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Correspondence Between Sydney May And F.J Watson Concerning Aboriginal Place Names (ITM489477)
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Grosvenor Street, [Toowong], S.W.1. March 29th 1939.
Dear Mr.[May],
Dear Sir,
I duly received your letter of 27th inst. and I am pleased to think that I have been of service in the matter of place names. With regard to the origin and meaning of [Bulimba], in [Constance Petrie]'s book "[Tom Petrie]'s Reminiscences of Early Queensland" it is stated that the place now known as [Bulimba] was first known as Tugulawa. It was the home of a wellknown pioneer family named [McConnell] who later gave the name to a station property whereis now a railway station the name of which has been spelled by the railway authorities, Toogoolawah.
[Petrie] gave the meaning as "Shape of heart", relating to the shape of a river bend near by, but some other authority, whose name I ,unfortunately, have not recorded, has stated that the words related to a pecularly bent tree at the place. The fact that the words "dhu gulawa" meaning "tree moon", presumably referring to a tree the shape of the crescent moon, would seem to bear this out. According to [Petrie], [Bulimba] was the natives' name for [White's Hill], but he gave no meaning of the word.
[Bulimba], however, means "Place of magpie larks" (commonly called peewees, derived from "bulim" the said bird , and "ba" place of. The accent should be on the first syllable.
I heard your broadcast last night and found it interesting. If I may comment thereon I would point out that the name Millaquin, has no direct reference to a spear. The name is derived from "mil guin" meaning blind or'literaly, "eye wanting". In the three languages Yagarabul, Kabi and Wakka the words meaning blind are respectfully, "mil bong", mi gulum" and "mil (or ma) gui (or Kwin). The intervening vowel "a" in Millaquin has no meaning, being used between two consonants for euphony.
The [Terraces?]
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Crohamhurst Observatory, [Beerwah], Queensland. 27th march, 1939.
Director" [Inigo Jones], F.R.A.S.,F.R.Met.Soc., M.Am.Met.Soc.
Mr. [F.J. Watson], Grosvenor Street, [Toowong].
Dear Sir,
I have your letter of 22nd instant asking for information about the [Glass House Mountains] and shall write you again later as I am trying to get hold of Mr. [John Grigor], Senior, but he was first away and now his phone is out of order but I have spoken by phone to Mr.[Burgess]. I myself remember the mountains since 1891 but neither I nor Mr. [Burgess] can remember any such peak as you describe and, if such a thing happened, the detritus of such an immense fall would be easily recognisable even today. Mr. [Burgess] says there was a big landslip off the lower part at that time but not what you describe. Mr. [Grigor] may know something about it but the mountain looks much as it did then to me and I have made paintings of it on several occasions but have no early photograph. I always understood that the name referred to its inaccessability which was overcome after a bush fire many years ago when a tree fell across a cleft and enabled young [Macelson] to ascend it for the first time.
Your surmise is correct about my weather observations but my father was of [Crohamhurst] not [Mellum]. I understand that the name [Mellum] was a sort of corruption of Mellor after-wards a [Gympie] miner who made a great deal of money there and who was in the early eighties engaged getting cedar here and camped at [Landsborough] which was first called Mellum but whether that is the realy reason I could not be certain.
The name of [Beerwah] I have seen in part of the place names published in the Courier as analogous to Burwha but I do not think that is right as the blacks here always called the mountain Berry way or bury way (that is what it sounded like) and never [Beerwah]. [Crook Neck] was the mountain which made [Cook] give them that name of glass house and he called it "The Glass House" because of its resemblance ot a glass house or factory and you may remember there was one at [Northgate] for many years and it had the
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form of the peak through its tower and the skillions around it.
I have never head them meaning of Miketeebumgrai or [Beerwah] but will ask Mr. [John Grigor].
Mr. [Grigor], Senior, has just rung. He says that there is no truth in the collapse story and that the mountain is much the same as it was in 1869 when he first saw it. He does not know what the names mean but there is a legend of the blacks that the mountains threw stones at one another and I have head it as fire sticks and if this is right it would perhaps mean that the blacks were handing down a tradition of a volcanic eruption which they had witnessed and as the mountains have been extinct about 5 million years that would mean that intelligent human life has been here for that time and this agrees with the last conclusions of [Fairfield osborn]. Mr. [Grigor] says that on the southern side of the base of [Crook Neck] there is an amount of fallen stone but just big blocks about twelve feet across but nothing to agree with such a collapse as you mention.
Yours faithfully,
(sgd.) [INIGO JONES].
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Grosvenor St. [Toowong], S.W.1. March 18th, 1939.
Mr. [Sydney May], University of Queensland, Brisbane,
Dear Sir,
In response to your request of 12th inst. I enclose herewith a list of Queensland place names and their meanings as per list supplied by you. I have insufficient forms,only six, with which to present them formally to the place names committee; but if you wish to have them in form would you kindly send me sufficient for the list. I may mention that in my lists I have/given a phonetic spelling of the names and not in the R.G.S. manner. The accentuation of native words is usually on the first syllable and slightly on the third,but every syllable should be/clearly pronounced. See also notes on last page.
Trusting this may be of use to you,
I am, Dear Sir, Yours failthfully, ([F.J.Watson]) [FJWatson]
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Grosvenor Street, [Toowong], 8th February. '39
Mr. [Sydney May],
Dear Sir,
Before discussing the various items contained in your letter of 4th instant, I would like to explain that my knowledge of aboriginal lore is confined to the four distinct languages of South East Queensland. the bounds of which I have roughly described on the map which I here enclose. With regards to these I am indebted to a considerable number of persons who had been in close contact with the blacks in the early days of white settlement in Queensland and also to a number of aboriginals of the various tribes.
I would point out that there were four distinct tribal, or lingual divisions in that part of South Queenlsand which I have coloured on the map aforesaid. These divisions were subdivided into a number of subdivisions which were more or less nomadic habit but each of which confined themselves to certain portions of the territory. Each of these had a distinguishing name as, for instance, that in the vicinity of Brisbane was the Turrbul,or Turrabul subdivision of the Yagarabul Tribe. The names of the great lingual divisions and also of their languages were, respectively, Wakka, Kabi, Yagarabul and Ygumbir. Curiously, the words Wakka, Kabi, Yagar and Yugum each means "no".
This denomination of a tribe seems to be common on the middle east coast of Australia.In the speech of the subdivisions there was some dialectial differences but none so great as to interfere with facile lingual intercourse. Naturally, on either side of a tribal border there was a considerable interweaving (if I may use the term) of the languages which has led to some confusion in its results. For instance, some of the [Glass Mountains] are each known by two names, one in the Kabi language and one in Yagarabul. These mountains, I may say are near the boundary (between-)
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Grosvenor Street, [Toowong],S.W.1. 24th, January, 1939.
Dear Sir,
In response to your request of 12th instant I am sending to you enclosed herewith, on the form with which you provided me, the origin and meanings of two of the place names you emntioned, i.e. [Goolman] and [Kulgun]. I have at hand aboriginal vocabularies countaining the words mutdheripilly (which I take to be identical with Mutdapilly), woogaroo and moogera with their meanings, but as I have no direct evidence of their application to the places in question I do not feel justified in submitting them formally. with regards to the name [Kalbar], this place name was changed from [Engelsberg] during the Great War ,so its origin shoul be obtainable from the Local Austhority of its locality.
There is a holding on the [Burnett River] of this name on which sugarcane used to be grown,but although in the language of the Wide Bay aborigines [Kalbar] means a star, I do not think this definition is applicable to either place.
Should I at any time be able to definitely ascertain the origin and meanings of the other names I shall be very pleased to do so.
Yours faithfully F.JWatson
Mr.[Sydney May], Hon. Secretary, Queensland Place Names Committee, University of Queensland Brisbane.
[Calvert] - [Affred?] No of [Schirt? 2 ] [Normal 1?]
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[stamp] 16 JAN 1939
Grosvenor Street, [Toowong], S.W.1. 14th January ,1939.
Dear Sir,
I have received your letter of 12th instant requesting information relative to certain place names.
The inquiry form you mentioned as being enclosed did not ,however, come to hand.
I can give definite information as to the meaning and origin of, at least two of the names, and if you will be so good as to send me one of the forms, I may in the meantime be able to obtain confirmation of interpretations of some of the others.
Yours faithfully, [F.JWatson]
Mr. [Sydney May], Hon. Secretary, University of Queensland.
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Information supplied by Mr. [F.J. Watson], [Toowong].
In the study of te toponomy of S.E. Queensland there are several peculiarities of aboriginal philology and speech to be taken into consideration, one of these being a consonant which has no representative in the English alphabet, but which may best be represented by the digraph 'dh'.
This consonat may be mearly pronounced by attampting to pronounce the English word 'jam' without touching the palate with the tongue, thus converting the sound from a palatal to a dental.
A good deal of confusion has been caused by the variation of this consonant, which has been rendered by translators, variously, as t, d, ch, and j. Especially so has this been in the translation of place names and particularly so in the case of the word dhagun, which means place, land or country.
As an affix to place names, the aboriginaes, by their common practice of eliding the letter g when it occurred between vowels, habitually abbreviated dhagum to dhan, and by the further elisoion ofn to dha. Thus it occurs in translations as da, ta, tan, dan, cha, and tya. This word may be iether a prefix or an affix.
Examples are, Burand-da, meaning "place of wind"; Taa-binga, from Dha-bengga, "place of jumper ants"; [Tamborine], which should be Tan-buragun, meaning "place of boormerangs" (Note that in the word buragun, the first vowel is nearly elided and the letter 'r' stressed; and [Caboolture] (in which-ture has been converted from cha or tya), from Kabul-dha, meaning "place of carpte snakes).
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[left margin]
Mr. [Sydney may] With Compliments [FJWatson]
[right margin] Card
MI Á N J I N. (The aborigines' name for Brisbane. Its origin and meaning).
According to the pioneed, [Tom Petrie], Mianjin was the aborigines name for the riparian peninsula on which is now situated the House of Parliament, The University, the Domain, and the Botanic Gardens....
The name is derived from two words, namely, migan, emaning a spike, and dhagun meaning place, land or coutry.
In the translation of this compounded word, two peculiarities of aboriginal speech must be taken into consideration, one being a consonant which has no representattive in the English language but is here represented by dh, and which is usually rencered by translators as d ,t,ch, or j. The other peculiarity is the aborigines' custom of eliding the letters g (hard) and k where they occur beetween vowels. Thus migan becomes mian, and dhagun, with the elision also of the obscure vowel u, becomes dhan, the compounded word thus becoming miándhan, or to the English speaking tongue, Miánjan or miánchan. The name means "place like(or shape of) a spike".
In the pronunciation of the name the letter i is as ee in the English word meek, the first letter a is obscure and the last a slightly long. The accent is principally on the first syllable but both syllables should be distinctly pronounced.
[FJWatson]