Thursday, August 23, 2007

Aboriginal Words

I've mentioned suburb names in recent posts and have never really wondered what they meant until I thought of how strange some of the words may seem to readers in different parts of the world. I looked up the Origin of Brisbane Suburb Names for the meanings.

Indooroopilly: This is corruption of either the Aboriginal word Yindurupilly meaning gully of running water or Nyindurpilli meaning gully of leeches.

Toowong: This is another Aboriganl word meaning place of doves.

3 comments:

Serina Hope said...

I think I'd rather live in Toowong....doves over leeches anyday.

Jean-Luc Picard said...

Intersting words. I heard that 'kangaroo' was an Aboriginal word for 'I don't know'.

Amanda said...

I didn't know about the kangaroo meaning so I looked it up. And you are right! It does mean 'I don't know'.