HAVE you ever wondered why town names in regional Victoria are what they are, and why some of them have changed at different times throughout history?<\/p>\n
Join Federation University\u2019s Professor Ian Clark for a 45-minute, \u201cpleasurable walk\u201d through some of the place names in the local district – including Wendouree, Ballarat, Buninyong, Lal Lal, Yarrowee, and Ballan – as he provides observations about their meaning and significance, and what they reveal about our past.<\/p>\n
The curious concept of \u2018sequent occupance\u2019 will be a major touchpoint during the talk, which Mr Clark explained was first articulated in 1929 by historical geographer Derwent Whittlesey as a way of describing and interpreting changes in \u201ccultural landscapes\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis means that when you research a particular area, where there has been a succession of cultures, you would expect to see a mixture of place names from these cultures,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Clark said there\u2019s a key difference between how Australian Indigenous cultures and European settlers chose to name areas, and how frameworks within each group can teach us about those cultures.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile some place names are descriptive, many are parts of important ancestral stories and often relate to the actions of ancestral heroes, or may refer to body parts,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlace names are windows into the past, and reveal much about the societies that were responsible for layering them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Professor Clark is an Adjunct Professor at Monash University and Federation University. He holds a PhD from Monash University in Aboriginal historical geography and has been researching Victorian Aboriginal and settler colonial history since the early 1980s.<\/p>\n
To hear the full story, Ballarat Place Names: Talking History takes place at the Eureka Centre on Thursday, 1 July at 5.30pm. There will be a 15-minute Q and A session following the talk. Entry is free.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
HAVE you ever wondered why town names in regional Victoria are what they are, and why some of them have changed at different times throughout history? Join Federation University\u2019s Professor Ian Clark for a 45-minute, \u201cpleasurable walk\u201d through some of the place names in the local district – including Wendouree, Ballarat, Buninyong, Lal Lal, Yarrowee, […]<\/p>\n