Gidday, Denis

A Geo Road Trip – Part 6 – Northbound

a blog about a roadtrip

... We lived in Narrandera from the time I was 4 until 9 years old, so it was great having dad there to navigate around town and point out some of the buildings I would not have been able to find or remember…I loved showing the girls my old primary schools and houses, and I really enjoyed putting my memories to more recent pictures ...

... Meanwhile, Summer was fascinated with the song I had running through my head, making me sing it over and over….when I was in year three (? Possibly earlier) I learnt a song about Sturt, the early explorer of the Riverina region of NSW, but can only now remember the first bit … a little googling and my big bro gave me the last bit:

“Captain Sturt had a stutter and he named the towns all wrong,
He called Wagga Wagga Wagga,
He called Grong Grong Grong.
But these are not the only names that Captain Sturt mistook,
He called Gumly Gumly Gumly,
And called Book Book Book.”

For those not in the know, these are all double-name towns, like Woy Woy. It’s a catchy little rhyme, but is quite incorrect…the double naming comes from the Indigenous language (from what I understand, it makes it many/much, so for example, Wagga means Crow, and Wagga Wagga is Place of Many Crows. Woy is water, so Woy Woy is deep water…but don’t quote me on it!) – the thing with double town names is, some are colloquially accepted as the single, like Wagga or Kurri (rather than Wagga Wagga or Kurri Kurri, their ‘proper’ names), but people shy away from Woy (except feral locals like me, who call it Woys that is!)…I wonder what Nowa Nowa does? ….anywho, place names are weird, but cool like that….

sandra (BMC)