Game of the name — one for the road

Maps are a marvel, unless you know every tinpot town from Tassie’s Cockle Creek to Bamaga on Cape York.

ESCAPE Gulf of Carpentaria Karumba Fishing Charter Supplied

When my kids were little and driving holidays stretched on interminably, I would play a game to distract them from their (and consequently our) misery. We had an old-school road atlas in the car — remember those? I would open it randomly at a page, pick one of Australia’s many curious place names and say it out loud. They had to guess if it was real or not. To mess with their minds, I’d throw a few invented monikers into the mix.

Unless you know every tinpot town from Cockle Creek in Tassie to Bamaga on Cape York, then you’re generally in with a 50-50 chance. And if you’re aware that Tinpot is an actual place west of Narooma in NSW, then that’s one point to you.

Thanks to Tasmania’s pre-COVID tourism boom, just about everyone has heard of Eggs and Bacon Bay but what about Nowhere Else, a rural district south of Devonport? Is it anything like Nowhere Else in South Australia, a road that branches off the Flinders Highway and attracts curious travellers, Instagrammers and light-fingered tourists who fancy the sign for a souvenir?

Drive more than 1200km north from there and you’ll get to Mamungkukumpurangkuntjunya Hill, the longest place name in the country and a Pitjantjatjara word that roughly translates as the spot where a bad spirit wees. Of course, names that hint at bodily functions always elicit a giggle from the ­littlies. Just try these out on the nearest six-year-old: Wonglepong, Burpengary, Dunedoo, Burrumbuttock and Poowong.

Over the past week, I’ve been dipping into Due North, by chef and restaurateur James Viles, formerly of Biota restaurant in the NSW Southern Highlands and the newly appointed executive chef at Emirates One&Only Wolgan Valley in the Blue Mountains.

Due North by James Viles (Murdoch Books).

In it, he details his lengthy roadtrip in 2018 from Tasmania to the Gulf Country in Queensland, along the way meeting the ­people who harvest, hunt and produce some of Australia’s best ingredients.

There’s abalone and honey from Trouser Point on Flinders Island, pipis from Goolwa and Streaky Bay razorfish in South Australia, barramundi from Karumba (which sounds like a dish fit for a fiesta) on the Gulf and a whole heap of places I’ve never heard of — Kokatha, Kingoonya, Alpurrurulam and Gregory. At times, he and his companions live off the land, eating whistling duck, goanna, wild suckling pig and wallaby.

It’s a journey that makes him question ­humankind’s desire for more than it needs. He finds solace in slowing down, spending time surrounded by natural beauty and sharing meals around a fire.

In these times of travel restrictions, Due North is a recipe for wanderlust. Now, where’s that road atlas?