what sort of rock would be cranky? |
I love words, and as an extension to that, names. It interests
me how much a name can influence how I think about something, without me even
knowing what that thing is. I love finding out how names come to be.
this is the view at Cranky Rock - sort of what I expected |
But getting back to our trip back from Parkes (named after
Sir Henry Parkes, because he visited once). Since I am the navigator, and as I said, we
were on roads I’d never been on before, I had to rely on a map. The only map I
had on hand was not very detailed, but good enough – how lost can you get, and
we had a full tank of fuel? First stop after Canowindra (Aboriginal word, I’d
been there before, and know how to pronounce it) was Mandurama (another
Aboriginal word, don’t know how to pronounce it, didn’t know where it was, but
the signs were there). All good so far.
But from Mandurama, I needed to get us to Barry (can
pronounce it, but why on earth would there be a town called Barry?). Hadn’t
heard of it before. Didn’t have a clue which direction it would be in. Thought
for sure there would be a sign to point us in the right direction. No such
luck.
Neville is, in fact, on the way to Barry, when driving west
to east. Who knows why they (those mysterious people again) chose Barry to put
on the map, but not Neville. The villages are much alike, as their names
suggest. They are both VERY small. Neither has anything in particular to make
it stand out. Except for the fact that they have names that are not really
thought of as town names.
In fact, what else other than a person would be called Barry
or Neville? I don’t think I’ve heard of anyone calling even a pet by either of
those names. But the names were very
effective in setting my expectations for those villages. And the villages lived
up to those expectations.
Chifley Dam - named for Ben Chifley who lived in Bathurst |
How often does that happen? For people as well as for
things. I’ve heard of people who had a name picked out for their child, then
changed their minds once the child was born, because “he just didn’t look like
a Barry”. If they had named him Barry, would that have affected what sort of
person he became?
The opposite is also true, though. There is talk around at
the moment of changing the names of things as some people may find the current
names offensive. One in this area is a road called “Curly Dick Road”. Sure, I
had a little chuckle to myself when I saw it, but it is just a name (the road
has lots of bends, and a man called Dick killed himself driving too fast around
those bends). And it doesn’t change how the road is used. Why change it? Changing
the name of something like that doesn’t change the thing.
What is my point? I’m not sure, really. Maybe it is just
that I find names, and where they come from, and the way they affect how I
think of things, fascinating.
By the way, according to Wikipedia (and I believe everything
it says), Barry is probably named after a Caleb Barry who was the former bank manager of Blayney. I’m still
searching for a reason for Neville.
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