Tamworth

Calala
This name came from the Aboriginal name for the Peel River. It was later renamed Tamworth after the electorate represented by Sir Robert Peel, the British Prime Minister.

Reader's Digest, Illustrated Guide to Australian Places, Sydney, 1993, p.142-3.


Wallawoul
Now known as Tamworth.

Mitchell, Thomas, Three expeditions into the interior of eastern Australia : with descriptions of the recently explored region of Australia Felix and of the present colony of New South Wales, London : T. & W. Boone, 1839, vol.1, p.33.

Arbuthnot Range
So named by John Oxley in 1818 after a British civil servant. The range is now known as the Warrumbungles which is said to mean broken, crooked mountains. They are close to Coonabarabran.

Oxley, John, Journals of two expeditions into the interior of News South Wales undertaken by order of the British government in the years 1817-18, London, 1820, p.235.


Gouldburns Plains
The area between Tamworth and the Melville Range.

Oxley, John, Journals of two expeditions into the interior of News South Wales undertaken by order of the British government in the years 1817-18, London, 1820, Chart.


Gungal Creek
Now called Halls Creek, a tributary of the Namoi near Manilla.

Andrews, Alan E.J, Major Mitchell's map 1834 : the saga of the survey of the nineteen counties / Alan E. J. Andrews, Hobart, 1992, p.299.


Kuwherhindi
An alternative spelling of Quirindi on the Liverpool Plains. There are several inconsistent suggestions of what the word means.

Reader's Digest, Illustrated Guide to Australian Places, Sydney, 1993, p.80.


Lushington Valley
At the head of the Yorke River on the Liverpool Plains. Named by John Oxley after the Secretary to the Treasury.

Oxley, John, Journals of two expeditions into the interior of News South Wales undertaken by order of the British government in the years 1817-18, London, 1820, chart.

Wells, William Henry, A Geographical Dictionary or Gazetteer of the Australian Colonies, Sydney, 1948, p.241.


Mount Frazer
So named by Mitchell after Charles Frazer, the Superintendent of the Sydney Botanical Gardens, now called Haystack Mountain, about 45km north of Boggabri.

Foster, William C., Sir Thomas Livingston Mitchell and his World, 1792-1855, Sydney, 1985, p.227.


Plains of Mulluba
Mitchell's name for the country around Manilla, about 40 km north west of Tamworth.

Mitchell, Thomas, Three expeditions into the interior of eastern Australia : with descriptions of the recently explored region of Australia Felix and of the present colony of New South Wales, London : T. & W. Boone, 1839, map.


The Peel
The Peel River was named by Oxley after the English statesman Robert Peel. The township at first took the same name but was later called Tamworth after the English town of that name which was Peel's electorate.

Camm, J.C.R. and McQuilton, John(ed.), Australians, a Historical Atlas, Sydney, 1987, p.244.

Oxley, John, Journals of two expeditions into the interior of News South Wales undertaken by order of the British government in the years 1817-18, London, 1820, p.284.


View Hill
Named by Oxley for obvious reasons, it is now called Dimberoy Hill, about 75 km west of Tamworth.

Not in Reader's Digest.

Johnson, Richard, The Search for the inland Sea John Oxley, Explorer, 1783-1828, Melbourne, 2001, p.106.


Wereid
Now called Oxleys Peak about 85 km south west of Tamworth.

Raymond, James, New South Wales Calender and General Post Office Directory 1832, Sydney, 1832, p.133.


Wright River
John Oxley had called it the New River; in 1826 it was renamed after Captain Samuel Wright who explored it; later it was known as Trial River because it falls into Trial Bay; finally, in 1835, it was named the Macleay River after Alexander Macleay, the Colonial secretary of New South Wales.

Reader's Digest, Illustrated Guide to Australian Places, Sydney, 1993, p.145.