Quirky Australian places with a story to tell
With holiday season upon us and the COVID-19 pandemic throwing a spanner in overseas travel plans, many holidaymakers will use the festive break to explore their own backyard on an Aussie road trip.
To make the trek a little more interesting and humorous, we have rounded up some of Australia’s quirkiest place names to keep an eye out for as you hit the road.
Wonglepong, Queensland
With its name thought to have derived from the Aboriginal word meaning, “forgotten sound”, this rural area in the Scenic Rim of Queensland was named after the local railway station, which ceased operating in the 1950s.
Manangatang, Victoria
This rural township in Victoria’s north-west of Swan Hill is set among sheep and wheat country. With a tick over 300 people, it apparently has the state’s smallest public hospital and nursing home and hosts an annual reunion for townsfolk that’s been going for 75 years.
Three Thumbs State Reserve, Tasmania
For years Tasmanians have been unfairly ribbed about being closely related to each other. Does it irk them that one of their own parks continues the theme or is it a case of them seeking to “reclaim” the joke? Either way the “thumbs” are named after three hills which form part of a popular walking track near the tourist town of Orford.
Useless Loop, Western Australia
There’s nothing useless about this small salt mining town 850 kilometres from Perth and 450 kilometres from Geraldton in the state’s mid-west.
The town was given its name in 1801 after Frenchman Louis-Henri de Saulces de Freycinet thought a sandbar was stopping ship access, so he deemed it ‘Havre Inutile’ (Useless Harbour). It is not open to visitors but, according to the Coral Coast tourist website, the salt mined there is the purest in the world.
Come By Chance, NSW
About 250 kkilometres from Dubbo, this small village has a population of 125 people, according to the 2016 census.
It was established in the 1850s and the name was derived when the settlers bought a sheep farm after being surprised they were able to buy anything in the locale. It has become famous for its picnic races, which have been held for more than 70 years – although they’ve been cancelled this year. The town is also featured in one of Banjo Paterson’s poems.
Dicky Beach, Queensland
Named after steamship SS Dicky, which washed ashore during a cyclone in 1893, this beach and coastal suburb is two kilometres north of Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast. It is claimed that this beach is the only recreational beach in the world to be named after a shipwreck.
Angledool, NSW
If you happen on this micro-town in far north of the state you will be well and truly off the beaten track. It’s not on the way to anywhere, really, although you might have passed Come By Chance to get there. During World War II it had several pubs, a courthouse and general store. Today, it’s a lot smaller.
Mount Wedge, South Australia
On the Eyre Peninsula, near the coastal town of Elliston, this mountain is made of a rare granite and is one of only two in the world with that formation, according to the Elliston tourist website. Cereal, crops and sheep are the mainstay of this area. And, the people who live there? They’d be “wedgies”, surely?
