This book has been recently published and can be found in detail at http://epress.anu.edu.au/placenames_citation.html the book can also be freely downloaded at this link. Aboriginal Placenames Naming and re-naming the Australian landscape Edited by Harold Koch and Luise Hercus Aboriginal approaches to the naming of places across Australia differ radically from the official introduced Anglo-Australian system. However, many of these earlier names have been incorporated into contemporary nomenclature, with considerable reinterpretations of their function and form. Recently, state jurisdictions have encouraged the adoption of a greater number of Indigenous names, sometimes alongside the accepted Anglo-Australian terms, around Sydney Harbour, for…

In Australia there are two systems of placenames; there is the introduced system of placenames that Europeans developed to refer to places, and the network of Indigenous placenames that Indigenous people use. Colonists, explorers, settlers and surveyors through their renaming of the Australian landscape have often consulted Indigenous people and adopted Indigenous names. Indeed it has been estimated (albeit rather unreliably) in New South Wales that over 75% of the current names of settlements and geographical features, such as creeks and hills, are of Aboriginal origin (Kennedy and Kennedy 1989). Throughout Australian history, there have been times where at an…

There has been a move in recent years to recognise the validity of Indigenous names and to promote the investigation and official use of these names. In NSW the Geographical Names Board has established a dual naming sub-committee and dual naming guidelines. These guidelines recognise the significance of Aboriginal culture by giving dual names to already named geographical features, such as, rivers, creeks and mountains. An example of dual naming is Dawes Point Reserve situated under the southern end of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority proposed a dual name be considered for the Reserve. Local Indigenous…

© Bruce Pascoe 2003 The Stoney Rises of Western Victoria were the site of a prolonged resistance by Colignon, Jarcourt, Keeraywurrong and Wathaurong warriors. Men like Kaarwirn Kuunawarn and Curacoin mounted attacks from the Rises because the horses of soldiers and vigilantes were so severely restricted in the terrain. The clans drove sheep from the squatters’ runs and coralled them in the grassy dells among the tumbled volcanic stones. Evidence of the prolonged nature of the conflict can be seen in the fortifications and gun embrasures of some old buildings in the Pirron Yallock area. During the volcanic era, long…