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Grosvenor Street, Toowong, S.W.1. May, 19th, 1939.
Dear Mr. May,
Herewith as per your request of last Tuesday I am inclosing a few interpretations of native Place Names which I trust may be of use to you. These are such as I can recall at present. If I can recall or trace out any others north of Brisbane I will send them along.
Yours faithfully, FJWaston
I will fill in the forms you sent when I can confeniently do so.
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Origin of place names. By FJWatson
Wolvi. (i as in wine)
A mountain range and a farming centre.
From the Kabi word wolvai, or wolbai, a young kangaroo at the stage of growth when it can gent out and in its mother's pouch.
This name is, no doubt, the origin of wallaby the white man's name for the lesser kangaroos.
Kin Kin. A dairying and Banana growing centre about 10 miles north east of Cooran railway station.
The origin of this place name has been the subject of much discussion. It is probably derived from the native words ka-uin kauin (ka-ooin ka-ooin), a variant or abbreviation of kutchin kutchin, meaning red, Kin Kin is in redsoil country which is drained by Kin Kin, otherwise Kutchin, Creek.
Mount Kanagin, otherwise the Black Gin Mountain, situated near Theebine Railway Station. The name is derived from kanigan, meaning a young aboriginal woman, literally it meanins a daughter, feminine of the Kabi word kani, a son.
Kanyan. A railway station, named from the mountain nearby, Mount Kanaghan.
Kanighan. A farming centre near to and East of Mount Kanaghan, from which the same is derived.
Gootchie. A Railway Station on the N.C.Railway. Named from the grazing holding nearby, Gutchy, which was named from the Kabi word gutchi, the ground iguana.
Bauple. (sometimes spelled Bopple). A mountain near Tiaro. The name is derived from the Kabi word bopval (as near as a white man can pronounce it). Bopval is the native name of the frilled lizard. A legend of this mountain is that it was once inhabited by a spirit in the form of a frightful old woman who prevented anyone one from going to the top of the mountain.
(If her appearance was anything like the Frilled lizard with open mouth, frill expanded and on its hind legs she must indeed have been frightful. Perhaps that is how the mount got its name).
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[right margin] [by F J Watson]
[Mungar] A railway junction. Originally the site of a sawmill called the [Mary River Sawmill]. A small sawmilling business was hereacquired in the late sixties or early seventies of last century by [Messrs Ramsay and Co.] of [Maryborough]. Under the able managment ,first by [Mr H. Armitage] and later by his brother [Edward] ,a large business was built up whereby many millworkers ,mechanics , and timber-getters and teamsters were employeed. But with the "cutting out" of the large timber leases in the locality held by the company and the increased means of transport by rail of log timber to the mills at [Maryborough], which was the port for the district, the business at [Mungar] waned and the milling plant was/acquired by [Hyne and Son] of [Maryborough] for the purpose of enlarging the plant at their town sawmill,
The name Mungar or,as it was first spelled, Mungarr, is derived from the Kabi word Mungarr,meaning the blue gum tree.
The full story of the rise and fall of the towship of [Mungar] would read as quite a small romace.
[Yerra]. A railway station three miles from [Mungar] on the Gayndah Railway is derived from yirra, the native name of the spotted gum tree. A sugar plantation,now non est, nearby was called [Yerra Yerra].
[Yengarie]. A railway station, nine miles from [Maryborough].
Also a Dairy farm now occupied by [Mr J. Mahony].
About 1862 [Yengarie] was the site of a boiling-down establishment owned by a [Mr J.C.White], afterwards a [M.L.C.] of New South Wales. This property was later acquired by [Tooth and Cran] of [Widgee Widgee] and other stations who erected and managed a sugar factory and refinery which, in its day,was the largest in Queensland. After many years, with the decline of sugar-growing on the [Mary River], Messrs [Cran & Company] removed their interests to the [Isis] and [Bundaberg]. The story of [Yengarie] is also a romance. The name has been said to be derived from native words meaning a sleeping place or sleepy place, but a Kabi aboriginal informed me,and he was quite emphatic on that the name was yan Kárí (karee)meaning "go away". In discussing this with a son of the original owner he agreed that this was probably the origin of the name.
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[rigth margin] By [F J Watson]
[Pialba]. A watering place near [Maryborough].
A aboriginal source shows this name to be derived from baiyiba meaning "place of fighting" actually a battle field. from baiyi, to fight , and ba, place of.
[Torquay]. A watering place near [Pialba].
This name is derived from the Kabi words"tukki dalbur" from tukki , stones ,and dalbur, short; actually, "short place of stones." It relates to rocky reef running into the sea on a on a sandy beach some five to seven miles long which is otherwise quite devoid of stone. The place was generally known to the blacks a "Tukki"(Tuckee) or The Stones.
Its similarity in sound to [Torquay], a popular watering place in England,no doubt, inspired the present spelling of the name.
[Urangan].Now named [Port Maryborough].
Is derived from the native name of the dugong, Yuangan.
[Tin Can Bay].
Is derived from "tinchin" one of the native names of the mangrove tree.
[Aramara]. A railway station and, one time, a timbergetting centre,on the Gayndah Railway, sometimes called by oldtimber-getters Yúramára, is derived from the native Kabi worss "yirra mara"meaning"spotted gumtrees many".
[Goomeri].
A railway station on the Nanango Railway. The word means a shield. The shield was the narrow one used in hand to hand fighting with nulla or dhaberi. The word which is of Wakka origin was sometimes pronounced gudmeri. The Kabi word for this weeapon is kunmarim.
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[right margin] By [F J Watson]
[Kinbombi].
A railway station, farming and timber-getting centre. Situated on teh Nango Railway.
This name is of kabi and also Wakka origin. Its meaning is " a fight about a woman", from "kin, or gin", a woman, and "bumbe" , to beat". A kin-bumbe is a common occurrence among the blacks, in which case one adversary is challenged by the other and certain rules have to be strictly regarded,an infringement of which renders the offender liable to punishment by onlookers. In the present instance the fight became historical by reason that one of the contestants spreared his opponent while he was sitting down and not prepared to defend himself. In such a case the penalty was death for the offender, and thus the place/came to be known to the blacks by the above name.
[Dundáthu].
Once the site of a sawmill owned by [Pettigrew & Sim], situated on the left bank of the [Mary River], 10 miles below [Maryborough],
It is still the name of a reach in the [Mary River]. According to [Tom Petrie] the name is derived from the native name of the Kauri pine tree, " dundardum".
[Bingera].
Originally a cattle station on the [Burnett River] some 12 miles from [Bundaberg]; first occupied by [A.&R.Walker]. in 1857. Later on,the scrub land on the north bank of the river was occupied by [Gibson Brothers] who there formed a sugar plantation and sugar mill for which the name Bingera was retained.
The cattle station is still occupied by descendants of the original owners. Incidentally, it may be mentioned that the [Gibson's], in early day's of sugar-making in Queensland,owned and operated a small sugar-mill at [bulimba] in which the crushing plant with vertical rollers was driven by horse-power, an interesting contrast to the large modern plant now in use at [Bingera].
The name, translated for me by a Kabi native, is the native's name for the fish, bony bream.