123

[left margin]
M^r [Sydney May]
With Compliments
[FJWatson]

M I L B O N G.
(The origin of the name).

In the early days of settlement in Queensland there was, some
twenty miles south of [Ipswich] and about six miles to the south east
of [Mt Flinders] (Buroompa of the aborigines) and at the source of
[Purga Creek], a flat on which there was , normally, no permanent
running water but on which was situated a large water-hole or small
lagoon. By reason of teh permanent water supply afforded by this
lagoon, the flat became a common camping ground for teamsters and
other travellers on their way,to and fro, between [Ipswich], [Dugandan]
station (MacDonald's), [Dalhunty Plains] Station (Kent's, afterwards
called [Coochin Coochin]), and other stations near what is now the
Queensland-- New South Wales border, and the [White Swamp] beyond the
[MacPherson Range]. This lagoon and camp ground was known to
residents and travellers as the "one Eye Water-hole" and it formed
the nucleus of a township which was, later on, officially named
[Milbong]. Even as late as 1893 when the township consisted of little
more than a hotel, school, general store, a church and a postal
receiving office , the writer,when visiting [Milbong] in an official
capacity, was welcomed by a leading resident to the"one Eye Water-
hole". In renaming the place, someone, evidently in the belief that
he was translating an English phrase to an aboriginal one, and know-
ing the the word "mil" meant "eye" and believing that the introduced
word "bong" meant "dead" or "non-existant" suggested the name [Milgong].

Various reasons have been advanced as the origin of the name,
one being that a one-eyed aboriginal at one time frequented the place,
another being that the solitary water-hole suggested a single eye.

Neither version is correst. The name "one Eye" is a corruption
of an aboriginal word. The aborigines' name for the place was
"Wunai gubung" or"gubung wunai"---the adjective may precede or follow
the noun ad. lib.,--meaning literally "Solitary water-hole" , the
word "wunai" meaning"solitary or alone" and "gubung" meaning "hole" ,
-- in this case a water -hole. By this it may be easily realised
how the aboriginal words came to be so corrupted as to sound as if
English. The aboriginal name, Wunai gubung, is of the language
of the Yugumbit ([Logan River] water-shed) tribe.

[FJWatson]
Hon. Member
L. P N. Committee