PLACE NAMES - before settlement and after

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.  ​

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View 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 are 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)