‘Who can we be tomorrow?’ The push to change our gruesome, racist place names

Sometimes on a weekend, Gunditjmara man Richard Frankland will get in the car and set out for one of the sites where Indigenous people were murdered near his south-west Victorian home.

The playwright, artist and musician calls these visits his “pilgrimages”.

“It’s not a formal thing,” Frankland said. “I go out there and pay respect in my own way. Sometimes I’ll take a dog. Sometimes a friend will come.”

Some places where atrocities occurred have earned gruesome names. They include Murderers Flat near Lake Condah and the insidious Convincing Ground, where whalers slaughtered Indigenous people in a dispute about a beached whale close to the town of Portland.

Richard Frankland at the beach in Portland. Credit: Nicole Cleary

Frankland, who lives on Gunditjmara country near Portland, said it was time to humanise more of these places with Indigenous names. He believes white Australians would also benefit.

“Who can we be tomorrow if we have a collective culture that’s inclusive?” he said. “It’s about what do we gain? We gain thousands of years of heritage.”

Frankland’s desire to see more Indigenous language and respectful names comes amid a broader change slowly rolling across Victoria.

The Moyne Shire recently began renaming Lubra Creek – an offensive term for Indigenous women. Mayor Ian Smith said it would become part of a much bigger journey.

He said the council was seeking feedback on the proposed name Thanampool Thookay Creek, which means women and children in the language of the Dhauwurd Wurrung. Smith said the proposed title honoured the Indigenous people murdered at the south-west Victorian creek at Caramut in 1842.

“We’re hoping by putting this out to consultation it may draw out other areas that are sensitive to the Indigenous population,” Smith said.

Moyne Shire mayor Ian Smith at Lubra Creek, which will soon be renamed due to the racist origin of that term. Credit: Nicole Cleary

The change began after the Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation approached the council asking for the creek to be renamed in traditional language. But Smith said Moyne Shire was willing to work with other councils wanting to embark on similar journeys.

“I’ve had discussions with other councils, and they are watching what we’re doing in Moyne,” he said.

Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation chairperson Craig Molyneux said place names – including Massacre Bay near Peterborough – were deeply offensive to traditional owners. He called for the restoration of Aboriginal names.

“We’ve lost a lot as far as language and place names go,” he said. “We’re trying to piece that back together now.”

The Glenelg Shire, which borders Moyne and the South Australian border, conducted an audit of place names, roads, monuments and plaques. The shire did not provide figures but said it showed an over-representation of early European settlers and a significant under-representation of First Nations and female names.

Suzannah Henty at the Yoorrook Justice Commission. Credit: David Callow

A shire spokesman said the Henty name was identified as one of the most commonly used in shire assets that was offensive to Indigenous people. The Henty family were the first Europeans to settle in Victoria with Edward Henty and his brother Stephen arriving at Portland Bay in 1834, according to the State Library of Victoria.

Last month Suzannah Henty, a descendant of squatter James Henty, told the Yoorrook Justice Commission there should be a “ceremonious destruction” of monuments to her family due to links with massacres of Indigenous people.

Gunditjmara man Shea Rotumah said offensive names should be changed, including those celebrating historical figures who participated in massacres and other injustices.

He also called for more dual place names in English and local Indigenous languages to express the importance of Aboriginal history, culture and overlapping stories with European heritage – both good and bad.

“We both have different connections to this place, but the story of the land now contains us,” he said.

Gunditjmara man Shea Rotumah washing a whale bone.Credit: Rebecca Tobin

However, Rotumah said monuments and plaques dedicated to pastoral settlements and early European agriculture completely overlooked Gunditjmara cultivation of the land, including kangaroo grass farming, which Indigenous people had done for tens of thousands of years.

“It’s an insult to steal someone’s land and name it after them[selves],” he said. “These are the microaggressions we deal with every day.”

Last year the Hepburn Shire renamed Jim Crow Creek – due to its association with racial segregation in the US – to Larni Barramal Yaluk. The Moreland City Council, named after a slave plantation, was changed to Merri-bek City Council in 2022.

But Victoria is scattered with monuments and place names with racist or violent origins, including cairns in Gippsland recognising pastoralist Angus McMillan, who was linked to several massacres of Indigenous people.

As part of the $52.1 million Yoorrook Justice Commission’s truth-telling inquiry into those killing times and other historical wrongs of Victoria’s frontier history – which continue to reverberate in social, economic and political justice outcomes – the commission this month examined matters related to waters, land and sky.

Premier Jacinta Allan will appear before the Yoorrook Justice Commissionlater this month. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Premier Jacinta Allan will give evidence when the inquiry sits at the Coranderrk historic Aboriginal reserve at the end of April. It will be the first time a state premier has appeared before a formal, First Peoples’-led truth-telling commission.

The subject of dual-naming policies and processes is expected to be raised in the commission’s examination of witness evidence over the next fortnight. The findings and recommendations derived from evidence provided in the hearing block will be tabled – along with the findings of the commission’s other areas of inquiry – in mid-2025.

The final report of Yoorrook – which means truth in the Wemba Wemba/Wamba Wamba language spoken in the north-west region of Victoria – will inform the claims and proposals in negotiations for a statewide treaty between the state government and the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria.

Assembly co-chair Rueben Berg said a process for identifying significant places that could have dual naming is part of the brief that assembly members will take into negotiations when that process commences this year.

First People’s Assembly of Victoria co-chair Reuben Berg. Credit: Elke Meitzel

“Assembly members know that making sure First Peoples’ culture and languages are properly recognised and respected is something their communities want,” Berg said.

Geographic Names Victoria said it was working with naming authorities, mostly councils, to increase the commemoration of women by setting a 70 per cent level of new requests for roads, place names and landmarks. This includes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, as well as women with disabilities, from LGBTQ communities and women from multicultural backgrounds.

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