88

Grosvenor Street,
Toowong, S.W.1.
3rd June, 1939.

Mr. Sydney May,
Hon. Secretary,
Place Names Committee,
University.

Dear Sir,

I have your letter of the 1st June. I am sorry that
I can give you little information as to the names of places in
the districts that you mention. Regarding Booval, I have
frequently tried to find out the origin of this name without
success. I think, however that this name must be derived
from bopval or bobval, a native name of the frilled lizard.
Of Pouincraddie, Mihi, Borallon and Wanora I can give no
information. So many names are so mis-spelled that
without local knowledge one can arrive at nothing.
On the Brisbane Valley Railway are two or three names
which may be literally translated, as, for instance. Nukku,
a watershed or the land about the head of a creek or other
water-course; Yimbun, a reed with an edible root; and Gilla,
one of the native names for the wild bee and its honey.

At Coominya, a resident of many years standing told me
that he had been given to understand that the name indicated
water within sight; if this is so the name should be Koonginya,
from koong, water and nya, to see; in compound native words
an intermediate unstressed vowel fequently occurs, hence the
inclusion of the letter i. I am sorry that I can give no
no information re. the spelling of Dr. Dorsay's? name. The
only somewhat similar name of earlier days that I have come
across is that of W.A.Dorsey who, in the early eighties was
in charge of one of the Border Customs stations.

Regretting that my information is, this time, so meagre,
I am, yours faithfully,
FJWatson
(F.J.Watson).