Yesterday I heard about the Avon River in Victoria, and Stratford very near it.
At that time I was driving over the Avon River near Gloucester NSW and heading toward? Stratford.
And we have another Avon River even a dam giving Sydney some of its water.
How many, how many pipe clay creeks?
How many stony creeks?
Hundreds it seems while we have not gone close to Americas naming streets by numbers we have not given names a lot of thought have we.

Belly you need some of the good stuff to brighten up your life man.

Blame it on the Pome’s Belly

“Stratford upon Avon” was the home of Dear old Bill Shakespeare

I have problems with the confronting images of Doncaster in Melbourne versus Doncaster in the North of England

Ringwood in Melbourne is nothing like Ringwood, near where I used to live in Hampshire, UK

One English thing is the practice of celebrating famous battles in street names.. “Crimea Street” and “Sebastopol Terrace” spring to mind and railway stations too “Waterloo” in London.

Another UK anomaly was the practice of calling close villages by their location, like “Swan Bottom” (Buckinghamshire) or “Lower Upham” (Hampshire)

The Americans have street names as well as numbered streets and another US practice is to give a street number on numbered country roads (CRs) based on the distance from the post office. Hence I used to live at 1590, CR570, somewhere in Texas.

I prefer fanciful names to regimented numbers for places and streets.

There is a value in street numbers too. I live at no. 545. I had to join a local bush fire brigade before I found out why the numbers in the street were not consequence. 545 is exactly that many metres from the nearest major junction.

The worst is naming and re-naming :( places after politicians and other public officials who have done very well out of the State anyhow.

Then there is the politically correct re-naming. What a load of old cobblers and a good way to get voters off-side for life.

I get around a bit, and I love Australian place names. On long trips I sometimes make a sport of how many "Sandy Creeks" we encounter.

The kids and I used to sing (badly) the old Lucky Starr classic:

"I've been everywhere, man,
I've been everywhere, man.
'Cross the deserts bare, man;
I've breathed the mountain air, man.
Of travel I've had my share, man.
I've been ev'rywhere.

Been to:
Tullamore, Seymour, Lismore, Mooloolaba,
Nambour, Maroochydore, Kilmore, Murwillumbah,
Birdsville, Emmaville, Wallaville, Cunnamulla,
Condamine, Strathpine, Proserpine, Ulladulla,
Darwin, Gin Gin, Deniliquin, Muckadilla,
Wallumbilla, Boggabilla, Kumbarilla,
I'm a killer.

I've been to Moree, Taree, Jerilderie, Bambaroo,
Toowoomba, Gunnedah, Caringbah, Woolloomooloo,
Dalveen, Tamborine, Engadine, Jindabyne,
Lithgow, Casino, Brigalow and Narromine,
Megalong, Wyong, Tuggerawong, Wangarella,
Morella, Augathella, Brindabella, I'm the feller.

I've been to Wollongong, Geelong, Kurrajong, Mullumbimby,
Mittagong, Molong, Grong Grong, Goondiwindi,
Yarra Yarra, Boroondara, Wallangarra, Turramurra,
Boggabri, Gundagai, Narrabri, Tibooburra,
Gulgong, Adelong, Billabong, Cabramatta,
Parramatta, Wangaratta, Coolangatta, what's it matter?

I've been to Ettalong, Dandenong, Woodenbong, Ballarat,
Canberra, Milperra, Unanderra, Captain's Flat,
Cloncurry, River Murray, Kurri Kurri, Girraween,
Terrigal, Fingal, Stockinbingal, Collaroy and Narrabeen,
Bendigo, Dorrigo, Bangalow, Indooroopilly,
Kirribilli, Yeerongpilly, Wollondilly, don't be silly. "

One reason I love it is the original lyrics include not only where we live now, but places where I lived as a kid and many other places I've visited in my travels - in fact I've been to most of them.

Of course, Johnny Cash put out an American version that wasn't half as good...

I live beside the Severn River at Glen Aplin and Severnlea is just up the road to Stanthorpe. A Scottish surveyor called Aplin named our valley by a Scottish word meaning valley and after himself - Glen Aplin. Stanthorpe was the combination of two old English names - stannum for tin and thorpe for village, as the town was founded as a tin mine.
One of my favourite place names is Bringalily. I went to school at Yamsion where the Aboriginal people had gathered yams.
An Uncle lived at a destination below Toowoomba called Egypt. He told me that in the days of the railway line construction between Brisbane and Helidon, and during a drought, a drover brought in some fat cattle from his region. When asked how come he had fat cattle he referred to the Bible and quoted, "There is still corn in Egypt."
Another tale was that a man doing a perish, staggered into the railway camp on a hot day and said, "Hell I'm done!" The name stuck as Helidon.

I too am interested in place names, my driving takes me every place.
And I understand why the names are the same in some areas Glouster, did not spell it right last time maybe not this, has a lot in common with Bowral.
Same rich settlers same names.
Comboine, now I know that is not the right spelling has names that are stolen from Mittagong, Bowral, Moss vale, its first spud growers came from there.
Other names just beg me to find out more, murderers creek bridge on the Hume, or 3 legged man creek.
Those drives CJM are fun if you let them be, while killing time for a lunch time visit, only time I can, I took one last week.
In the Yaramolong Valley, nearly every farm had entered the scarecrow contest.
Far better than bush letter boxes one even had a rider on a horse both really life like.
I think we all understand in the days names got handed out distance and remoteness often meant names got used over and again.
But we did have a nation wide review names board or something and we still have hundreds of pipe clay creeks, stony creeks, and yes foxy spring Hill, creek rivers.

I like the name Illabo. It sounds almost South American Andean-like to my ear.

It is a little rail siding with wheat silos just west of Bethungra, on the main railway line from Sydney to Wagga, Albury, and Melbourne. At one time, as that railway was being built, a place called Billabong Creek was the terminus.

I understand the name arose when, when those heavy old cast iron letters they used to use for station names were being sent out for erection, it was found that the letters 'B', 'n', and 'g', together with all the letters for 'Creek', had gone missing. So 'Billabong Creek' became 'Illabo'.

So there you go.

That's Illabo.

BTW Belly, OT. Thanks for that comment re Fractelle's topic that isn't yet a topic on the 'Extradition without evidence from the UK / US' thread. I'm not trying to put it down: indeed I'd like to post to it, because I can see a lot of good mutually supporting stuff coming from it, but to do so where it is is going to rob the Howes' thread of focus and progress.

I will drive over 4 pipe clay creeks and 2 stony creeks today.
Pity it was not just 2 creeks if so we would not be so short of water.
They exist a long way apart.
Wild dog creek, surely has story to tell us?
That 3 legged man one existed before Rolf was born.

Its actually 'Three Legs O' Man Creek', Belly.

The name derives from the heraldic symbol of the Isle of Man, an island located in the Irish Sea between Great Britain and Ireland (Lesser Britain?). That symbol has three armoured legs equidistantly placed around a central point where they all join at the hip.

The Isle of Man has the oldest continuing Parliament in the world, Tynewald.

It is not actually part of the UK, but is a dependency thereof. It is topical inasmuch as Canonical Ltd, the company that sponsors the Ubuntu Linux distribution, free to computer users all over the world, is domiciled there.

Just in case anyone is interested.

Belly;
There are dozens of willow tree creeks and half way houses(pubs), 10 mile inns and so all relics of the Cobb and Co era as places to stop for refreshments and change horses. Some place names are descriptive and others for an event. Not far from me is a location called apple bog, where a horse lorry got bogged on the road with a load of apples. Other places such as Bunters cutting were named after the contractors that did the work there. One hill I know is locally called Pinchfinger after a bullocky lost a finger trying to chock the wheels of a bullock wagon on the hill.

What intrigues me most is the dozens of places in south WA that have names ending in 'up' and I wonder if someone can tell us why this is so.

Dear CJ,

Ah yes, my old stomping ground of
Wentworthville and Parramatta...

PARRA-does-MATTER!

I also love all the old Aboriginal
names - and the song you quoted that made them even
more famous!

We've got such a unique heritage that's
been handed to us of the history of our town and city
names - it's interesting to find out their origins
and meanings. Part of the pleasure of travelling
around this vast country of ours is the discoveries
of places and people made along the way. Names are
part of this adventure.

It is interesting the way some Australian placenames have been seemingly used over the years to give the old 'middle finger salute' to the 'received Imperial wisdom' or 'official position' in relation to persons or events of national, or even British Imperial, significance.

One such is the placename 'Byng', seen on signposts on the road between Lithgow and Bathurst in NSW. Doubtless it commemorates the British Admiral, John Byng (1704-1757), who was court-martialled and subsequently shot on the forecastle of HMS Monarch. It would hardly be thought that such would have been looked upon favourably in the day of its naming, as a place name, but Byng it has been all these however-many years. FWIW the Wiki states: "... Byng's execution has been called "the worst legalistic crime in [Britain's] annals ...".

I wonder, as such, is it about to be exceded by the Howes' extradition?

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=3148&page=0

(Perhaps someone should tell Microsoft about the connotations of this name, no?)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Byng

Another place name that intrigues me is the Sydney northern beaches suburb of Harbord. Harbord as a suburb or locality would probably have been being opened up for settlement around, or shortly after the turn of the 20th century, say around 1902 or thereabouts. I note that the spelling is identical to that of the middle name of Lt Harry Harbord Morant, 'the Breaker', executed as a scapegoat for the killing of a German missionary, caught and shot 'under Rule 303', who had been conveying information to Boer forces during the Boer War.

I strongly suspect the naming of Harbord was an Australian 'middle finger salute' to the then Imperial establishment with respect to that disgraceful episode. Does anybody know for sure?

OT Belly, there is nothing sinister about Brian Howes being online on OLO in the very early hours of the morning. It is just the time difference: for him 5:00 AM here is 7:00 PM in Bo'Ness, Scotland, where he currently lives under house-arrest.

Yes never thought there was FG understood the reason, thanks for the three legged man info.
My uncle was held up there a lot of years ago by hitch hikers.
Tipperary quite a few Irish names around and a few with that name.
our one is hilly remote and only a few live there.
Its biggest farm runs three quarters of a million live stock.
Worms.
Seen any of the dozen Jacks creeks, dirty creeks?

Where I grew up, there were two areas that had lots of "space" names as street names.

In one area, all the streets were named after planets and such: Mercury Crescent, Neptune Avenue, Saturn Street, etc. A nearby suburb, built up about a decade later, had street names all taken from the space program: Surveyor Court, Apollo Drive.

When I was a space-besotted boy, I thought those names were about the coolest thing ever. I was eternally jealous that my street didn't have a space name.

As a space-besotted adult, I still think those names are cool, because to me they represent a time when there was genuine faith in, and a higher general awareness of, science and technology. As opposed to the Age of Unreason we seem to live in today.

I sometimes wish I could meet the anonymous town planner who had the vision to bestow those names on an ordinary urban-rural fringe suburb.

There seems to be an Eight Mile Creek on the fringe of just about every coastal town in Queensland. Driving from Brisbane to Townsville, you get the impression that the creek is a lot longer than eight miles . . .

And Alligator Creek. How many of them do we have? And how many of them actually have alligators in them? None, one would suspect . . .