‘Queanbeyan’ Aboriginal Word
‘Clear Water‘ ‘Beautiful Woman’
The two most popular Aboriginal meanings 1 for our town Queanbeyan are ‘clear water’ and ‘beautiful woman’ 2 but the pronunciation of Queanbeyan using the recorded phonic spelling made by white people during the early contact period, make the Aboriginal pronunciation less clear.
Cu-Um-bean is the phonetic spelling used by Stewart Mowle for ‘Queanbeyan’ and has credibility because of Mowle’s linguist skills in many Aboriginal languages and his long 70 years of close association with local Aboriginal people from 1838 when he was just 16 years of age until 1908 when he died aged 86 years. 3
Phonetic pronunciation
Research suggests it is wrong to emphasise ‘Queen’ at the beginning of Queanbeyan and the emphasis of “Ann” or “Yann” on the end of Queanbeyan also appears to be wrong when comparing the various phonetic spelling made in early white occupation.
One sound that is probably correct is the ‘be’ sound in the middle of Queanbeyan because the “be” sound exists in all researched variations of recorded phonetic spelling made during early white occupation in the 1800s.
It would appear that someone in officialdom in Sydney standardized the spelling of our town as ‘Queanbeyan’ when it was gazetted on 28 September, 1838. 4
Five days later on October 3, 1838 it was officially proclaimed the village of Queanbeyan. 5
Perhaps it was the difficulty that different white people had in hearing and interpreting the Aboriginal pronunciation as a written language that resulted in the many variations of spelling, which suggests confusion about the original Aboriginal pronunciation and how to recorded it phonetically.
Cu-Um-bean
Stewart Mowle (1822-1908) spelt Queanbeyan as Cu-Um-bean in his letter to the Editor of The Queanbeyan Age in 1905. 6
Through contact with local Aboriginal people from different Aboriginal Countries in this region, after his arrival in 1838 until his death in 1908, Stewart Mowle became an Aboriginal speaker and Aboriginal singer in many different Aboriginal languages 7
Because of this long association with the Aboriginal people, during his 70 years of contact, the authenticity of Stewart Mowle’s pronunciation and spelling of Queanbeyan as Cu-Um-bean has merit. 8
Stewart Mowle was educated in England and traveled to Sydney in 1836 with his Uncle when he was only 13 years old. 9
Yarralumla
Terence Aubrey Murray was so impressed when he met young Stewart Mowle in Sydney that he asked him to accompany him to see his Yarralumla Station on the Limestone Plains (now Canberra). 10
In June, 1838 they arrived at Yarralumla and the sixteen year old Stewart Mowle agreed to manage Murray’s Yarralumla property for him.11
Stewart Mowle’s main friend at Yarralumla was a young Aboriginal boy Tommy, the son of a local “Chief”, who stayed with him to keep him company. 12
Young Tommy slept on a rug near Stewart’s bed. 13
Yarralumla is now the Governor General’s residence in Canberra, ACT. 14
Quinbean or Quinbeam
Sir Thomas Mitchell (1792 -1855) Surveyor-general of New South Wales.
Mitchell was one of Australia’s early, east-coast explorers who liked to use local Aboriginal place names.
Mitchell used two variations of spelling to indicate the pronunciation of the local Aboriginal area: ‘Quinbean’ or ‘Quinbeam’. 15
The name ‘Quinbean’ was used as the name for the location of Timothy Beard’s illegal property based at the junction of the Queanbeyan and Molonglo Rivers, which is just below the present town of Queanbeyan. Beard did not have a title or grant for the land.
Beard, a former convict was an illegal squatter, which was not unusual, at Queanbeyan prior to 1828 and is listed in the 1828 census with three assigned convicts. 16
Quinbeane
In September 1832, John Palmer, the owner of Jerrabomberra enlarged his property by adding an ‘adjoining 640 acres at a place called Quinbeane’. (Information from the NSW Government Gazette, 1832).
John Palmer applied from his home near Parramatta and may not have visited the site and may have obtained the spelling of ‘Quinbeane’ from a government report.
John Palmer died in 1833. 17
Quinbien
The scientist Doctor John Lhotsky, came to Australia in 1832. Lhotsky was born in Lwow (formerly part of Poland) and is generally referred to as a Pole or German naturalist.
Lhotsky visited extensively in this area in 1834.
Lhotsky studied gramma and wrote his pronunciation and spelling for the local area as ‘Quinbien’ in the vocabulary list he made with young Aboriginal youths during a visit to the ‘Menero Downs’ in 1834. 18
Queenbeenn
Rex Cross wrote in his book, Bygone Queanbeyan, that the town of Queanbeyan was spelt as ‘Queenbeenn’ in Surveyor White’s time but does not give any other information or reference. 19
Quaen-bien River
Joseph Kelly, was living at Molonglo when he wrote a poem about the Queanbeyan River in 1865. 20
Kelly, spelt Queanbeyan phonetically as ‘Quaen-bien’ but did not explain the meaning. 21
Joseph Kelly was a school teacher in the Queanbeyan District in 1874. 22
One verse below is quoted from Joseph Kelly’s Queaen-bien River, poem (Queanbeyan River) published in The Queanbeyan Age:
“Through many a lonesome valley,
Through many a shady dell,
Where summer wind breathes daily,
And bright -plumed songsters dwell,
Even murmuring onward floweth,
Our own old Quaen-bien …” 23
Kyun-biana
Frederick Slater, wrote in the Journal, ‘Mankind‘ in 1934 that the original Aboriginal pronunciation was Kyun-biana, which means, “the sun, the great orb of the day, father attached, Father of Light”. 24
Slater’s pronunciation and meaning is one of the more unusual, but less often quoted, when the original Aboriginal meaning, and Aboriginal pronunciation for ‘Queanbeyan’ is under discussion.
END
Footnotes:
1. Connee-Colleen. Queanbeyan Outlook with Connee-Colleen, Kyun-biana © 2008, The Queanbeyan Age, 13 July, 2007, p 23. [OL.98].
2. (i) Matilda House a local Ngambri Aboriginal Elder says Queanbeyan means “beautiful woman”; (ii) Rex Cross, Bygone Queanbeyan, Revised Edition, 1985, writes Queanbeyan means “beautiful lady”, p 1.
3. Gwendoline Wilson, Murray of Yarralumla. 2001. pp 198-100.
4. PB Sheedy (BEM) & EA Percy. Monaroo to Monaro - History of Monaro Street 1830s-1995. pp xii.
5. Ibid xiii.
6. (i)The Queanbeyan Age, 1905;(ii) Rex Cross, p 1.
7. Gwendoline Wilson, pp 198-102.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. Rex Cross, p 1.
16. (i) Ibid, pp 4, 5; (ii) Errol Lea-Scarlet, Queanbeyan District and People. 1968, pp 13-14, 16-17.
17. (i) Rex Cross pp. 4;47; (ii) Errol Lea-Scarlet pp 10-11, 15-16.
18. (i) Rex Cross, p 1; (ii) Errol Lea-Scarlet. pp 18, 25.
19. Rex Cross, p 1.
20. The Queanbeyan Age, 7 December, 1865.
21. Lyall L. Gillespie, Early Verse of the Canberra Region. 1994. p 47.
22. Ibid.
23. The Queanbeyan Age, 7 December, 1865.
24. Cross, Rex. Bygone Queanbeyan - Revised Edition. 1985. p 1: “Frederick Slater, Mankind Journal, Vol 1, No 10. October 1934″.
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