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[left margin] TELEPHONE: B 2501 (5 Lines)
All communications to be addressed to the HON. SECRETARY, University of Queensland.
[coat of arms] Scientia ac labore
THE UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND, QUEENSLAND PLACE NAMES COMMITTEE. BRISBANE.
August 1941
Memo [Mr May].
Re. place name "[Tirroan].
A letter, received from Tasmania, by some one who appears to had early [connexion?] with Gin Gin Cattle Station, and which was published of by a local Newspaper, gave the informtion that this place was named after an [afr?] aboriginal stockman name [Diroan],
(The abo. was evidently called by his class name, which was locally pronounced [Turro-in?]) [FJW]
[FJ Watson]
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[left margin] TELEPHONE: B 2501 (5 Lines)
All communications to be addressed to the HON. SECRETARY, University of Queensland.
[coat of arms] Scientia ac labore
THE UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND, QUEENSLAND PLACE NAMES COMMITTEE. BRISBANE.
ap/ August 1941
Memo [Mr May].
Re. The place names [Kingaroy] & [Taabinga] -
Some years ago, one of the Brisbane papers published a letter written by the Surveyor [Hector Maneo?] who surveyed [bothe?] [Kingaroi] & [Taabinga].
He said it was customary for surveyors, when surveying the stations, to get an aborigin of the locality to assist at the survey [?] and from these many of the names [gave?] to stations were obtained
In the case of [Kingaroy], the survey party was bothered with red ants, which the native called "king", and this fact inspired the name" which is derive from. "King" the red ant an 'juroi' hungry, The latter is a [diatecter?] variation of 'dhau-räi which has the same meaning -
[Taabinga], the surveyor stated is named from the "jumper" ant, which the local native called beng-ga. Taabenga or Tyabenga means the place of jumper ants.
Yours. [FJ Watson]
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"Nylets", Union Street, Toowong, August 9th, 1941.
Mr. Sydney May, Hon. Secretary, Q.P.N. Committee University of Queensland,
Dear Sir,
With reference to your request of 8th inst. regarding the place names Toowong and Indooroopilly, I fancy my information thereon was given some ? forms and not by letter.
Re. Toówong. According to Tom Petrie, the place so named was the bend of the Brisbane River below the Indooropilly bridge, i.e. the point of the peninsular now called Long Pocket. Petrie also said that Toówong was the blacks name for the black goat-sucker, by which, there is little doubt, is meant the Koel cuckoo or Cooey bird (Eudynamys orientalis). The present site of Toowong was given it name by a Mr. Drew, who, in early days, owned a block a block of land which extended back from the Regatta Hotel to some distance on both sides of Sylvan Road. A daughter of Mr. Drew, Mrs Brennan, still has her home there.
Indooroopilly, which should Nyińdūrūpi'lly. According to late Mr. David M'Connel, who owned Witton Manor nearby, the place so-called was a small creek between his house and Toowong Railway Station, and the meaning of the name, leech creek.
This information was given by Mr. D. M'Connel to Mr. A. M'Connel of Clayfield some sixty years ago.
(Moongalba ) -
[right margin pencil] Toowong Perry Steering Wheel M[gath?] H Longman.
[right margin red ink] H.C.
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Moońgalbā (oo as in English bull, not as in moon) is the Stradbroke Island natives' name for the site of the aboriginal station, near Dunwich, to which the authorities have given the name (foreign to the place) of Miora. This information was given to me by a native residing there. I did not, however, get the meaning of the name.
Site of Paterson's sawmill at Toowong: - Tom Petrie gave the natives' name of this place as Bunaraba but did not give its meaning, The meaning is probably "Place of bloodwood trees".
A matter of interest in this place that I have discovered, is that, in the early days of Brisbane, there was a black's camp on the hill near by. This is possibly the camp from which Oxley, when exploring the river, heard the sounds of a great "coroboree", when he camped by the river side the night before he landed at North Quay looking for water.
According to Petrie the site of the Regatta Hotel, adjoining the land that Mr. Drew called Toowong, the blacks called Jo-ai Jo-ai, the meaning of which I cannot trace.
Yours faithfully, [signature] F.J. Watson.
[top right margin pencil] Museum
Longman
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Union Street, Toowong, 9th October, 1941.
Mr. Sydney, Hon. Secretary, Q.P.N. Committee, University of Queensland.
Dear Sir,
Regarding the name of the new railway station at 79 miles, forty chains from Brisbane, in correspondence between Mr. David W. Bull and Mr. Davis, the meaning of which is given as "Man and wife", you will think that my critism is caustic.
The word Nandroya cannot be of the local or any other South Queensland language, for it is not spelled in philological accord therewith, for in these languages the letter r never immediately follows a consonant. Regarding the meaning given, the local words for man and wife are mallim and mallim-gan, sometimes with a slight interpolation after the first syllable. It would seem to me that the name was chosen from on[e] of those lists one sees in the southern domestic magizines.
Yours faithfully, [signature] (FJ. Watson).