DOLA starting to place derivation of rural place names on Internet

8/12/97

Learning the history behind the names of many of Western Australia's rural cities, towns and villages is now as easy as clicking on to the Department of Land Administration's site on the Internet.

Lands Minister Doug Shave said DOLA had started placing the derivation of names of rural place on the Internet.

"For example, Allanson, located just to the west of Collie, was referred to as West Collie," Mr Shave said.

"It was gazetted a townsite with this name in 1906. The name was changed to Allanson in 1916, and it is believed to be named after Arthur Allan Wilson, the MLA for Collie from 1908 to 1947.

"The name Ballidu is the result of a compromise between the Department of Lands and Surveys and local residents. The department wanted to name the place Duli, after nearby Duli Rockhole, and local residents wanted Balli Balli after a nearby soakage.

"The secretary of the local progress association suggested combining the names to Ballidu, and the name was approved and a townsite gazetted in 1914. The street names in the townsite are the names of varieties of wheat."

Mr Shave said the move to put the names of rural places on the site followed the success of putting the history of Perth suburban names on the Internet earlier this year.

"It is great to see the latest technology being used to preserve history, while at the same time making access easier for so many more people," the Minister said.

The history of rural names is being compiled by Brian Goodchild, secretary of DOLA's Geographic Names Committee.

"We have always had this information at DOLA, but it has been formatted in plan references, which makes it very hard for the general public to fully understand," Mr Goodchild said

"I am re-working the information to make it more user-friendly and, of course, more widely available through the Internet.

"Right now I have only put the place names which start with A or B on the Internet, but I expect the whole list to be finished by early next year."

Mr Shave said there was a great response to putting the names of suburbs on the Internet and he expected the rural names to be just as popular.

"The move to add rural names was given impetus when the State Reference Library asked if such locations could be included," he said.

A full list of places beginning with A and B can be found on DOLA's Internet page at http://www.dola.wa.gov.au/info/index.html

Media contact: Anabel Gomez 9366 0300 or 9222 9595