September 2003
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September, 2003 Cornish Placenames in Victoria he county of Cornwall is located in the south-west corner Tof Britain, occupying the area from the River Tamar in the east, to Lands End and the Scilly Isles in the west. Cornwall was able to withstand the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain until the ninth and tenth centuries. This resistance enabled the Cornish to preserve much of their Celtic heritage, including the Cornish language and placenames. However, with the Anglo-Saxons came the English language and placenames. Cornwall now has a mix of placenames derived mostly from Cornish and English, including some names with elements drawn from both languages. During the age of British exploration and settlement of Australia, those in the vanguard were able to label their St. Just Point, a locality in the city of Bendigo. discoveries in ways relevant to their perception of the land; Photo: Chris Richards this was obviously influenced by their past experiences in Britain. Where people had a Cornish heritage or experiences the numerous reminders of the substantial impact that the of this county, references to Cornwall began to appear in the Cornish had on the early development of South Australia, are namescape. For example, Captain James Cook named Rame the placenames of that State, which include Helston, Redruth Head in East Gippsland after Rame Head in Cornwall (near and Truro (named after places in Cornwall). the entrance to Plymouth Sound), from whence the Endeav- our left England to explore the South Seas (refer Placenames With the discovery of gold in New South Wales and Victoria in Australia, June 2002). 1851, large numbers of people in the South Australian mining communities, including the Cornish, left to pursue what they A combination of depressed economic conditions in Cornwall thought were better opportunities panning for gold. While and opportunities overseas, particularly in mining, led many many of the Cornish continued to move in response to Cornish people to emigrate in the nineteenth century. During subsequent mineral discoveries in other States, a significant the 1840s many Cousin Jacks and Jennies came to South number stayed in the Victorian mining towns, or settled in Australia in response to the discovery of minerals; firstly Melbourne with the growth of that metropolis. Emigration silver-lead in the Adelaide Hills, and then copper at Kapunda direct from Cornwall to Australia continued during that period. and Burra. Major copper finds were subsequently made in the ‘Copper Triangle’ of Kadina, Wallaroo and Moonta. Amongst CONTINUED PAGE 4 Welcome to New Subscribers Once again it has been wonderful to hear from a variety of organisations and individuals around Australian that are interested in the study of placenames and the ANPS. Thanks for your interest and support! A very warm welcome to the following organisations: Bothwell Historical Society Hervey Bay Library Phillip Island District Historical Society Braidwood Historical Society Historical Society of Cockburn Prahran Mechanics’ Institute Victoria Bundaberg & District Historical Society Historical Society of Mooroopna Queanbeyan City Council Burnie Historical Society Holdfast Bay History Centre Richmond River Historical Society Cairns Historical Society Hurstville City Library Ryde Library Services Capricorn Coast Historical Society Johnstone Shire Library Shoalhaven Historical Society Casey-Cardinia Library Corporation Kingston Community School Library Singleton Historical Society & Museum Castlemaine Historical Society Knox Historical Society Toowoomba City Library City of Greater Dandenong Libraries Koo-wee-rup Swamp Historical Society Traralgon & District Historical Society Clarence Regional Library Lakes Entrance Historical Society Trentham & District Historical Society Coburg Historical Society Learmonth Historical Society Tweed River Historical Society Cooktown Library Leichhardt Local History Group Victor Harbor Public Library Cummins Area School Logan City Council Libraries Victoria Park Library Donald History-Natural History Group Maclean District Historical Society Waverley Historical Society Eacham Historical Society Merriwa Historical Society West Torrens District Historical Society East Gippsland Shire Library Moranbah Town Library Whitton Historical Society East Torrens Historical Society Mosman Library Woollahra Library Frankston Library Service Mt Crosby Historical Society Wollongong City Library Gawler Public Library Newstead & District Historical Society Woodend & District Heritage Society Gosford City Library Parramatta Heritage Centre Woy Woy Local History Research Group Hastings Library Service Penrith City Library Wynnum Manly Historical Society In this issue News in Brief Farewell to Keith Bell On the Web: APIT Cornish Placenames in Victoria .......1-4 Keith Bell, former Registrar of Geo- http://www.apit.mq.edu.com.au Welcome to New Subscribers.. ...............2 graphic Names in Victoria, resigned on 7 July 2003. The ANPS would like to As many of you know the ANPS project News in Brief..............................................2 thank Keith for his support of our work has found a home within the Asia-Pacific CGNA Spot: Placenaming in ACT.........3 and we wish him well for his future Institute for Toponymy’s (APIT) division ANPS Research Friend.............................5 endeavours. John Tulloch, Acting for Historical and Cultural Toponymy. Horses: Clifton’s Morass.......................5 Surveyor General Victoria and Registrar The APIT finally has its own website, so of Geographic Names, will maintain the update your favourites! Brown Coal Mine to Yallourn...........6-7 link with the ANPS through the support I Quote..........................................................7 provided by his office to the Victorian The APIT site is linked to the ANPS site Shoalhaven Historical Society.................8 State Committee of the ANPS. but also includes additional material on New Publications.........................................9 the specific mission and goals of the Aboriginal Names Committee Institute as well as on the APIT divisions New to Nowra?...........................................9 The NSW/ACT Aboriginal Names Sub- of Technical Toponymy and Education Placenames in the News.........................10 Committee has met three times since the and Training, including preliminary Gregory’s Hamersley Range..................11 inauguration of the ANPS NSW/ACT information on the International Train- State Committee. This very active Erratum......................................................12 ing Course in Toponymy to be hosted by working party is currently focusing its APIT in 2004. The Placenames Puzzle No. 7...............12 energies on the Aboriginal Naming Mailing List & Volunteer Research.....12 Strategy and dual naming, in particular Do you have a favourite placenames the proposal to dual name a number of website you’d like to recommend to features on Sydney Harbour. The next fellow readers? Send the URL address issue of Placenames Australia will contain to Clair Hill at [email protected] for inclusion in a future issue. further reports on this work. CGNA Spot: Placenaming in the Nation’s Capital Canberra ACT - Ngun(n)awal Country t is well known that Canberra is a fauna or things of Iplanned city, but what may not be so relevance and well known is that the scheme for the importance to the naming of public places in Canberra was history of Australia. also planned from its very beginning. The historical research undertaken The National Memorials Committee by the Place Names presented a report to the Parliament of Officer makes an the Commonwealth of Australia on 14 important contribu- December 1927. This report outlined tion to the com- the unique scheme by which Canberra’s memoration of public places and thoroughfares were to Australian history be named. and the process of ‘...Every name that has been used commemo- place naming in rates a name famous in the annals of Canberra allows this Australian exploration, navigation, pioneering, history to be woven colonisation, administration, politics, science into the fabric of the and letters. Every name on the plan approved ACT. This research by the Committee is believed to be thoroughly is ongoing and varied characteristic of Australia and the Austra- and presently lians. All have been considered from a national includes: Australian Canberra - showing Parliament House, Lake Burley Griffin and viewpoint rather than a parochial one. Every journalists, inventors, Black Mountain. The roads radiating from Parliament House are state has been taken into account in the industrialists, mayors, named after Australian capital cities and the Commonwealth. selection of names, and Australian national Gungahlin pioneers, sentiments have been carefully studied.’ Aboriginal words, judges and the As the ACT Place Names Officer I have Heidelberg school. gratefully accepted membership on the This dictum (outlined further below) has NSW/ACT ANPS Working Group. been followed to this day resulting in a In 1992 the ACT Government adopted This group is presently investigating the naming system that quietly displays all the Committee for Geographical Names dual naming of places within Sydney aspects of Australia’s history, including of Australasia’s (CGNA) Guidelines for Harbour. This will provide ACT with an its Indigenous heritage and aspects of the Recording and Use of Aboriginal insight to a method of examining Australian life past and present. and Torres Strait Islander Place Names. proposed