Where the Hell is Tangambalanga?

[David J Delaney]

I'm so glad you cleared that up, Marty.

[Heather]

Frank Daniel had a chuckle at me for the way I pronounced his town Canowindra. Of course it should be Can -o- wind- ra
but to my suprise I find out is is Can-own-dra. Go figure!

Heather

[Ian A]

'Day All,
I am reading a Patsy Adam-Smith collection. As a Young girl, her people were always railway people. Dad was a fettler, and Mum looked after the local post office her first post being 'Nowingi'. Then they moved to a new station at 'Waaia'. And she always remembered the steam train saying "....Tallygaroopna, Tallygaroopna, Ho, Ho, Tallygaroopna...".

But all of these places are in Victoria aren't they Heather?

Ian

[Maureen K Clifford]

Love Australian names don't you. Out past Warwick on the way to Inglewood is a little whistle stop called Omanama which I have heard pronounced as Oh man a ma whereas the locals pronounce it as Omaaa namaaaaa bit like a bleating sheep and the Dumaresque River which looks like it should be Dew ma resk but is in fact Dumerrick almost rhyming with generic
and when I lived at Kallangur I heard an American lady refer to it as Ka lan goooor which sounded very up market compared to Kal anger, and then of course out here we have Ebbw Vale. which to the best of my knowledge is pronounced Ebba Vale but the train conductors have a wonderful time with that one as in Ebwa, Ebb w, Ebb wee

Yes we certainly have our fair share of different names - could throw your rhyme and meter and syllable count right out

[Leonie]

Lived at Ebbw Vale for a couple of years when we first moved to Ipswich, and never could get the pronunciation down pat, locals were able to give just a hint of the 'w' to the Ebba pronunciation. Always had to spell it for people too.

[Heather]

I've heard of Tallygaroopna Ian but not the other two. Not sure where they are. It's a good name though.

We have a place here (a locality) called Tantaraboo which we pronounce Tantraboo. Clonbinane (another locality) causes all sorts of problems. I've heard it called Colonbine and Colbinane. Another small local town is Darraweit Guim.

But if you think we have strange town and locality names you should see some of the ones in New Zealand!

Heather

[manfredvijars]

... a bit surprised that this piece hasn't popped up before now ...

Those Names
A. B. (Banjo) Paterson

The shearers sat in the firelight, hearty and hale and strong,
After the hard day's shearing, passing the joke along:
The "ringer" that shore a hundred, as they never were shorn before,
And the novice who, toiling bravely, had tommy-hawked half a score,

The tarboy, the cook and the slushy, the sweeper that swept the board,
The picker-up, and the penner, with the rest of the shearing horde.
There were men from the inland stations where the skies like a furnace glow,
And men from Snowy River, the land of frozen snow;

There were swarthy Queensland drovers who reckoned all land by miles,
And farmers' sons from the Murray, where many a vineyard smiles.
They started at telling stories when they wearied of cards and games,
And to give these stories flavour they threw in some local names,

Then a man from the bleak Monaro, away on the tableland,
He fixed his eyes on the ceiling, and he started to play his hand.
He told them of Adjintoothbong, where the pine-clad mountains freeze,
And the weight of the snow in summer breaks branches off the trees,

And, as he warmed to the business, he let them have it strong --
Nimitybelle, Conargo, Wheeo, Bongongolong;
He lingered over them fondly, because they recalled to mind
A thought of the bush homestead, and the girl that he left behind.

Then the shearers all sat silent till a man in the corner rose;
Said he, "I've travelled a-plenty but never heard names like those.
Out in the western districts, out in the Castlereigh
Most of the names are easy -- short for a man to say.

You've heard of Mungrybambone and the Gundabluey Pine,
Quobbotha, Girilambone, and Terramungamine,
Quambone, Eunonyhareenyha, Wee Waa, and Buntijo --"
But the rest of the shearers stopped him: "For the sake of your jaw, go slow,

If you reckon thase names are short ones out where such names prevail,
Just try and remember some long ones before you begin the tale."
And the man from the western district, though never a word he said,
Just winked with his dexter eyelid, and then he retired to bed.
---

[Maureen K Clifford]

Thanks Mannie for posting this - I confess to never having read or heard it before so it was great to read it here.

The dexter eyelid pops up in a lot of his poems and also those of C J Dennis - but what is it? presume they didn't have plastic surgeons in those days so doubt it is cosmetically related. Was perhaps???? Dexter a fighter in the old show tents and does it refer to somebody with a black eye???? Did have a look on Google but couldn't find anything.

The only other Dexter I know about are Dexter cattle - also predominately black and the original small all round meat/milk beast favoured by Irish farmers

Cheers

Maureen

[william williams]

not sure but I believe it is often refered to a man who has had sandy blight ( dexter eyelids) (droopy eye lids caused by excess sun and dust)

bill the old battler

[Neville Briggs]

Ah Maureen and William, you did not have to suffer as I did through the Latin class.

Dexter means right and sinister means left.

The dexter eyelid is the one on the right ( presumably from the point of view of the owner of the eye ) Banjo Paterson has the barber winking this eye in The Man from Ironbark.

The right hand was considered the hand of ability hence dextrous and dexterity meaning clever handiwork.
Unfortunately our language did not take into account discrimination against left-handed people, so they remain sinister.