Offensive Racist Place-Names face Offensive – By Michael Roberts

Black Gin Creek and Little Uncle Tom mountain are among the 43 place names in Queensland containing racial slurs with a traumatic history.

WARNING: This article contains racist and offensive language and images. The ABC has chosen to show images, which include offensive language, to illustrate the racism referenced in this reporting.

Black Gin Creek and Little Uncle Tom mountain are among the 43 place names in Queensland containing racial slurs with a traumatic history.

Darumbal elder Aunty Sally Vea Vea has spent many years campaigning to change them.

“I always found it to be very offensive when I’d see that the real estate would have houses for sale on ‘Black Gin Creek Road’ and I thought, ‘When is this ever going to stop?’”Aunty Sally said.

An audit revealed 43 creeks, hills, or other geographic features that feature racial slurs in their names.

Aunty Sally wants these names changed immediately. “We want to see these offensive names removed … from places that evoke horrific memories of atrocious acts,” she said.

“How do we answer our children and the future generations [if we] continue to allow these derogatory names, these dehumanising names, to be … there in front of our faces as we drive along the road?”

A traumatic slur

Aunty Sally said “gin” was originally an affectionate word in Darumbal language used by men towards women, but it was turned into a derogatory term by the British and Europeans.

In central Queensland, the Rockhampton Regional Council recently changed the name of Black Gin Creek Road in Alton Downs to Gum Tree Creek Road at the request of the Darumbal People.

The road was named after the creek, which Aunty Sally successfully petitioned Queensland’s Department of Resources to change from Black Gin Creek to Dundula, meaning gum tree, in 2020.

She said the creek was originally named by people who were most likely involved in a massacre of her people at Morinish. “These creeks are so named because our women were raped and killed and shot and left to die in those creeks,” Aunty Sally said.

“It brings a peace when you know, the young lady who was most probably raped and shot there in that creek, we wanted justice for her and I think … that justice has been served.”

Amendments to legislation passed in April this year mean extensive public consultation will no longer be required to change 43 place names the government identified as racist, such as Yellow Gin Creek, Jap Creek, or Little Uncle Tom mountain.

The reforms mean the government will only be required to do two rounds of consultation on name changes, asking the community what name it should change to and if the public was satisfied with that name.

Previously a third round was required to decide if a racist place name should be changed.

The department said it took time to organise and have those discussions, but the process was underway.

‘There has to be truth telling’

The department said since 2017, six contentious place names had been changed at the request of local traditional owners. These include Baga, Gai-i, Dundula Creek, Watyakan Creek, Bana Gindarja Creek, and K’gari.

Ten other place names with racist slurs were also removed from north Queensland.

Both Baga and Gai-i in central Queensland were changed at the request of Aunty Sally, among other Darumbal traditional owners. But she said there was still more to be done in recognising her people’s history.

Aunty Sally wants to see Mount Wheeler Road changed to Gai-i-Mount Wheeler Road, which she said would recognise Darumbal people while acknowledging the history of Frederick Wheeler. Wheeler was involved in Aboriginal massacres across Queensland in the 1800s.

Aunty Sally said she would also like more recognition of First Nations place names, like renaming the Fitzroy River to its traditional name of Tunuba.

The ABC contacted Queensland’s Minister for Treaty Leanne Enoch and asked whether renaming place names was still a priority of the government when establishing a treaty with First Nations people.

She did not respond to the question.

When renaming K’gari in 2022 the Queensland government said the move would support reconciliation and Queensland’s Path to Treaty Commitment.

A spokesperson for the minister said the resources department would continue to engage with the community on place name changes. “It’s important to continue to have mature and respectful conversations about offensive place names in our community,” it said.

Aunty Sally said the government’s slow progress was not good enough. “It’s very emotional, it stirs up a lot of anger and a lot of division when you don’t change those names,” she said.