The Public Will Thank You for Your Timely Article on the Absurdity of So Many of the Names with Which Our Localities in South Australia Are Humiliated
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B The public will thank you for your timely article on the absurdity of so many of the names with which our localities in South Australia are humiliated. The places so handicapped are, like the unfortunate infants christened after certain celebrities, voiceless in the matter… (Register, 25 July 1900, page 7d) Baan Hill - On section 50, Hundred of Allenby; an adjacent spring gives a good supply of water all year round; derived from the Aboriginal panau - ‘ochre’. The name was given to a pastoral run by H.S. Williams and J.T. Bagot and, on 24 June 1976, proclaimed as a recreation reserve. Babbage, Mount - B.H. Babbage discovered the mountain in 1856 and named it ‘Mount Hopeful’; in the following year it was renamed by G.W. Goyder. Babbage Peninsula, situated on Lake Eyre North was, virtually, discovered by Babbage, as opposed to Lake Eyre South which was discovered by E.J. Eyre and not named until 1963. Born in London, circa 1814, he came to South Australia in the Hydaspes in 1851. A qualified engineer he was involved in the construction of the Port Adelaide railway, entered Parliament in 1857 and resigned nine months later to command a northern exploration party. By the end of six months his explorations had scarcely penetrated beyond the limits of pastoral settlement and, consequently, both the public and the government, increasingly, became impatient at his slow rate of progress. Eventually, Major P. E. Warburton was dispatched to take over the leadership and, later, it was said that, ‘Babbage’s expedition of 1858-59 was one of the most fruitful in its detailed collection of geographical information and the minuteness of its survey work.’ The Advertiser of 24 December 1858 has a satirical poem - one verse reads: Each caviller at Babbage then A fairy land, no doubt, he’d see, We’d northward send exploring Where others saw but gravel, To find new land, or water when And geographic problems he He chose artesian boring! Most surely would unravel. Prior to 1923, the only records available, hitherto, were those held by the government. However, in April of that year, fifty-six ink and pen sketches by Babbage were presented to the State Archive by Mrs W.D. Carr of Stirling. They were executed with much care and attention to detail and cover the whole course of the expedition from Port Augusta to Stuart’s Creek, Lake Eyre, and represent every type of landscape and a variety of natural features in that portion of Central Australia, from clay pan and salt lake to scrub, mound spring and native well: Every sketch has an appropriate description and the camps of the expedition appear replete with blankets, spades, and billy cans and suitably attended by the expedition’s dog. The views of Port Augusta, executed at so early a date, are of considerable historical value. A similar series in pencil was made during the progress of the construction of the overland telegraph line in 1870-71. In addition, the collection includes several sketches of Port Lincoln in the 1860s and one panoramic view of the foreshore, harbour and Boston Island. He died in October 1878 at Saint Marys where ‘he had an excellent vineyard and devoted a great deal of attention to winemaking.’ (See Edwardstown & Saint Marys Pool) Backstairs Passage - It separates Fleurieu Peninsula from Kangaroo Island and was named by Matthew Flinders in 1802 because it formed a private entrance to both Spencer and St Vincent Gulfs; Baudin called it Detroit de Colbert. In 1871, it was said that ‘at this season of the year it frequently happens that vessels from the neighbouring colonies fall in with the shoals of barracouta and when a fair wind ensures a rapid run up from Backstairs Passage, an opportunity of procuring samples of this really excellent fish’: Some few years back they were caught in great numbers and it was not uncommon for a vessel to arrive having from 10 to 12 dozen on board. Some mariners are of the opinion the Cape snook and barracouta are the same, but this is not so, for on this coast the snook is found during November, December and January to find its way throughout the… gulf and even to penetrate the river as far as the North Arm. [See Jervis, Cape] Back Creek Gorge - In the Hundred of Telowie, near Port Germein; ‘it is one of the sights of the North and until recent construction work [in 1936] changed the creek bed the road certainly [crossed] the creek over thirty times.’ Back Valley - The Aborigines called the district pondyong - ‘plenty’, i.e., of water and kangaroos. The wheat farmers in the Bald Hill area, 11 km ENE of Victor Harbor, travelled frequently to the flour mills at Encounter Bay by diverse routes, referred to as ‘The Back Way’. The name is found in official records as early as 1857. In November 1892, the Government Geologist, Mr H.Y.L. Brown and a party of politicians, visited a site where a diamond drill was at work on the Port Victor Coal Proprietary Co’s ground in Back Valley. A portion of the core from the drilling was put on display at the office of the Company, Royal Exchange. The Back Valley School opened in 1935 and closed in 1957. Backy Bay - In the Hundred of Cultana had its name changed to Fitzgerald Bay in December 1937. ‘The private Hummock Hill to Iron Knob Act of 1900 defined the route of the tramway to the coast and gave power to construct jetties and wharfs.’ In March 1913, a protest was entered by the citizens of Port Augusta against a proposal to survey a deviation of the line to a point near Point Lowly or Backy Bay and demanded that Port Augusta should be the terminus, it being only eight miles farther from Iron Knob than Backy Bay. Point Backy is the northern point of Fitzgerald Bay, North-East of Whyalla; a corruption of ‘Becky’ and, originally, named ‘Becky Point’ after Rebecca McCarthy, the wife of W. McCarthy, whose father, Alfred, was the first pilot and harbourmaster at Port Augusta. Bagdad Station - A name, derived from The Tales of the Arabian Nights, given to a South-East property by George W. Hayes who arrived in South Australia in 1839 and took up pastoral lease no. 346 ‘East of Mount Benson’ from 27 April 1854. Bagley Bridge - It spans a creek running into Lake Alexandrina North-East of Milang and recalls Charles Bagley (1834-1917), who leased sections 2836 and 2838, Hundred of Bremer, from 20 December 1859, following his arrival in the Shackmaxon in 1853. The immediate vicinity was known as ngalitjoar by the Aborigines - ‘grass tree place’. Bagnall Well - On section 305, Hundred of Dalrymple, remembers W. Bagnall, a shepherd employed by Mr Rogers of Ynoo Station who was killed by Aborigines in May 1851. He had a very savage dog that attacked the Aborigines, who remonstrated with Bagnall without avail; as he would not kill the dog, they killed him! There is a Bagnall Hill on section 35, Hundred of Kilkerran. A photograph of members of a tennis club is in the Chronicle, 28 May 1936, page 35. Bagot - Captain C.H. Bagot, MLC (1844-1869) is remembered by the Hundred of Bagot, County of Eyre, proclaimed on 19 April 1860. Born in Ireland in 1788, he arrived in the Birman in 1840, became an appointed member of the Nominee Legislative Council in 1842 and, from 1851, was the representative for the Light District where he farmed near Shea-oak Log. He was an agent for Sir Montague Chapman of Killen Castle who sent out 213 of his tenants, rendered homeless by enclosures in Ireland, to be under the direction of Captain Bagot. (See Kapunda, Koonunga & Montague Farm). According to Douglas Pike, he was the only friend of civil liberty in the Legislative Council but ‘he was far from being a radical, but his sympathy with the Dissenters kept him in touch with the opposition out of doors.’ A great temperance advocate he died in 1880, aged 92 years. Bagot Well is 8 km north of Kapunda and Captain Bagot sank it, in 1855, after which it was reserved for public use. The Bagot Well Post Office opened on 1 September 1860 on sections 260-61; mails left there at 10 a.m., Wednesday and Saturday, arriving in Adelaide at 2.50 p.m. The Bagot Well School, opened in 1863, closed in 1954. The first evidence of closer settlement was in 1872, when Samuel Davenport cut up one acre out of section 258, ‘on the railway line’ which he sold to Alexander Lister, a ‘blacksmith of Bagot’s Well’. About this time the name was applied to the railway station. The area was known, originally, as ‘Sour Flats’. (See Government Well) On 14 April 1865 a meeting was held on the occasion of the laying of the foundation stone of a new Congregational Church. The site of the building about to be erected was an acre of land the gift of the Hon. Thomas Magarey, MLC. Interesting and impressive addresses were given by Reverends M. Williams and W. Oldham and Messrs W. Lewis, Cameron, Kelly, Stobie, J. Adamson, Will Davies and Pinch. Divine services were conducted previously in a building lent for the purpose by Mr Henry Kelly. In 1866, there is a report on the proposed erection of a new school at Bagot Gap, while a local history says it opened in 1870; its name was changed to ‘Fords’ in 1912 and it closed in 1944.