ON THIS AUSTRALIA DAY I WANTED TO SHARE a story we heard about how some Aussie towns got their names. A white “explorer” asked an Aborigine “What do you call this place?” The answer — in the local language, of course — was likely to be something like “You really are a dumb shit” or “You’re pretty f-ing stupid for a white man.” The explorer would dutifully phoneticise what he had heard and enter it on his map. And that was that! The opal mining center, Coober Pedy where people live in underground houses, supposedly means “white-man’s holes in the ground” giving the tale a grain of credence.
White Man's Holes in the Ground (photo from Internet, but we camped here in 2005)
Here are some of my favorites and their state:
Kata Tjuta NT — Oodnadatta SA — Coolangatta QLD — Woolloomooloo NSW — Boulia QLD — Coober Pedy SA — Ubirr NT — Burpengary QLD — Cooinda NT —Quorn SA — Goondiwindi QLD — Woop Woop WA — Dunedoo NSW — Innaloo WA — Nockatunga QLD — Coonabarabran NSW — Humpybong QLD — Wonglepong QLD — Mamungkukumpurangkuntjunya Hill SA
More recent additions include Lovely Bottom TAS — Bullshit Hill SA — Pisspot Creek TA — Titwobble Lane VIC
(NSW/New South Wales, NT/Northern Territory, QLD/Queensland, SA/South Australia, TAS/Tasmania, VIC/Victoria, WA/Western Australia)
Now program your GPS and go forth to explore.
