Mount Buggery to Nowhere Else by Eamon Evans
From Goodreads
The stories behind Australia’s many, many strange, inappropriate and downright hilarious place names.
From Dismal Swamp to Useless Loop, Intercourse Island to Dead Mans Gully, Mount Buggery to Nowhere Else, Australia has some of the strangest, funniest, weirdest and most out-of-place names going – now described and explained in one humorous and fascinating book.
Australia’s vast spaces and irreverent, larrikin history have given us some of the best place names in the world. Ranging from the less than positive (Linger and Die Hill, NSW), to the indelicate (Scented Knob, WA), the idiotic (Eggs and Bacon Bay, TAS) to the inappropriate and the just plain fascinating, Mount Buggery To Nowhere Else is a toponymical journey through this nation of weird and wonderful places.
ISBN: 9780733635588
Publisher: Hachette Australia
Publication date: October 25th 2016
Pages: 288
Review
I have long been intrigued by weird names whether they are peoples’ names or place names I don’t mind. Often times weird place names have a logical explanation behind their origin and not just a name that was made up for the sake of it. Mount Buggery is a book that celebrates and explains the origins of some of the weird place names we have in Australia. This is not an exhaustive account of all the weird place names in Australia otherwise it would be a much bigger book than it is already. In spite of its size there are many different interesting place names to be divulged. The chapters are labelled according to which Australian State is going to be focussed on. Before reading about the different place names the reader is provided with a bit of background about the state providing some interesting facts. However, if the reader omits reading this section it doesn’t detract of the rest of the chapter. The place names are then organised alphabetically making reading easier as you can read about whatever name piques your curiosity at the time. Within each chapter you’ll also have some information about the capital city of each state.
Some obscure names include Doganabuganaram (NSW), Boomahnoomoonah (Vic), Webya Downs (Qld), Koonthaparee (Tas), and Cyanide Swamp (WA) just to name a few. This is a very easy and fun read providing facts (what some make see as useless facts) without enormous amount of information to get bogged down in. I would highly recommend this book to pretty well anyone. If people wish to read this to young children this is possible as places with names that parents’ feel aren’t appropriate for their young ears they can easily avoid those ones until they’re much older.
Recommend for: Anyone who is interested in weird names particularly of places.
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
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