NEWCASTLE’S iconic Nobbys Head will now also be known by its traditional Aboriginal name - Whibayganba - after a plan was approved to allow some of city's best known landmarks to take on their original Aboriginal names.
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The other seven landmarks to receive twin names will include the southern channel of the Hunter River, Flagstaff Hill, Pirate Point, Port Hunter, Shepherds Hill, Ironbark Creek and Hexham Swamp.
The new names were gazetted by the NSW Geographical Names Board on Friday, after the proposal was put forward by Newcastle City Council in September 2013.
They will be added to signposts, maps and guides, but Geographical Names Board Acting Chair Paul Harcombe said people were welcome to refer to the landmarks by either name.
“A dual naming does not intend for one name to take precedence over the other,” he said.
The names were originally submitted by the council's Guraki Aboriginal Advisory Committee.
They were found during a project to reconstruct the language of the Awabakal people using historical documents, including maps, sketches and geological descriptions dating back to 1798.
The Awabakal name for Nobbys Head – Whibayganba – was found in a sketch by Sir Thomas Mitchell created in 1828.
“We don’t talk about languages as being extinct, we talk about them going to sleep and then waking up again” said Professor Jacqueline Troy, who has been involved in the project as the Director of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Research at the University of Sydney.
“One of the really important things for waking up languages is putting names back onto places. So what’s happening in Newcastle is really crucial,” she said.
Professor Troy said she believed the addition of Aboriginal names to places could also help combat racism and she was supportive of rolling out the project right across the Hunter region.
“It’s giving Awabakal a voice, a public voice,” she said.
“I think it’s a really big positive for everybody, Aboriginal or not.”
