Linga Longa at Emoh Ruo; What’s in name?

Before houses had numbers each house was identified by a name making it easy to locate a house in the street.

In time as suburbs grew and estates were subdivided it became necessary to look at different ways of finding a house. The answer was simply to use a numbering system with odd and even sequences on each side of the street.

“One of the most common enquiries we receive is from new residents wishing to know if their house had a name,” Local Studies Librarian Donna Braye said.

“It is always exciting to find the name of one’s house as it can provide a sense of belonging and we are inviting people to book a 30 minute session with the Local Studies Librarian to find out the name of their house.

“In some cases a house may have had a variety of names as new owners would rename their house with something more personal. This revelation often results in a desire to know more about a house’s history.

“One house which had been known as ‘Althona’, since it was built in the 1880s, was renamed ‘South Seas’ in the 1920s and research showed the new owners had been missionaries in the South Pacific before the First World War.

“The history of house names is fascinating and like everything house names followed a fashion, for instance, in the Victorian era house names could be a reminder of the ‘old country’, names of figures in classical mythological or the name of a ship, while in the Federation period houses displayed personal names, names of Australian flora and Aboriginal words and following the First World War many houses were named after the battlefields in France and Gallipoli.”

Places are limited for this opportunity to speak with the Local Studies Librarian on 23 April, so bookings are essential on 9978 4101.