull sultry day"	sultry weather	Günther (Fraser) [:109:71] [Wira]
"Yurumbawal "	yuramba-wal	"an old man ..."	patriarch	Günther (Fraser) [:109:70] [Wira]