Australia's weird and wonderful place names | Did You Know?

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You wouldn’t think twice about the names of most places. Some are just a bit harder to pronounce, and others might cause you to raise an eyebrow. But the names we give to places — even the seemingly weird ones — convey their significance and history and, more often than not, a sense of identity.

Following Dutch and English exploration with Willem Janszoon, James Cook and Matthew Flinders, Terra Australis Incognita was colonised and became known as Australia.

Several of our place names reflect this colonial history, but other place names reflect an older history - that of Indigenous Australians.

RESOURCES
Gazetteer of Australia

Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS)

Qld place name search

NT names register extract

NSW names register extract

VIC names register extract

WA place name history

SA place names search

Tas place names search


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