Tourist spots misspelling of 'Canberra' on plaque at Australia's biggest telescope

An eagle-eyed tourist has picked up a “basic spelling error” while visiting the site of Australia’s largest optical telescope near Coonabarabran, NSW.

The Australian Astronomical Observatory, operated by the Australian National University (ANU) and based at the Siding Spring Observatory on the edge of the Warrumbungle National Park, has an impressive CV.

With its 3.9-metre diameter mirror, the telescope has the power to simultaneously observe hundreds of galaxies and stars. It has already been used to carry out several important surveys of the southern sky in search of other planets and stars.

As Adelaide resident Jon Paior puts it, “It’s a place of precise scientific achievement”.

All the more reason he was surprised (and humoured) to stumble across a simple mistake while paying the site a visit with his family on Boxing Day.

A round metal plate at the base of the telescope depicts the distance to various cities, towns and landmarks around NSW, and included among the ‘spokes on the wheel’ is ‘Canbarra’, 444 km due south.

It didn’t take Jon long to realise what it should say.

“It was instant,” he says.

“I have family in Canberra, and remember the ‘Ken Behrens’ name during COVID, and just thought, ‘Oh, here we go again’.”

He refuses to believe he’s the first person to notice the error, but he was at least the first to go public with it on the Dull Men’s Club Facebook page.

“Maybe it was intentionally done to give dull men like me a sense of achievement in noticing something like this?” he posted.

Canberra and District Historical Society secretary Nick Swain says the name of Australia’s capital city was up for debate for a long time, but not since 1913.

“From 1913, the spelling of Canberra has been what it is now, so you’re definitely looking at a typographical error.”

The name Canberra was said to mean “meeting place”, an English language rendering of the traditional owners’ name for the country around the Molonglo River.

Another possible meaning takes in Mount Ainslie and Black Mountain to make up ‘a woman’s breasts’, with the flat plain between as ‘cleavage’. The late Ngunnawal elder Don Bell backed this up.

“Everybody says ‘meeting place’ because that sounds nice, but there was a theory it meant women’s breasts,” Nick Swain adds.

Joshua John Moore, the first European to be granted land in what is now the ACT, named his holding ‘Canberry’ in 1823, but other versions such as Canburry, Canbury, Kamberra, Kanberri and Kembery followed over the years.

‘Canberra’ didn’t come along until 1857 and was set in stone by the post office in 1863.

Whatever the meaning, Canberra remained the favourite when Australians were invited to come up with their favourite name. And that’s despite rivals such as Australville, Aurora, Captain Cook, Caucus City, Cookaburra, Dampier, Gonebroke, Home, Kangaremu, Meladneyperbane, New Era, Olympus, Paradise, Shakespeare, Sydmelperadbrisho, Swindleville and Union City.

At noon on 12 March 1913, Lady Denman, the wife of the Governor-General, settled it.

“I name the capital of Australia, Canberra – the accent is on the ‘Can’,” she said.

But here’s the thing – Siding Springs Observatory opened in 1964, and the telescope in 1974 by then Prince Charles.

The ANU confirmed it wasn’t aware of the spelling mistake, but staff at Siding Springs Observatory have been notified.

Watch this space.