‘Unpronounceable!’: Renaming Cooks River a ‘lame attempt’ to rewrite history, says MP

A politician whose former electorate bordered the Cooks River has slammed plans to rename it Goolay’yari, saying it’s a “lame attempt” to rewrite the city’s history. Have your say.

The Cooks River in Sydney’s south and southwest could be renamed. Picture: NewsWire / David Swift

A politician whose former electorate bordered the Cooks River has slammed plans to rename it, saying it’s a “lame attempt” to rewrite the city’s history.

One Nation MP Tania Mihailuk, who previously represented Bankstown for Labor in a seat partly bordered by the river, claimed a bid to change its name to Goolay’yari was also “tokenistic activism”.

“Renaming Cooks River is just another lame attempt to rewrite our history. No one is asking for this locally,” she said.

“It’s Cooks River - plain and simple; always has been and always will be.”

She added renaming the site would take attention from real issues impacting residents in south Sydney.

“The elected officials and bureaucrats should focus on relieving the pressure of high council rates and fixing potholes, not on lavish, tokenistic activism,” she said.

“People are doing it tough in this part of Sydney, and changing the name of a river is not going to change that.”

MP Tania Mihailuk says it’s a “lame attempt” to rewrite the city’s history. Picture: Tim Hunter.

Readers also said any plan to rename the iconic river will sink.

“Giving it such an unpronounceable name is one way to make sure it will always be known as the Cooks River,” said one, while another said: “Renaming locations is not the way, banning and re-writing history is not the way as you are destined to repeat those mistakes, said another.”

Another reader posted:”Woke and tokenism. Can’t even pronounce it in English” but others wrote in to support the idea.

“Why can’t the river have 2 names? Surely it would appease most people if it was called Cooks River, and it’s Indigenous name underneath”.

British 18th century explorer Captain James Cook.

Iconic.... The Cooks River patrol in 1932. Picture: Marrickville Library and History Services

The idea to rename the iconic river follows a proposal from an Aboriginal partnership group and a group of local councils.

If approved, this change would be the latest in a series of landmark renamings, such as Ayers Rock becoming Uluru and Fraser Island being renamed K’gari.

The alliance also includes Sydney Water and the Bayside, Inner West, Strathfield and Canterbury-Bankstown councils.

The partnership strategy includes First Nations peoples connected to the river, originally named after British explorer James Cook.

Dharawal man Gregory Andrews, who held consultations for the proposal, said to ABC Radio Sydney “It’s not really renaming, it’s giving back the name that it’s always had.”

Goolay’yari means place of the pelican dreaming in local languages, Fatima Island on the Cooks River looks like the foot of a pelican.

“It doesn’t detract from James Cook and all of his achievements as a great explorer of his time.

“If he had ‘discovered’ it today, he wouldn’t call it after himself. He probably would ask what it was called.”

A clear sky at Sunrise over the Cooks River. Picture: John Grainger

The Cooks River flows from a park near Bankstown in Sydney’s southwest, passes through Strathfield South, and continues to Tempe before entering Botany Bay in Sydney’s south.

It is understood the name change has not yet been fully endorsed by the alliance.

Goolay’yari means place of the pelican dreaming in local languages, an island on the river, known as Fatima Island, looks like the foot of a pelican.

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