16

COPY:

"Nyleta",
Union Street,
TOOWONG. S.W.1.
May 17th, 1943.

Mr. Sydney May,
Hon. Secretary,
Q.P.N. Committee,
University of Queensland.

Dear Sir,

In reply to your letter of 4th April, 1843, relative to
the place name Toowong, I have made inquiries of many old residents
of the locality and in other directions with the following results.

I have no doubt that the name is derived from Toowong,
the aboriginal onomatopoe name of the Koel Cuckoo, (Endynamys
orientalis), sometimes called rainbird. This bird is not named a
cuckoo by reason of its call, but from the fact that it has the
cuckoo habit of laying its eggs in another birds nest. Tom Petrie,
---vide "Tom Petrie's Reminiscences"--- stated that this name
applied to a bend in the river below the Indooroopilly bridge. This
will be the place known as Long Pocket. But it seems to have no
connection with the naming of Toowong township. Petrie also stated
that the site of the Regatta Hotel was known as Jo-ai Jo-ai and that a
place near the Toowong Railway station was Bunaraba. No translation
of either word is given but the latter would seem to be derived from
Bunar-a-ba, place of bloodwood trees. It may have been the site of
an ancient blacks' camp which, I am told, once existed on the rise
on the Brisbane side of Toowong Railway station. By the way, Patterson's
sawmill was first situated near the railway bridge opposite to the
Toowong Sports Ground.

On the evidence of Mr. Patterson of Patterson's Sawmill, and
of Mr. E. B.Pears, and old resident, the name of the site of the present
township was, in early days, known as Noana. No translation of this
name is given, but I have little doubt that it is a white man's, and
indeed, the latter day aboriginals' pronounciation of Ngoa-nga, the
natives' name of the Moreton Bay fig tree, with the gutteral forming
g's cut out.

I am enclosing some Courier-Mail excerpts on the name Toowong
by a Mr. H. C. Perry and myself. Mr. Perry has evidently confounded
the names of R. L. Drew and A. L. G. Drew. It was A.L.G. Drew, and not
R. L. Drew who had land on the Milton --or Toowong - Reach. A.L.G.
Drew's daughter, Mrs. O'Neil Brenan, and her son are still living
there, near the Regatta Hotel, but neither can give any information
about the naming of Toowong.

Coming to the statement given on the authority of Mr. J. B.
Fewings, I find that R. L. Drew once owned land on both sides of
Toowong Creek, then known as Sandy Creek, which included the present
Toowong Sports Ground, and that he lived on the present site of
Mr.--Henderson's residence. This land was subquently held bt
W. J. Scott, an official of the Land's Department. I have no doubt
that R. L. Drew was the originator of the place name Toowong in this
neighbourhood. He appears to have taken a prominent part in local
public and social matters, and he made a gift of the site of the
first Church of England at Toowong which was erected on the hill on the
opposite side of the railway line to the Brisbane Boys' College play-
ground and overlooking his property. He had cut up his property into
small lots. As to the board mentioned by Mr. Fewings as bearing the
inscription "This is the Village of Toowong" and placed at the termin-
ation of High Street, it may be inferred that it was intended to
indicate the position of R. L. Drew's property, which the position of
the board overlooked, and not the present township. The name was
evidently adopted by the Lands Department when the Toowong Shire was
proclaimed before the Railway station was established.

Yours faithfully,

(sgd.) [F. J. Watson].
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