Box 4 Folder 5: New South Wales place names, 1899-1903 - Page 5

[Page 5]                                                                                        378
  

'Waddy being the aboriginal word for "stick"
the blacks called the place :Waddy-man",
a combination of an aboriginal word and
an English word. This name was sub-
sequently corrupted into "Waddy-mandow".
     Strangely enough, some years after I
first learnt of the above, a very old
aboriginal of the Upper Murray (now, I believe,
dead), in supplying me  with about two
hundred native words for simple  and ordinary
terms, upon being asked what a black-
fellow would call a wooden leg replied
"Waddy-mundoh".
3. Again, to instance how the same word
may bear different interpretations, I will
quote the very common word "Yarra".
At a very early date the meaning of
Yarra Yarra (the river on which Melbourne
stands) was ascertained to be "flowing - flowing"
or "swiftly flowing". Competent authorities
assert that the natives of the Lachlan &
Murumbidgee districts used the word Yarra
(distinct  I believe from Yarran) to signify a
Gum tree. Hence we have the Yarra Yarra
plain (not far from Young) and Yarra
Yarra near Germanton. Moreover, compare
the native name of Darling Parish - Yarranabee -
with a well known Station in the Wagga
district - Yarrabee. A great deal of
discussion has arisen over this word "Yarra",
many asserting thst the word has some
connection with water or rain while other
old authorities are of opinion that in
parts of N.S.W. the term applies to a Gum tree.
4.  Another word that occurs to me is