SEPTEMBER 2014 Newsletter of the Australian National Placenames Survey an initiative of the Australian Academy of Humanities, supported by the Geographical Names Board of NSW Point Hicks (Cape Everard) James Cook's Australian landfall Early in the morning of 19 April 1770 Lieutenant Cook 12 miles from the nearest land. Map 1 (page 6, below) and the crew of Endeavour had their first glimpses of the shows the coast as laid down by Cook, the modern Australian continent on the far eastern coast of Victoria. coastline and the course of Endeavour.1 At 6 a.m., officer of the watch Lieutenant Zachary Today’s maps show Point Hicks, the former Cape Everard, Hickes was the first to see a huge arc of land, apparently as a land feature on the eastern coast of Victoria, but this extending from the NE through to just S of W. At 8 is not, as so many people still believe, the point that Cook a.m. Cook’s journal records that he observed the same ‘saw’. At Cook’s 8 a.m. position it would certainly have arc of land and named the ‘southermost land we had been the closest real land, but because of the curvature in sight which bore from us W ¼ S’ Point Hicks. The of the earth Endeavour would have been too far out to southernmost land was at the western extent of the arc, sea for today’s Point Hicks to be seen. Cook would have but unfortunately for Cook what he saw in this direction seen the higher land behind it, and this was his first real was not land at all, but a cloudbank. Cook’s Point Hicks landfall on the Australian coast. is a position out at sea in water 50 fathoms deep and Much confusion has arisen about the whereabouts of Cook’s Point Hicks and an acrimonious debate has flared up from time to time. The Point Hicks controversy is recounted in detail elsewhere.2 Following Cook, a number of navigators (including George Bass, Matthew Flinders and John Lort Stokes) realised Cook’s error and it does not appear on any of their charts. Cook was much revered by British seamen and it seems none of them was prepared to write about his error. In 1880, Philip Gidley King, grandson of his namesake Governor King, recognising but not revealing Cook’s error, proposed Cook's Australian landfall: obelisk at Point Hicks, looking east towards Ram Head—the first land Cook saw (Photo: Trevor Lipscombe) continued on page 7 In this issue: Point Hicks (Cape Everard) – 1 • From the Editor – 2 • Thredbo: an Aboriginal placename – 3 • Placename signs in Auslan (Part 3) – 4 • The origin of Humula – 8 • Puzzle No 51: Vegetable – 11 From the Editor The naming of places by The article on the opposite page also fulfils a promise. Captain Cook in 1770 seems We've been trying to sort out the origin of Thredbo to have generated a surprising for some time; so Dr Harold Koch of the Australian amount of controversy. We are National University has come to our rescue. doing our best to resolve the In other news—we are pleased to be able to say outstanding issues.To that end, that ANPS Placenames Report No 2 is now available. we commissioned the late Tony Dawson's paper on 'Estate Names of the Port Rupert Gerritsen to deal with Macquarie and Hastings Region' was the winning Point Danger (June 2013); we asked Trevor entry from the Port Macquarie Historical Society in Lipscombe to resolve the issue of Rame Head the 2013 Placenames Australia Award. This, along (September 2013); and we promised that we'd ask with our other e-publications, is downloadable from Trevor (whom we fondly regard as our in-house our website at www.anps.org.au/publications.html. international expert on James Cook) to help us with identifying what Cook meant by Point Hicks. Hence David Blair our lead article in this issue. [email protected] Placenames in the media In our previous issue we made note of several placename-related broadcasts on the ABC's radio program Lingua Franca. Although the program no longer goes to air, the transcripts are archived and available from the ABC website. Two further programs may be of interest: The Politics of Place-Naming (Tim Bonyhady) A story from Tasmania about the politics of place-naming. Words for Country, edited by Tim Bonyhady and Tom Griffiths, brings together a collection of essays that show how the words we use to name or describe or discuss landscape powerfully influence and shape the way we experience and manage our environment. http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/linguafranca/the-politics-of-place-naming/3501690 Dutch in America (Charles Gehring) With the settlement, in 1609, of New Netherland centred on New Amsterdam (now New York), America has a significant Dutch past. For the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s exploration of the river named after him, this episode of Lingua Franca tells about the linguistic influence of 17th-century Dutch on American English. http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/linguafranca/dutch-in-america/3089002 Annual General Meeting The 2014 AGM of Placenames Australia (Inc) will be held in Sydney on Saturday 11th October, commencing at 11 a.m. Our meeting will be held in conjunction with an ANPS Workshop in which we'll review the design and style of our Placenames Reports.The location is Room W6B357 Macquarie University, and all supporting members are cordially invited to attend. Do let the President know if you're planning to come, and we'll send you details and supporting papers. (And many thanks to those of you who've sent us your 2014-15 subscriptions already!) We invite nominations for positions on the Management Committee: we are seeking to fill the positions of President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer and up to five other members. It would be helpful if nominations were emailed to the President ([email protected]) before the meeting. This newsletter is published quarterly by Editor: David Blair Placenames Australia Inc ABN 39 652 752 594 PO Box 5160 ISSN: 1836-7968 (print) 1836-7976 (online) SOUTH TURRAMURRA NSW 2074 2 Placenames Australia • September 2014 Thredbo -- an Aboriginal placename In our March 2013 issue, we noted that Thredbo, a village in the Snowy Mountains, bore an unusual name; while it seemed likely that it was Aboriginal in origin, the case had not properly been made. We promised to investigate, and asked for help from our readers in the meantime. Some interesting leads were suggested, and several readers have asked us whether we've made any progress. So we've asked Dr Harold Koch (Australian National University) to bring us up to date and to give us an authoritative summary of what is known. The name Thredbo is surely of Aboriginal origin, early reference to the forms of these names. although no specific meaning can be given for it. The It appears that all three names may involve a compounding name is attested as early as 1840. The amateur surveyor element of the form -edbo or -yadbo and that the vowel Stewart Ryrie in February 1840 camped at a place -e- of Bredbo and Thredbo may result from a contraction named Thredbo, which Alan Andrews identifies as 'a of, say, Breyadbo. The sequence -db- is well attested in the hidden valley at the junction of the China Creek with Ngarigu language of the Monaro (e.g. badbu ‘water rat’). the Little Thredbo River', some distance downstream Word-initial consonant clusters with -r- as the second from the current Thredbo Village.1 The name Thredbo element are also well attested: br in bralung ‘Pleiades’5, kr was extended as an alternative name to the Crackenback in the name of Krackenbak Peak (as spelled by Ryrie), and River and its valley. A minor goldfield in the valley was dhr in the personal name Dhraub. Variant spellings such worked as the Thredbo Diggings in the 1860s. In 1909 as birriny and brinj for ‘ashes’ suggest that such forms the NSW Tourist Bureau opened a fishing lodge called originally contained a vowel before the -r-, which could 'The Creel at Thredbo' at the junction of the Thredbo be variably omitted. and Snowy Rivers.2 The current site of Thredbo Village was selected as the location for a ski resort in 1957 by the Harold Koch Kosciusko Chairlift and Thredbo Hotel Syndicate.3 References The form of the name Thredbo invites comparison with 1 Andrews, Alan E.J. Kosciusko: The mountain in history. Canberra: Bredbo, which was mentioned as early as 1834 by John Tabletop Press, 1991: p. 85. For a description of Ryrie’s route, including Lhotsky,4 and which gave its name to a river, ranges, a map and quotations from his journal, see Andrews, Alan E.J. Earliest rural properties, and a village in the Monaro. The Monaro and Burragorang: 1790 to 1840. Canberra: Tabletop Press, 1998: 147-159. spelling of an early property name 'Braedbow' (Andrews 2 Swinbourne, Helen. Accordions in the snow gums: Thredbo’s early years. 1998: 124) suggests the original existence of a long vowel Thredbo: Thredbo Historical Society, 2006: 3. in the name. 3 For the early history of the resort see Hughes, Geoffrey. Starting Thredbo. G.E.F. Hughes, 2008. A third name in the region should be compared. The 4 Lhotsky, Dr. John. A journey from Sydney to the Australian Alps, Byadbo Wilderness adjoins the Victorian border and undertaken in the months of January, February and March, 1834.