Central West names

A selection of place names from the Central West of NSW. As this postcard collection demonstrates, Australian place names are a very mixed bag. Many are Aboriginal or based on a garbled white version of an Aboriginal word: Molong and Canowindra look like that. Some are named for a long forgotten sponsor or benefactor, like the Prince of Orange. Some were, touchingly, named by homesick emigrants after their home across the seas; Cumnock is in Scotland and Yeoval might be a misspelling of Yeovil in Somerset.

Aussie Towns has another explanation for Yeoval. "No one is sure where Yeoval originates. One theory argues that locals who had emigrated from Yeovil in Somerset simply got the spelling wrong. Another, more amusing, theory is that a shepherd was moving a mob of sheep through the town. The sheep started to run. The shepherd's daughter was sent ahead to block the mob and as she ran her father called out "Go Val" which somehow became 'Yeoval'. Really?