Place Names of South Australia - C
Cobdogla - Cohen, Hundred of
- Cobdogla
- Cobera
- Cobham
- Cobham Gardens
- Cocata
- Cockabidnie
- Cockaleechie
- Cockatoo Valley
- Cockburn
- Cocoanut
- Coffin Bay
- Coffin Springs
- Coghill Creek
- Coglin
- Cohen, Hundred of
Cobdogla
Nomenclature
Edith and Elizabeth Napper, daughters of William Napper, commented on the name in The Nappers of Lake Bonney, an article in the Murray Pioneer of 20 December 1929. Speaking of Aborigines in the area about 1870 they said:
- One day "Scrubber'', "Fisherman Jimmy'' and others came up to the [Lake Bonney] hotel leading a very old black who was quite blind. The young fellows all wanted to go hunting and asked father to take care of the old black for the day. Father told the old fellow, who had white hair, to sit down in the sun. He fed him, and the black dozed most of the day. At night the hunters returned, and as they walked past the hotel one behind the other, a voice called "Cobdogla'', "Cobdogla''. The old black got up and joined his tribe.
- The local, and more probable version, is that when the station was being fenced, a group of blacks came down the river, which was in flood, with fish and wild fowl in abundance, and to illustrate the good living, exclaimed repeatedly to the white men, "Copdogla'', meaning "land of plenty''. The whites, according to the story, painted or chalked the name on the back of their cart, and it was soon transferred to the designation of the station, the"p'' being perverted to "b''. This story parallels Ernestine Hill's in Water Into Gold.
General Notes
Also see South Australia - Industries - Rural, Primary and Secondary - Irrigation .
An obituary of James Trussell who managed John Chambers' Cobdogla Run for 45 years is in the Register,
6 December 1895, page 5c;
also see Place Names - Lone Gum.
A proposed irrigation area is discussed in the Chronicle,
29 October 1892, page 6a,
Register,
6 February 1911, page 6f,
Advertiser,
9 November 1912, page 18f,
Register,
8 April 1914, page 8f; also see
Observer,
11 January 1919, page 4a;
Advertiser,
29 October 1925, page 19.
Photographs are in the Chronicle,
31 July 1920, page 26.
Also see Barmera and South Australia - Industries - Rural, Primary and Secondary - Irrigation.
The arrival of date palms from Marree and Lake Harry is reported in the Register, 7 December 1916, page 4f:
-
The work of transferring the 'Deglet Nour' date palms from Lake Harry to a more congenial locality was completed during July 1915 when 26 more of them were trucked from Hergott to Morgan and thence shipped per steamer to Cobdogla... They were eventually planted in the water channels there, and the bulk of them already give promise of succeeding well... Four of them were left at the lake as they were so large that the cost of the removal would have been excessive...
Its school opened in 1918.
"Progress at Cobdogla" is in the Register,
2 January 1919, page 3e.
"Hotel for Cobdogla" is in the Register,
28 August 1919, page 4g,
4 September 1919, page 6f.
10 September 1919, page 10g,
Observer,
6 September 1919, page 21c,
Register,
14 November 1919, pages 4h-6i-8f-9a.
Photographs of cotton growing are in the Observer,
22 April 1922, page 24.
The installation of a ginning plant is reported in the Observer,
17 March 1923, page 9e.
"Murray Cotton - Ginning Plant Arrived" is in the Register,,on
13 March 1923, page 7c.
Also see South Australia - Industries - Rural, Primary and Secondary - Cotton.
"Cobdogla Transformed" is in the Advertiser,
19 July 1921, page 8c.
The opening of the Soldiers' Memorial Institute is reported in the Register,
3 July 1924, page 7g,
Observer,
19 July 1924, page 46e.
Also see South Australia - World War I - Memorials to the Fallen.
"Cobdogla Blocks" is in the Register,
6 June 1927, page 7c.
Cobdogla - Cohen, Hundred of
C
Place Names
Cobera
Nomenclature
An Aborigine named 'Pilchera' applied this name to his waddy with which he used to beat a fellow Aborigine, 'Lotnumpie'.
General Notes
Its school opened as "Minyara" and had its name changed in 1928; closed in 1941.
Cobdogla - Cohen, Hundred of
C
Place Names
Cobham
This town in the Hundred of Bendleby about 45 km north of Orroroo was named by Governor Jervois on 29 September 1882. (See GRG 35/1, docket no. 1590 of 1882 at State Records Office.)Six days before this the Observer of 23 September, page 18c, contains a report of the departure of a team of cricketers from England "under the captaincy of the Hon. Ivo Blyth". Subsequent references to the captain indicate his name to be "Bligh".
The Hon. Ivo Bligh (1859-1927) was a grandson of the 5th Earl of Darnley and son of the 6th Earl, from Cobham in Kent, where the family had lived for generations. (See The Complete Peerage, Vol IV, London, 1916, pp. 85-86.) Cobham is about 5 km south of the River Thames, about 24 km east of Woolwich and about 9 km west of Chatham. (See Shell Road Atlas of Great Britain, 1982, p. 22.)
Governor Jervois (1821-1897), Lieutenant General, entered the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich in 1837 and obtained a commission in 1839. He continued his training for nearly two years at Chatham. After service in South Africa, he returned to England and commanded a company of royal sappers and miners at Woolwich and Chatham from 1849 to 1852. (Dictionary of National Biography, Supplement, Vol 3, 1901, pp. 40-41.)
Therefore, Governor Jervois may have known the Bligh family at Cobham during his service at Chatham. In addition, one of his daughters had married a cousin of Hon. Ivo Bligh, Reverend William Purey-Cust, also a grandson of the 5th Earl of Darnley, on
14 February 1882, at St Peters Cathedral, Adelaide.
(See Chronicle,
18 February 1882, p. 18c and
Illustrated London News,
22 March 1884, p. 275c.)
Also see Place Names - Bligh.
Cobdogla - Cohen, Hundred of
C
Place Names
Cobham Gardens
Nomenclature
A subdivision of part sections 33-34, Hundred of Adelaide by William George J. Mills in 1926; now included in Bellevue Heights. Alan Cobham, a pioneer navigator of the England-Australia route who completed the first solo flight from England to Australia when he landed at Darwin on 5 August 1926.
General Notes
For details of Alan Cobham's flight from England see Register,
23 June 1926, page 9a,
1 and 8 July 1926, pages 9e and 8c-9d,
6, 13, 16, 23 and 30 August 1926, pages 8e-9h, 10a, 8f, 9d and 6d-8,
Chronicle,
21 and 28 August 1926, pages 39 and 50,
4 September 1926, pages 37-49.
Photographs are in the Observer,
4 September 1926, page 31:
-
The feature of Mr. Cobham's contemplated trip is that he intends to undertake the return journey as well. The necessities of Australia compel the development of air transport and we shall soon have a complete transcontinental air chain...
Also see South Australia - Transport - Aeroplanes.
Cobdogla - Cohen, Hundred of
C
Place Names
Cocata
Nomenclature
It was probably corrupted from 'Cokata', the name of the Aboriginal people who occupied the land 'betwen Mount Wedge and the Gawler Ranges' - see Register, 27 December 1919, page 9e. The name was applied to pastoral lease no. 1608 by W. Morgan, M. Kingsborough and G. Agars at 'Mount Southam, East of Venus Bay' circa 1867. The land was originally held by J. Kelsh at 'Mount Southam' from July 1860 (leases nod. 838-839).
General Notes
A news item in the Register on 27 December 1919, page 9e says that the name of the Aboriginal people who inhabited the land between Mount Wedge and the Gawler Ranges was "Cokata".
The school opened in 1921;
changed to "Mount Damper" in 1944.
Cobdogla - Cohen, Hundred of
C
Place Names
Cockabidnie
A photograph of the school and students is in the Chronicle,22 December 1932, page 32.
Cobdogla - Cohen, Hundred of
C
Place Names
Cockaleechie
Nomenclature
A.N. Day's Railway Nomenclature published in 1915 suggests that the person in authority within the SA Railways was partial to a soup bearing this name and so passed it on to this railway station near Cummins. It is more probable, however, that it came from the 'Cockaleechie Run' (lease no. 1951) named by James Anderson. He had held the land from 2 July 1860 (lease no. 837). The Oxford dictionary defines 'cockaleekie' (sic) as 'a Scottish soup of cock boiled with leeks'. Thus, with the nomenclator, James Anderson, being born in Scotland the name applied to his sheep run may be a corruption of the soup's name.
General Notes
Information on Mr Anderson is in the Register,
5 June 1884 (supp.), page 1a.
Also see Place Names - Cummins:
-
Mr. Anderson is one of the oldest settlers in the district, having in conjunction with Mr. Tennant arrived with the first sheep overland in 1846. Before that time all stock was brought in vessels, oftentimes with great loss when the weather was unfavourable. Although they were the first to arrive overland from Adelaide an attempt had been made some four years previously to leave Port Lincoln by that route by Mr. C.C. Dutton...
Cobdogla - Cohen, Hundred of
C
Place Names
Cockatoo Valley
Nomenclature
Located on section 572, Hundred of Barossa 3 km south of Sandy Creek. It was named by Messrs Hill, Wood and John Oakden on 2 March 1838 because it was swarming with cockatoos.
General Notes
Local residents were roused to petition the government in 1862 with the view to having a local road improved:
-
The main [road] is utterly impassable... by reason of its passing over a very bad piece of sand, about a mile and a half in length, the public having to avail themselves of a private road... for which they pay one shilling for each dray...
Cobdogla - Cohen, Hundred of
C
Place Names
Cockburn
Nomenclature
Sir John Cockburn (1850-1929), who came to South Australia in 1875 and settled at Jamestown. He was a Premier of South Australia in 1889-1890. His principal achievement was in promoting a Bill for payment of members which was passed through the agency of his strenuous, persistent and eloquent advocacy.
General Notes
Also see South Australia - Politics.
The town is described in the Register,
22 April 1887, page 6f,
Parliamentary Paper 91/1889, 91/1891.
Observer,
12 July 1902, page 32e.
The opening of the railway to Broken Hill is reported in the Register,
11 January 1888, page 5h.
Sketches are in the Pictorial Australian in
January 1888, pages 8, 9 and 12.
Also see South Australia - Transport - Railways - Miscellany.
Its school opened in 1889.
The opening of a new school is reported in the Register,
23 January 1891, page 6b; also see
Observer,
27 November 1897, page 20e.
An Arbor Day is reported in the Chronicle,
18 August 1894, page 12a,
14 August 1897, page 37a.
Also see South Australia - Education - Arbor Days.
A sports meeting is reported in the Chronicle,
8 January 1887, page 15c,
30 May 1896, page 11b,
2 January 1897, page 19e,
3 June 1899, page 15c.
Biographical details of John Cockburn are in the Observer,
23 April 1887, page 33b,
19 January 1889, page 33b,
Register,
27 June 1889, page 5f and
Advertiser,
19 April 1893, page 7a,
Weekly Herald, 2 April 1897, page 1 and
his obituary on 28 November 1929, page 14h.(Observer?)
Information on the water supply is in the Chronicle,
29 December 1888, page 10f,
Register,
25 April 1892, page 5c:
-
The mining interest in the neighbourhood was seriously imperiled by the probability of the water supply on which they depended failing in the government tank. They had hitherto paid cheerfully for this water but now the tank was only two feet deep and unfit for human consumption...
Also see South Australia - Water Conservation.
"Wants of Cockburn" is in the Register, 7 February 1889, page 7c.
A union official describes railway employees' accommodation in the Register, 3 February 1890, page 6e:
-
A dirty, old, abandoned third-class railway carriage, no wheels, lying on the ground in an exposed position... [its] furniture consisted of four wooden bunks... the place was not weather-proof... [The charge is] sixpence per night for these undesirable lodgings... [The cooking facility] is an old nail-drum in the open air... and with no appliance... I do not know how they get water.
27 and 30 September 1892, pages 7c and 6b,
3, 4, 6 and 11 October 1892, pages 7f, 6f, 6h and 5c.
"Barrier to Cockburn Tram" is in the Register,
2 February 1904, page 5a.
"New Railway Barracks" is in the Observer,
13 May 1911, page 14.
"Caterpillars Stop a Train" is in the Observer,
12 August 1911, page 17b.
Public grievances are aired in the Register, 6 and 17 February 1893, pages 3g and 7f:
-
Much dissatisfaction is expressed at a report regarding the drainage of waste water, etc., from locomotive sheds into a public road... There is another matter which needs to be remedied. The night soil is not taken out of the railway yard, but is simply thrown into a hole provided for that purpose in the heart of the town and under the very nose of the people... The pit provided for the railway station is barely a stone's throw from the public school and children are frequently playing within a few feet of it and it is significant that the inmates of the house nearest to this place have suffered most from fevers and illnesses both last year and this...
Information on a cricket club is in the Register,
25 March 1894, page 3c.
Also see South Australia - Sport - Cricket - Miscellany.
A rabbit plague is described in the Register,
15 March 1895, page 3d,
Observer,
16 March 1895, page 30e,
26 October 1895, page 15e,
Chronicle,
30 March 1895, page 12c,
16 November 1895, page 16e.
Also see South Australia - Flora and Fauna - Rabbits.
A horse race meeting is reported in the Register,
27 November 1896, page 7f,
Information on local horse racing is in the Advertiser,
1 September 1936, page 21a.
Also see South Australia - Sport - Horse Racing.
The local prison cell is described in the Register, 22 October 1897, page 4h:
-
The floor is disgraceful; a refractory prisoner can pick up large stones, a pound weight or more, and hurl it at the constable...
7 April 1898, page 2e.
A political cartoon is in The Critic,
27 May 1899, page 4.
"Cockburn Now Important Town" is in the Advertiser,
24 December 1935, page 15d.
Cobdogla - Cohen, Hundred of
C
Place Names
Cocoanut
Nomenclature
The name was probably taken from 'Coconut (sic) Station' held by Philip Levi in the mid-1860s.
General Notes
"Cocoanut Point" on Yorke Peninsula is mentioned in the Register,
2 January 1864, page 3c.
It was, no doubt, adjacent to the "Cocoanut" copper discovery made "at a small
[pastoral] station near Clinton" in 1865, when ore was found upon the surface -
see Record of the Mines of South Australia (fourth edition) page 42.
Also see South Australia - Mining - Copper.
"Children Lost and Found" is in the Observer, 28 August 1875, page 6g:
-
On a Friday in August 1875 a son of Mr. Kain was lost in the scrub... In the following afternoon one of the child's boots was found near Penang and several footprints of the little fellow were discovered. On the following Monday morning the hopes of the rescuers were raised for a dog belonging to the boy was also missing and it was premised that the animal had followed him. Guided by the barking of
a dog the men hastened onward; a cry from the boy greeted their ears and to their intense gratification the men found the boy, apparently a little worse for his prolonged wanderings and exposure. He was very cold and the first thing he asked for was for some matches to light a fire. The place where he was found was near the old Condamine mine, three miles from Penang and seven or eight miles from Coconut... The dog, which had faithfully remained with its master until he was found, scampered off to Coconut where it arrived in a ravenously hungry condition...
A cricket match, Coconut (sic) versus Maitland, is reported in the Chronicle,
26 August 1876, page 17d.
A stump-jump ploughing match is reported in the Observer,
17 September 1881, page 12a.
Also see South Australia - Industries - Rural, Primary and Secondary - Farming - Farm Implements.
Cobdogla - Cohen, Hundred of
C
Place Names
Coffin Bay
Nomenclature
Forty kilometres west of Port Lincoln was named by Matthew Flinders on 16 February 1802, after Sir Isaac Coffin, who was Resident Naval Commissioner at Sheerness, where the Investigator was fitted out.
General Notes
An account of exploration in the area is to be found in the Register,
21 August 1841, page 3c; also see
Southern Australian,
20 August 1841, page 2e.
A proposal to establish an oyster fishery is reported in the Adelaide Times on 11 October 1849, page 4f:
-
My attention was called to this inlet by the quantities of oysters brought to Port Lincoln in drays, deposited among the rocks in beds and, as opportunity offered, shipped to Adelaide in small crafts to supply the market and there retailed at one shilling and sixpence a dozen. Since this discovery no less than 100,000 oysters have been brought to Adelaide... I beg further to report the existence of large quantities of guano on one of the islands... It appears to be about three or four feet in depth and so far as I can judge, equal in quality to that procured from Peru...
Information on its oyster beds is in the Register,
16 June 1887, page 7d;
the district is described on
28 December 1898, page 6f,
15 February 1911, page 8d,
Observer,
7 January 1899, page 5c.
An alleged discovery of coal and other minerals in the district is reported in the Register,
7 July 1885, page 7a; also see
15 December 1891, page 5b,
12 and 18 January 1892, pages 5d and 4h.
Also see South Australia - Mining - Coal
Photographs are in the Observer,
18 January 1919, page 26.
Its school opened in 1960 and closed in 1963.
Cobdogla - Cohen, Hundred of
C
Place Names
Coffin Springs
Nomenclature
Thomas Coffin, who was employed by John McD. Stuart's mentors James and John Chambers.
General Notes
The Register of 14 January 1865, page 2g says "... so called after the finder's name, Tom Coffin, are about 40 miles east of Wilpena..."
A search for the skeletal remains of the Diprotodon australis is reported upon in the Express,
13 January 1865, page 1d (supp.),
Register, 14 January 1865, page 2,
Observer,
18 and 25 February 1865, pages 5b and 7f,
25 March 1865, page 2h (supp.),
3 June 1865, page 4g:
-
Teeth and tusks from a Diprotodon australis were found there in December 1864... 'The springs, so called after the finder's name, Tom Coffin, are about 40 miles east of Wilpena Station and Pound. The spring consists of a hole in a limestone crust, now about 12 feet in circumference. About eight years back the holes in the limestone were only two or three feet across, but the cattle, etc., have broken it in. This limestone crust covers about two acres...'
"The Mount Coffin Field" is in the Express,
10 February 1899, page 3g,
11 July 1899, page 3f,
Chronicle,
15 July 1899, page 18d.
Also see South Australia - Mining - Coal.
The reminiscences of Mr J.H. Howe which are in the Advertiser,
5 March 1917, page 8f provide interesting information on Mr Coffin.
Cobdogla - Cohen, Hundred of
C
Place Names
Coghill Creek
Nomenclature
William Coghill, a licensee of the first hotel in the Saddleworth district which stood on section 2083 and comprised of fourteen rooms. He was appointed postmaster at 'Gilbert River' in 1847, resigning in 1848. He later accepted a similar position at Saddleworth in 1850.
General Notes
See Place Names - Saddleworth.
The laying of the foundation stone of a Primitive Methodist Church is reported in the Observer,
12 October 1861, page 4e and
its opening on
16 December 1861, page 5h:
-
The cornerstone of a Primitive Methodist Chapel was laid at Coghill Creek, near Saddleworth, on 2 October 1861 by Mrs E. Rees of Butcher Gap... It is expected the building will be opened about the middle of November.
It was opened on 10 November 1861 when the minister for the circuit, Rev T. Braithwaite, preached three times... The chapel is 25 feet by 18 feet inside and is amply furnished with seats and neatly plastered and ceiled. It is expected that after the harvest the erection will be quite free from debt.
Its school opened in 1865 and closed in 1873. Parliamentary Paper 22/1871 shows it being conducted by Christina Smith with 41 enrolled pupils.
Cobdogla - Cohen, Hundred of
C
Place Names
Coglin
Nomenclature
P.B. Coglin, MP (1860-1887).
General Notes
Also see South Australia - Politics.
Comment on a parliamentary speech by Mr Coglin is in the Register,
3 July 1862, page 2d:
-
Mr. Coglin was in his element... His eloquence may be properly described as 'the oratory of the stable'. It belongs to a new school, of which he himself is the founder. His speech on Wednesday was, therefore, racy in the extreme. But this great master of language labours under a disadvantage. He complained that the press did not do justice to his words. But whose fault is this? Reporters cannot be expected to achieve impossibilities. There are flights to which none but great geniuses are equal:
What daring limner e'r would choose
To paint the rainbow's varying hues,
But with all the eloquence the preliminary motion for £100 to encouraging racing was lost and the honourable member, who certainly took the field in brilliant style, and put his hobby through its most magnificent paces, was 'Nowhere' at the end of the race...
A cartoon is in The Adelaide Punch,
1 April 1869, page 93.
Biographical details of Patrick B. Coglin and details of an ornate family vault at West Terrace cemetery are in the Register,
6 June 1885, page 5c,
4 July 1885, page 7f and
19 January 1886, page 5b;
also see 25 July 1892, page 6c,
Observer, 8 August 1896, page 33c,
Register, 24 January 1914, page 6e.
The vault is described in the Advertiser,
6 July 1885, page 7d and
The Mail,
8 February 1930, page 27b.
"Farce and Drama of Election" is in the Chronicle,
19 August 1937, page 47.
Cobdogla - Cohen, Hundred of
C
Place Names
Cohen, Hundred of
Nomenclature
Lewis Cohen, MP (1887-1906). Born in 1849 he came to Adelaide from Sydney in 1876 when he opened a branch of the Melbourne-based 'London Loan and Discount Bank'. He became Mayor of Adelaide in 1889 and occupied that position six more times by 1911. 'He feared that federation would threaten local industry, thought that government expenditure for work should be placed with private firms and opposed coloured immigration.' He died in 1933.
General Notes
Also see South Australia - Politics.
A school of this name opened in 1933 and closed in 1940.
Cobdogla - Cohen, Hundred of
C
