Clagiraba? Eungella? Mungindi? Locals tackle Qld’s tongue twisting towns

We’ve hit the streets and put Queenslanders to the test with the hardest town names to pronounce from across the state. How many do you know? SEE THE VIDEO

Anyone who lives in Queensland would be well aware of just how many tongue twisting towns there are scattered across the state.

We hit the streets to test locals and tourists on their pronunciation knowledge of some of the glorious places that speckle the Queensland map.

Watch the video above and see below on how to pronounce the places correctly.

Ravenshoe

A rural town in the Tablelands region, we wouldn’t blame you for pronouncing this one Raven–shoe. It literally has the word shoe in the name.

But it is actually pronounced Raven–sow. Just get rid of that ‘h’ and you have it.

Thuringowa

A sprawling suburb of Townsville, Thuringowa extends over 4000 square kilometres and is only a short drive to the city centre.

The suburb’s name is officially pronounced Thuh–rin–gow–uh. But we wouldn’t blame you if you said Ta-ring-uh-wah.

Eungella

Eeyunjella? Ewyungalla? We won’t lie, this one stumped us for a good few hours there.

Yuhn–guh–luh is the proper pronunciation for this small rural town in the Mackay region made up of 190 people.

Eungella National Park. Picture Courtney Snook/Facebook

Berserker

A bustling suburb in Rockhampton, many Queenslanders are torn on how to pronounce this one.

Most opt for the be-zer-ker pronunciation – emphasis on the ‘zer’.

But locals or even just regional Queenslanders will tell you Ber–sekah is the way to say it.

Mungallala

Nestled in the Maranoa region is the outback township of Mungallala and honestly, the pronunciation is pretty straight forward; Mun–ga–la–la is how you say it.

But when we interviewed a few tourists, we did love their guess of Mungalalalala – props for effort.

Clagiraba

Inland of the Gold Coast, near Mount Tamborine, is the very tiny locality of Clagiraba.

But how do you say its name? Clag–i-rabah is the way to go. With a ‘guh’ sound not a ‘juh’. This one also stumped us for a second.

Mungindi

Right on the state’s border with New South Wales, the town of Mungindi is split in half by the Barwon River. But we’ll claim it as ours.

Mun-gin–die is right way to say this town’s name, not mun–gin–dee.

K'gari

Formally known as Fraser Island, K'gari is a widely renowned tourist spot and for good reason.

In 2021, the Queensland Government started the process of renaming Fraser Island to K’gari.

But did you know the ‘K’ is actually silent? So the pronunciation is Gar-ee.

K'gari is spectacular. Photo: Contributed

Calliope

No, the pronunciation isn’t actually callyop or callyopie, for this town in the Gladstone region, it is actually Call–eye–opee. The inland town is just a 20-minute drive to Gladstone Central.

Capalaba

I’ll be the first one to admit when moved to Brisbane I got the pronunciation of “Capalaba” wrong – much to the confusion of my friends considering it was only a quick drive to the south side suburb.

“Hey guys do you want to go watch a movie at Capalahbah?” I confidently said.

Hey, at least I tried.

Diddillibah

Don’t let all the ‘l’s and ‘i’s fool you, this pronunciation is not as bad as you may think.

Diddalahbah? Look, you are pretty close but not quite. Didididlabah? Okay, reel it in a bit.

Did–dil–i–bah is the correct way to pronounce the name of this suburb located in the beautiful Sunshine Coast’s hinterland.

Originally published as Clagiraba? Eungella? Mungindi? Locals tackle Qld’s tongue twisting towns