Abstract: Place names are most commonly used but the history behind how they were created as geographical nomenclature for cities is not always well understood. Most Australian geographic features have been named in one or more of the 260 Indigenous languages spoken on the continent and the relationship between Aboriginal people and the land is as strong today as it was 400 centuries ago (ICSM, 2010). However with the European settlement, “an English-based naming system has developed, creating place names from British or other European sources or from Indigenous words” (ICSM, 2010, p. 3).

The Southwest of Australia is unique as it has the largest share of preserved Indigenous names and more than 50% of the currently used place names are of Aboriginal, namely Nyungar origin (Goodchild, 2011). Furthermore, in 2007 the Western Australian State Government adopted a dual naming policy for places which recognises the importance of Aboriginal heritage and encourages its preservation (Landgate, 2007). There is however a void in the identifying, recording, writing and understanding of the Australian Indigenous history as it relates to the Nyungar meaning of place names. European cartographic conventions and systems of boundary-making are not directly or easily transferable into Nyungar systems of naming and land use. Western maps are usually set out in such a way as to imply that places have fixed names over time. Those with even a basic understanding of Nyungar systems of reading and speaking about boodjar (country) would immediately recognise that introduced cartographic conventions are inadequate analytical tools for talking about Nyungar names and land use. It is very much under-researched and often extremely difficult to investigate the history and meanings of the Nyungar names of places.

The area referred to as the Southwest, and also known as Nyungar Boodjar to Nyungar people, is approximately the area west of Esperance, south of Geraldton and west of Nungarin. It is described by the west coast on its western side and a line approximately running from Esperance through Nungarin to Geraldton on its eastern side. It is further divided into separate but interconnected Nyungar language regions which Tindale (1974) identified as: Wudjari, Koreng, Pibelmen, Wardandi, Ngakinjaki, Balardong, Juat, Amangu, Minang, Kaneang, Wilman, Pinjarup and Kaneang. Due to the shear size of Nyungar Boodjar, a large amount of the 50,000 place names held by Landgate, the Western Australian agency responsible for land and property information, are of Nyungar origin. The local Nyungar peoples collaborated with European settlers, early surveyors, explorers and government officials, including, police, to establish this knowledge base for the Southwest. This information is now used by the statutory authority to maintain the official State register of ownership of land, however the role of Nyungar people – the traditional owners of the Southwest – is yet to be fully acknowledged. The paper explores two specific case studies describing the origins of place names, namely the work of Ednie Hassell of Jerramungup and Alfred John Bussell of Wallcliffe near Margaret River. With the incessant development of suburbs and urbanisation of Western Australia’s landscape and within the context of reconciliation and native title debates, the ongoing use of Nyungar place names and their meaning will be a continuation of the relationships started in the early part of the 19th century.