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  • Home
  • BARKER/BAX
    • BARKER/BAX TREE
    • IAN MCLELLAND BARKER
    • CHARLES McCLELLAND BARKER
    • REVEREND CHARLES McCLELLAND BARKER
    • EDITH EMILY BAX
    • ELIZA WHITE BUTLER & JOHN CHARLES BARKER
    • EMMA CAROLINE PIKE
    • JOHN BAX
    • ARTHUR BARKER
    • STEPHEN BAX
  • PEARD/DUNLOP
    • PEARD/DUNLOP TREE
    • NORMA DUNLOP PEARD
    • LAURA RUTH DUNLOP
    • CHARLES SYDNEY DUNLOP
    • FLORENCE VICTORIA PEARD
    • ST HELIER PHILLIP PEARD
    • HENRY HAWKE PEARD
  • MORRIS/CORNEY
    • MORRIS/CORNEY TREE
    • VIOLET MIRIAM MORRIS
    • EDNA CLARISSA SABINA
    • EDNA'S WORSLEY CHILDREN
    • MARY EVELYN
    • LILLIAN EUNICE JOAN
    • THE FLOWER AUNTIES
    • THE MORRIS SONS
    • MARY ELIZABETH CORNEY
    • ROBERT HENRY MORRIS
    • DAVID CORNEY
    • MATILDA WALLIS
    • ENGLISH CORNEY
    • ELIZABETH PENNIFOLD
  • FISH/FISH
    • FISH TREE
    • NELLIE FISH
    • STANLEY FISH
    • STEPHEN AND MELINA FISH
  • HISTORY TID BITS - A BLOG
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HISTORY TIDBITS



​​a blog....




my  family history
​through a sociological lens

HOUSES - what's in a name?

9/10/2025

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The Doll’s House, 16 Cables Place, Waverley. 2019 Waverley Heritage & Design Awards winner Commendation for Emerging Architect - Lucy Shannon, Urban Rhetoric Pty Ltd.
At the beginning of Colonisation in Australia  there were so few dwellings that  everyone knew where you lived and people were easy to locate.   As the colony expanded and cities grew, houses began being named  for easier identification.  The numbering of houses became fully systematised early in the 20th Century.
Houses were often known by their names in the days before the numbering of houses became fully systematised early in the 20thC Often houses were named  relating to places in the  'old country.'  but  people also began having fun naming them.  The Sands Directories*   are  a great resource to  peruse house names.

*John Sands Ltd published the Sydney, Suburban and Country Commercial Directory each year from 1858 to 1932–33 (except for 1872, 1874, 1878 and 1881).The directories contain information that can help track when streets were named, when suburbs were divided, where people lived and what occupations they held. Each directory contains an index, an alphabetical street listing (first for the City of Sydney, then for suburban Sydney), an alphabetical resident occupier listing and a directory of trades, companies, organisations, institutions and government departments.
PictureAkoonah is an aboriginal word meaning 'running waters'.
For example, the 1915 Sands Directory for Woollahra lists properties with names such as Willesden, Kirkdale, Brighton, Stratherne and Linwood; all referring to places in the UK.  There is a Te Aroha named after a NZ town.  Other names such as 'the Glen' indicate nostalgia for  Scotland.  More fun is  'Iolanthe' named after a comic Gilbert and Sullivan Opera of 1882.   My own Great Grandfather, ROBERT HENRY MORRIS, and his family lived in a house on Lennox St named 'Dulce Domun'  meaning 'Sweet Home' in Latin. 

Aboriginal words were also freely appropriated for naming houses.  Mia-Mia, (shelter), Karinya (peaceful place) and  Cooinda (happy place) were a few that were regularly used.  My Great Grandmother EDITH EMILY BAX  lived in  Alt St, Waverley and she named her house which she built, 'Amaroo'  which translates to 'Beautiful Place'. 

Plaques with names were often attached to the front of the house.  Many of these still survive.  People still today choose house names and erect signs as a nod to nostalgia.


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​As an aside,  original outside taps can often help to indicate the year a house was built, particularly in NSW.  They were usually inscribed with the year they were manufactured  and  approved by the Metropolitan Water Sewerage & Drainage Board (MWSB). The side or the curved part of the tap are usually where you can find the stamped year.

On a fun finishing note, I  recall a trip to Tasmania, many years ago,  where we  came    across Doo Town.   Nearly every home  was a pun on Doo; Make Doo, This will Doo,  D oo come in, Just Doo it,    Love Me Doo, Much-A-Doo  etc.
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​Do you want to know more about your house?  There is a plethora of  material available and local councils are a wonderful resource.  Trove is a wonderful place to start.  I have found so many fabulous tid bits about houses my ancestors have lived in.  It can really bring the house and its inhabitants to life.  Typing the address into Trove is a good starting point.  Also a good facebook group to join, 'Our old house'.

Here are some links:

https://trove.nla.gov.au/

www.library.gov.au/learn/adults/lifelong-learning/how-trace-history-your-house

www.facebook.com/groups/1706748102970911/posts/3401609216818116/

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PLACE NAMES  - before settlement and after

8/10/2025

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TENTERFIELD
Was originally  inhabited by the     Jukumbal* people, (also known as Yukumbal), as well as the Bundjalung and Kamilaroi people.    Tenterfield was known as Moombilleen, often noted as meaning 'place of wild honey.'  However  there is also reference to the word Moom meaning death and billeen meaning small creek, which could have referred to the existing creek, dry in Summer and flowing in Winter. 

*I want to acknowledge the  dark history of brutality, massacre and the decimation of culture of the traditional owners of the  region.  As is the history of most Australian towns and regions.  I will write more about this in the future and  will endeavour to bring   a  truth telling light to the history  of all the  places my ancestors settled. 

The first premier of NSW , Sir Stewart Alexander Donaldson,  (along with Sir Robert Ramsay Mackenzie), established a property  in Tenterfield  running around 18,000 sheep on 100,1000 acres.  He named the property, Tenterfield Park'  after his aunt's property in Scotland.   

A tenterfield refers to a Scottish practice of using a field to  hang sheep fleece to stretch and dry on    tenters; frames with hooks.  ​

PictureView of Parramatta, watercolour 1839 By Conrad Martens

​PARRAMATTA
Parramatta's name comes from the Dharug word Burramatta or Baramada, which is commonly translated as "place where the eels lie down" or "head of waters". This name reflects the area's significance as a meeting and gathering place for the traditional Burramattagal clan of the  Dharug people who relied on the rich food sources from the Parramatta River, particularly eels.







​LISMORE
Many  pastoral stations were established and licensed in the  were granted     in the early 1840s in the lower reaches of the Richmond River.   In 1843  an attempt was made by Captain Dumaresq to establish a station with 23,000 sheep   on the Northern arm of the Richmond.   The subtropical climate was  problematic for grazing and the property was sold to William and Jane Wilxon in 1845.  They named it Lismore,   after a small island in Loch Linnhe in the Scottish highlands.  In 1855 a surveyor  was ordered to determine a suitable site for a township at the confluence of the Wilson and Richmond Rivers. The site chosen  was Wilson’s homestead paddock and this site was proclaimed the Town of Lismore in the Government Gazette on 1 May 1856.

The  traditional owners of Lismore ar
e the  Widjabul/Wia-bal people, who are part of the larger Bundjalung nation. The Bundjalung nation's traditional lands stretch from the Clarence River in the south to the Logan River in Queensland.      The Widjabul/Wia-bal are the specific group of the Bundjalung nation reported to have inhabited the Lismore region. 



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John Dawson Forbes' photo of the northside of Woodlark Street. (c1880)
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                            I work and live on the stolen land of the Kaurna p
eople.     
                 On behalf of my ancestors and acknowledging my own white privilege
                                            I am sorry.  Please forgive me. Thank you.'


                                                                                                                                                                      
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