6 January 2011

Question of toponymy for Tuggeranong?

| nanzan
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For all those place name experts out there, a question of toponymic nature for Tuggeranong.

Why are there two Tuggeranong Hills in Tuggeranong?

There is the taller one, at 855 metres, forming the boundary between Theodore and Conder. Quite well known, I would have thought, given it is the equal second highest mountain in Canberra (along with Mount Taylor), after Mount Majura, the highest, at 888 metres.

There is another, however. At 630 metres, Tuggeranong Hill forms the centre of Oxley (apparently, by the way, Canberra’s smallest suburb – by area, not population); the residential area of Oxley encircles this lesser known Tuggeranong Hill.

Can any one account for why we have two hills with the same name in Canberra – or is there some toponymic way of distinguishing them?

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Toponymy: no, I’m not wearing a toupee.

I wondered about this today when I saw an All homes ad for a unit in Oxley with Hilltop views”on the slopes of Mt Tuggeranong”
bit of poetic licence maybe.

Waiting For Godot11:00 am 08 Jan 11

“Now that there is a precedent for acronym/initialism road names, the mind boggles!”

We could change the name of Dunrossil Drive leading to Government House in honour of one of the organisations which helped defeat the 1999 republic referendum: British Ultra Loyalist League Serving Historical Interests Today.

Fascinating stuff, Troll! I had imagined ATHLLON to be derived from some unusual Celtic source (the Welsh in particular favouring names featuring double Ls).

Now that there is a precedent for acronym/initialism road names, the mind boggles!

silvernitrate9:57 pm 07 Jan 11

On the subject of hills in Tuggeranong, has anybody noticed that the hill in behind kambah looks like breasts? Its divided into two hilly parts and on the top of each one stands a lone tree. just a random observation…lol

So…the Oxley hill is now known as…?

TAMS Public Land – Municipal, Block 5, Section 47, Oxley Division.

ACTMapi for the area also shows the GIS reference point (that triangle in the picture) if you turn on only the MC Survey Infrastructure layer.

The red outline on the survey map was based on providing a water catchment for the ACT. Irony is the ACT government now control the water water catchment to some extent as they control Googong.

Growing up in Wanniassa when Oxley didn’t exist as a suburb, we never called it tuggeranong hill. The walk to the trig was always fun, heaps of roos, wombats and echidnas as well.

So…the Oxley hill is now known as…?

According to this topo map from 1916 (http://bit.ly/fzooK3) they were known as Tuggeranong (the Oxley one) and Tuggeranong Hill (Conder).

Um, thats the name of the survey trig point\triangulation reference.
Ordnance surveys have Triangle = trig point

Which is why the ‘Riverside’ one (for example) isn’t actually at the peak of anything, its just a named feature for the sake of surveyors.

According to this topo map from 1916 (http://bit.ly/fzooK3) they were known as Tuggeranong (the Oxley one) and Tuggeranong Hill (Conder). The Oxley one is no longer known as Tuggeranong based on an ACTPLA place name search.

troll-sniffer9:50 am 07 Jan 11

I wonder how many of your esteemed readers are aware of the origin of the double l in Athllon Drive?

From a national Trust web page:

“Athllon refers to the names of the Oldfield children. When you drive along Athllon drive, spare a thought for an important aspect of Canberra’s history—its rural legacy and that of a struggling pioneer family—and see if you can remember that A=Alf, T=Ted, H=Harry, L=Les, L=Lyle, O=Oldfield and N=Nancy.

Fascinating stuff, Skidblandir!

Interesting comments – thank you.

It might be of interest too to note that Canberra street directories – both UBD and Gregory’s – all show both hills as being called “Tuggeranong”. The latest 2011 UBD one has both, as does my oldest version, the 1987 Gregory’s (which actually gives the Oxley one’s altitude as well!).

Perhaps one is/should be called Mount Tuggeranong and the other Tuggeranong Hill – although, officially, I believe, mountains must be a minimum of 1000 metres to be considered true mountains.

I have never heard anyone alive call the piddly proturusion in Oxley “Tuggeranong Hill”.
Eve the ACT Govt void it, because there’s a bigger one, and it would just lead to confusion.

However according to this 1909 NSW Dept of Lands map, the area you’re talking about in modern Oxley was once the Tuggeranong Valley elevated trig point, and Point Hut Crossing was due south of the elevated trig point. (lower right quadrant)

Why the map shows Rob Roy but not the modern Tuggeranong Hill, I haven’t the slightest idea, other than the trig point theory.

By the way, if anyone is at all interested in a ‘What Could Have Been’, zoom that map out to its fullest and see the three seperate areas, What NSW Was Prepared to Give to the Commonwealth(solid red), What the Commonwealth Could Have Also Taken If It Wanted (Red Outline), and the Area Bureucrats Wanted (Vastly Smaller, Dotted Line)

Nanzan – The short answer is that there is only one Tuggeranong Hill “officially” recognised in the GeoScience Australia database and thats the one above Conder.
http://www.ga.gov.au/place-name/

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