Some Place Names in New England. Part I: Aboriginal Names

Abstract

The subject of toponomy or the study of place names has long been viewed with suspicion in Australia and consigned by serious scholars to some sort of lunatic fringe where the amateur antiquarian and etymologist have been allowed to sport themselves unchallenged. The bulk of the work done to date has been occasional in appearance, uneven in scholarship and value as to its overall aims. The reasons for this state of affairs in Australia would seem to be obvious - the subject has belonged to no recognised field and has not appealed sufficiently to any discipline; the records are, at best, fragmentary, and no general system of attack has been evolved; the often ridiculous views of uninformed individuals have gained wide currency through the press; no system of close analysis of the names of a given area has ever been given the correct sort of publicity. In view of the recently awakened interest in Australian place names, it should be of interest to members of this society to see some of the methods of approach and analysis applied to names in an area with which they will already be reasonably familiar.