Box 4 Folder 3: New South Wales place names, 1899-1903 - Page 84

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Police Station Wollongong
12th Sept. 1899.

Re aboriginal names of places & their meanings
required by the Anthropological Society of
Australasia

    Senior Sergant Sykes begs to
report that he had obtained a List of aborig-
inal names of places (herewith attached) & their meanings
from Rosie Johnston an old and very intelligent
half-caste woman living in camp at Illawarra
Lake. This woman is thoroughly conversant with
the dialect which was spoken by the aborigines
between Wollongong on the north & Shoalhaven
river on the South & her information may be
accepted as reliable. No reliance can be placed
as a general rule upon information obtained from
old residents at this date; there is only one such
John Brown Esq J.P. residing at Dapto who could
afford the desired information but as that gentle-
man had been supplied with a form by the Society
interested & as his knowledge to a great extent
was obtained from the same source as that of the
Sen.Serg. he (the S. S.) did not think it necessary
to call upon him. the names in attached list are
those of well known places in the neighbourhood
of Wollongong & Dapto, & are written as spelt on
the Parish maps but the S. Serg. had endeav-
oured to write them as pronounced by the
aborigines originally; the words will be accented
if it is required.

Acting Supt. Lenthall                            Alfred A. Sykes
E. Dist.                                                S, Serg.
Sydney