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Toorbul Turrbal was the name for the
local Aboriginal dialect. In its modern form, it has been given to a
town on Pumistone Passage and to the point from which travelers now
cross over to Bribie Island by bridge. According to Tom Petrie the
Toorbul Point area was called Ningi Ningi by the Aboriginal
people.
Ningi ningi are what English-speaking people call oysters. The name of Ningi has been retained for the township on the Bribie Road near Toorbul Point. This was the Aboriginal name for the Common Koel, Eudynamys scolopacea, a name which imitated the sound made by the bird. This cuckoo is found all through coastal Queensland. It appears that the Aboriginal people used the name for the bend in the river downstream from where the Indoorooprilly railway bridge came to be built because these birds must have been particularly prevalent in the area. They generally like forests with tall trees. However Richard Drew applied the name to a different area when he subdivided blocks around a creek which white people already called Toowong Creek, an area which became an elite suburb in the early decades of free settlement. When land was first sold in the area back in 1851 it was simply referred to as the 'Western Suburbs'.
This was the name of Thomas Alford's house before it became the name of the town. It had its origins with the Aboriginal people of the area, but just what name they used for the swamp is not clear. It was probably Toocoonibah. However the white settlers simply called it the Drayton Swamp until 1857 when the name of Toowoomba was adopted. Some say the name referred to a native melon which grew in the area, while other say that it referred more directly to the swamp and literally meant 'water sits down'. Torbanlea The name, derived from Torbane Hill in
Scotland, was suggested by James Robertson during the establishment of the
Burrum Coalfield. Torquay on Hervey Bay is named after the seaside resort of Torquay in Devonshire, England, where the name arose from the quay built by the monks of Torre Abbey, the abbey being named after a tor or hill nearby. The English Torquay is now part of the urban seaside resort of Torbay which together with Paignton and Brixham is promoted as the English Riviera. As Donald Henderson's ten year lease was about to expire on land in this area in 1881 he sold some of it to Jas McPherson who built the first shops here. Traveston So named by the Survey Office after an
early settler in the area. The name was given by the Railway Department using the Aboriginal
toon-goon, which referred to the sound of the waves, as its inspiration. The Tweed River from which
Tweed Heads gets its name looks back to Scotland for its inspiration.
From its British (Celtic) roots we know that it originally meant the
strong one and in AD 700 was spelt
Tuuide. Tweed Heads forms a twin town with Coolangatta. |