CORNISH PLACE NAMES IN VICTORIA
The county of Cornwall
is located in the south-west corner of Britain, occupying the area from the
River Tamar in the east, to Lands End and the Scilly Isles in the west.
Cornwall was able to withstand the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain until the
ninth and tenth centuries. This enabled the Cornish to preserve much of
their Celtic heritage, including the Cornish language and placenames derived
from this language. However, with the Anglo-Saxons came the English language
and placenames derived from this source. Cornwall now has a mix of
placenames derived mostly from Cornish and English, including some names
with elements drawn from both languages.
During the age of British exploration and settlement of
Australia, those in the vanguard were able to label their discoveries in
ways relevant to their perception of the land; this was obviously influenced
by their past experiences in Britain. Where people had a Cornish heritage or
experiences of this county, references to Cornwall began to appear in the
namescape. For example, Captain James Cook named Rame Head in East Gippsland
after Rame Head in Cornwall (near the entrance to Plymouth Sound), from
whence the Endeavour left England to explore the South Seas (refer
Placenames Australia, June 2002).
A combination of depressed economic conditions in
Cornwall and opportunities overseas, particularly in mining, led many
Cornish people to emigrate in the nineteenth century. During the 1840s many
Cousin Jacks and Jennies came to South Australia in response to the
discovery of minerals; firstly silver-lead in the Adelaide Hills, and then
copper at Kapunda and Burra. Major copper finds were subsequently made in
the “Copper Triangle” of Kadina, Wallaroo and Moonta, commencing from 1859.
Amongst the numerous reminders of the substantial impact that the Cornish
had on the early development of South Australia, are the placenames of that
State, which include Helston, Redruth and Truro (named after places in
Cornwall).
With the discovery of gold in New South Wales and
Victoria in 1851, large numbers of people in the South Australian mining
communities, including the Cornish, left to pursue what they thought were
better opportunities panning for gold. While many of the Cornish continued
to move in response to subsequent mineral discoveries in other States
(including South Australia), a significant number stayed in the Victorian
mining towns, or settled in Melbourne with the growth of that metropolis.
Emigration direct from Cornwall to Australia continued during that period.
Many moved from mining into other occupations. The descendants of these
people form the nucleus of very active Cornish associations that exist today
in Melbourne and in regional centres like Bendigo, Ballarat and Geelong.
Like South Australia,
evidence of the Cornish presence (or influence) can be found by a study of
Victorian placenames/maps. In addition to places with names derived from
similarly named places in Cornwall, there are also places bearing the names
of people with a Cornish heritage (i.e people born or raised in Cornwall, or
the descendants of such people). Furthermore, there are places bearing the
names of Cornish Saints and names directly linked with Cornish mining
terminology.
With the establishment
of the Victorian State Committee of the ANPS in 2002, each committee member
undertook to carry out a pilot project, to identify the origin of placenames
in a particular geographic area, or names based on a particular theme. The
choice of the undersigned was Cornish names. An approach was made to the
Cornish Association of Victoria, which readily agreed to establish a Cornish
Placenames Special Interest Group. This well attended Group now meets on a
monthly basis to help identify names that can be linked to Cornwall. As with
most things, the more you look the more you find. By the end of this year,
the names identified to date will be posted on the Cornish Association’s web
page, with an invitation for comment and suggested additions/deletions.
After that, the Cornish communities in other States will be approached to
ascertain whether they wish to join in a national expansion of this
initiative.
Once the web page is
completed to the satisfaction of the Cornish Association, the Victorian
State Committee of the ANPS plans to seek assistance from the relevant state
government department, in an approach to other community groups is this
State, with a suggestion that they might like to follow the example/model
process of the Cornish Association in promoting this aspect of immigration
history.
Some examples of the Cornish placenames located to date
in Victoria are outlined below, under the categories identified above-
1.
Named after Cornwall or the Cornish people
With the discovery of gold, people from many lands rushed
to the gold bearing regions. Many of these people congregated with those
from the same background, giving rise to various Caledonian Diggings,
Canadian Gullies and Tipperary Points. A number of “Cornishtowns” appeared
on the goldfields, until use of this name faded with the itinerant Cornish
miners. However, one locality so named has survived to the present time near
Chiltern in the North-East. The words Cornwall and Cornish were also
commonly used in the names of gold mines and gold mining companies, such as
the Cornish Company that worked the Cornish Hill in Daylesford.
2.
Named after a place in Cornwall
The town of Newlyn in the Central Highlands between
Ballarat and Daylesford is considered (by the descendants of several former
goldmining families) to be named after the village of St. Newlyn East in
Cornwall. The names of Cornish towns and villages can also be found in the
names that the Cornish gave to their houses. In Ruth Hopkins book on the
Cornish of Bendigo, she identifies a number of these names, including
Camborne House, Penryn and St. Austell.
3.
Named after a person with a Cornish heritage
The famous English harbour engineer Sir John Coode, who
was born in Bodmin, Cornwall, visited Victoria in 1878 to investigate and
report upon Melbourne’s port facilities. He recommended that a new channel
for the river be cut through Fishermens Bend, this channel becoming known as
the Coode Canal. The land between the old river course (since reclaimed) and
the “new cut” was called Coode Island.
4.
Named after Cornish Saints
A number of towns/villages in Cornwall bear the names of
the saints who helped convert the Cornish to Christianity e.g. St. Erth, St.
Ives, St. Neot. In naming places in Australia after these towns/villages,
the names of the Saints were transferred to locations far removed from the
areas in which they carried out their missionary work, and to a land without
any home grown Saints (Mary Mackillop will most likely be our first). St.
Just Point in Bendigo, where many Cornish goldminers congregated, is named
after St. Just in Penwith, Cornwall (also a famous mining area).
5.
Cornish Mining Terminology
In Cornwall many of the mine names are prefixed with the
word “wheal”, which is said to be a derived from the word “hwel”, meaning “a
mine”. With so many Cornish emigrating to the mines of South Australia, it
is not surprising to find that this practice continued in that State, where
over fifty mines were given this prefix e.g. Wheal Gawler, Wheal Prosper,
Wheal Rose. However, the practice did not follow the Cornish into Victoria
to the same extent. The only “wheal” mine names located to date in
Victoria, are the former Great Wheal Clunes Company (Clunes), Wheal Dory
(Daylesford), Wheal Fortune (Sebastopol), Wheal Kitty (Smythesdale), Wheal
Margery (Castlemaine), Wheal Owl (Bendigo) and Wheal Terrill (Fryerstown).
Note- the above categories are not mutually exclusive.
The process of collecting Cornish names is a very
rewarding experience, and an example of the way that name origins can be
studied, based on patterns of exploration, migration, settlement and
economic development, rather than geographical area. The undersigned would
be pleased to communicate with people already undertaking or contemplating
similar projects.
Chris Richards
04/08/03
Note- First published in the September, 2003 issue of
Placenames Australia, the newsletter of the Australian National Placenames
Survey, based at Macquarie University, Sydney |
