Lake Macquarie name change: Newcastle's Aboriginal name Mulubinba comes from an unknown sea fern

But it's not clear which fern.

"We should track down what Mulubinba was," Gionni said.

[If anyone knows the fern in question, let us know at topics@newcastleherald.com.au]

Last Saturday, the Herald reported calls for Lake Macquarie to be renamed Awaba - its original Indigenous name.

Opinion: The case to change Lake Macquarie's name

Under the Geographical Names Board NSW rules, Lake Macquarie could be renamed to its Indigenous name because it is a natural feature.

"Dual naming does not apply to the naming of towns, roads, suburbs and reserves, as these features do not have a traditional Aboriginal name equivalent," the board said.

However, Gionni said he had "a real sense of pride that Newcastle has an Aboriginal place name".

"Maybe Sydney and Melbourne and the big cities don't have Aboriginal names, but Newcastle and Lake Macquarie do."

Gionni pointed us to research he published on the Hunter Living Histories site in 2013. It said the Mulubinba name was in use for about 7000 years.

The Indigenous people of the area were known to the missionary Reverend Lancelot Threlkeld as "the Newcastle tribe". They were identified as "Mulubinbakal" [male] or "Mulubinbakalleen" [female]. They're now known as the Awabakal people.

Threlkeld arrived in Newcastle on May 8, 1825.

"Threlkeld began recording the elements of the local Aboriginal language with a number of the natives, especially M'Gill (also known as Biraban)," Gionni's report said.

Threlkeld's first work, Specimens of A Dialect of the Aboriginal of New South Wales (1827), referred to Newcastle as 'Mulubinbah'. Then in An Australian Grammar (1834), he referred to "Mu-lu-bin-ba, the site of Newcastle".

Threlkeld's A key to the Structure of the Aboriginal Language stated: "Mulubin is the name of a flower that abounds at the place called Newcastle, hence its name, Mulubin-ba."

John Fraser's An Australian Language as spoken by the Awabakal (1892) stated: "Mulubinba, the name of the site of Newcastle, from an indigenous 'fern' named mulubin."

"So we see it described as a 'flower' and an indigenous fern. We think the Aborigines ate the roots for food," Gionni's report said.

"The surveyor Barrallier mentions seeing a native looking for the roots of a fern. This native was the young Biraban."

Barrallier (1802) observed at Newcastle that the Aborigines ate "the roots of fern [which he surprised a youth in the act of collecting] and a sort of root or yam".

The rhizome of this fern was also eaten at Lake Macquarie and in the Dungog area, where it was called "Bungwall". It was roasted in the ashes and pounded to a paste between two stones.

A letter from Barrallier in 1801 stated: "Their nourishment is fish, the roots of fern and a sort of root or yam, which when only touched by the tongue occasions a burning pain on the palate of the mouth difficult to describe, but the experience made me detest even the sight of it".

"I believe the only mode of making it palatable to them is roasting them."

Newcastle was also known as Coal River from 1797 to 1830, Coal Harbour from 1801-1806, King's Town from 1804-1806 and 1809-1810. The name Newcastle was first used in 1804 in an order from Governor King to Commandant Lieutenant Menzies.

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