Current Activities
National: October Conference | AUSTRALEX | Database Development | Research Friends
State based initiatives: Aboriginal Placenames Workshops
Research Friends
It is an enormous task to undertake the study of all the placenames in Australia and the project will certainly not succeed without the combined efforts of many people. As a result the ANPS is inviting members of the public to become volunteer Research Friends of the ANPS. The survey hopes that much of the research information about Introduced placenames will be collected by interested individuals and members of historical societies all over Australia. Indeed, the survey frequently finds that many of the truly interesting and valuable toponymic discoveries are dug up by amateur enthusiasts or local history researchers who come across a reference in a diary, letter or a newspaper article that would otherwise never been discovered.
Research into Indigenous placenames requires special knowledge and linguistic expertise so information about Indigenous placenames will be collected by Indigenous and non-Indigenous linguists, ethnologists and other specialists in conjunction with Indigenous communities, speakers of Australian languages and their descendents. The ANPS is forging links with researchers and community organisations involved language and cultural work in order to support research into Indigenous placenames.
Dr Joyce Miles
I emigrated to Australia in October 2000 and the following year became an Honorary Associate of the Division of Humanities and a researcher for the ANPS. My Ph.D. was based on research into the rise of suburbia, one aspect being the significance of the naming of streets and houses in relation to an area’s history.
On joining the ANPS I initially focused on the placenames given by the early explorers, revealed by their journals and diaries. Once my husband and I began to undertake frequent road-trips, I had the opportunity to undertake fieldwork and I have begun to investigate settlements, such as Muswellbrook, Singleton, Broke, Cessnock – in fact on arriving in a town my first port of call is the local history library and their historical society in a search for primary documentation. Such research has led to several articles and photographs in Placenames Australia, the ANPS newsletter.
Discovering the wide variety of Australian placenames – Coffs Harbour, Collector, Wail, Flowerpot, Crystal Brook – gave me the idea for a series of placenames quizzes currently appearing in the newsletter.
My original research was largely on house names in the UK, Europe and the Commonwealth resulting in the publication of three books. I recently discovered that house names have played a significant role in Australian placenaming as many places are alleged to derive their names from old houses, but little appears to have been recorded of this important aspect of Australian history. This is my most current area of research.
If you are interested in becoming a Research Friend of the ANPS, you can email Flavia Hodges or click here.
The Placenames Australia newsletter regularly features articles on the research and toponymic interests of Research Friends. Click on the links below to view the relevant newsletter issue featuring the following Research Friends: Alexandra Orr, Jan Tent, Val Attenbrow, Grant Uebergang, Denis Gojak, Narelle Quinn, Ron Potter, Robert White.
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