Walgun, Wollumbin, Mullumbimby

Place names across Bundjalung Country

Some town names on the Northern Rivers come from Bundjalung language. Others were carried here from Scotland, Ireland and England by surveyors and settlers, and a few are not what people assume. This page separates the two, and is honest about how shaky the published meanings are.

Read the meanings carefully

Nearly every place-name “meaning” in circulation on the Northern Rivers traces back to nineteenth and early-twentieth century settler records, tourist signage, or regional compilations (such as J. S. Ryan's 1963 survey) — written by people who did not speak Bundjalung. A recorder might have written down the word for a nearby tree, an answer to a question that was misunderstood, a person’s name, or simply what they thought they heard. Those guesses were then copied forward for a hundred years until they looked authoritative.

The meanings below are the ones you will actually find when you search, reported as what they are: widely repeated, not verified. Where sources contradict each other, this page says so rather than picking one. For reliable work on Bundjalung words, go to the language centres — they have the linguistic record and the community authority, and this website has neither.

Names from Bundjalung language

Bangalow — From the bangalow palm (Archontophoenix cunninghamiana), whose common name is itself Bundjalung. The town was called Codrington until it was renamed in the early 1900s.
Coraki — Widely given as “meeting of the waters”, for the junction of the Richmond and Wilsons rivers that the town sits on — one of the more consistently reported meanings in the region.
Iluka — Usually glossed as “near the sea”. Some references attribute the word to a language from elsewhere in Australia rather than to Bundjalung, so this one is genuinely uncertain.
Kyogle — Commonly given as the Bundjalung word for the plains turkey or bush turkey. The bird still appears on the town's signage.
Mullumbimby — Most often given as “small round hill”.
Murwillumbah — Sources disagree. “Good camping ground” and “place of many possums” are both widely published; neither should be treated as settled.
Nimbin — From Nimbinjee or Nyimbunji, spirit beings associated with the Nimbin Rocks south of the village. The rocks are a significant site and are not a tourist climb.
Wollumbin — The Bundjalung name for the mountain James Cook named Mount Warning in 1770. Commonly translated as “cloud catcher”, and also recorded as referring to a fighting chief of the mountains. It is a men's sacred site; Bundjalung custodians have long asked visitors not to climb it, and the summit track is permanently closed.
Yamba — Commonly given as “headland”.
Ballina — Contested. Local histories give both an Irish origin (Béal an Átha, “mouth of the ford”) and a Bundjalung origin, often written bullinah and glossed “place of many oysters”. Both accounts are still in circulation.
Cudgen, Cudgera, Chinderah, Bilambil, Billinudgel, Burringbar, Tyalgum, Tyagarah, Wooyung, Booyong, Yelgun — All Bundjalung-derived names still in use across the Tweed and Byron shires. Published meanings for these vary so widely that none is repeated here — the language centres are the place to ask.

Names brought from somewhere else

A good share of the region’s town names are Scottish, Irish, English or Italian, applied by surveyors and settlers over places that already had names.

Byron Bay — Cape Byron was named by James Cook in May 1770 after Vice-Admiral John Byron — a navigator, not the poet. The Bundjalung name for the headland is Walgun.
Brunswick Heads — From the Brunswick River, named in 1828 for the German House of Brunswick, the royal house of Queen Caroline.
Casino — Named around 1840 by the settler George Stapleton, generally attributed to Monte Cassino in Italy.
Evans Head — After the headland, which carries the name of colonial surveyor George William Evans.
Grafton — Named in 1851 after the Duke of Grafton, grandfather of the then Governor of New South Wales, Sir Charles FitzRoy.
Kingscliff — A settler-era descriptive name for the cliff-backed beach between Cudgen Headland and the Tweed.
Lismore — After Lismore, the island in Loch Linnhe in the Scottish Highlands.
Maclean — After Alexander Grant McLean, Surveyor-General of New South Wales — note the town spells it differently from the man. The Scottish identity the town is now known for, including the Highland Gathering and the tartan power poles, came from its Highland settler families rather than from the name itself.
Ocean Shores — A developer's name from the late 1960s, when the estate was launched by a consortium that famously included the American singer Pat Boone.
Pottsville — After the Potts family, early landholders on Cudgera Creek.
Tweed Heads — From the Tweed River, named after the River Tweed on the Scotland–England border.

Two names for the same place

Several places across Bundjalung Country now carry dual names, with the Bundjalung name restored alongside or ahead of the colonial one — Wollumbin/Mount Warning is the best known, and Cape Byron is increasingly written with Walgun. Dual naming in New South Wales is administered by the Geographical Names Board on application from the community, not by state decision, so where a dual name exists it is there because local people asked for it.

If you are producing signage, a website, a map or a publication, the safest approach is to ask the relevant Local Aboriginal Land Council which form they want used, rather than deciding from a list like this one.

More about Bundjalung Country

Bundjalung Country map

Where Bundjalung Country runs, why no single map is official, and who holds the boundaries.

Clans and groups

Arakwal, Githabul, Bandjalang, Widjabal, Nyangbal, Yugambeh and the other names you will meet.

Bundjalung language

Dialects, why spellings differ, and the language centres that actually teach and publish.

Bundjalung National Park

The coastal park between Iluka and Evans Head, its campgrounds, and the Iluka rainforest.

Frequently asked questions

Who is Byron Bay named after?

Cape Byron was named by James Cook in May 1770 after Vice-Admiral John Byron, a Royal Navy officer nicknamed “Foulweather Jack” who had circumnavigated the globe in 1764–66. It is not named after the poet Lord Byron, a persistent local myth — the poet was John Byron's grandson and was not born until 1788, eighteen years after the cape was named. The Bundjalung name for the headland is Walgun.

What does Mullumbimby mean?

It is a Bundjalung name, most commonly given in local histories as “small round hill”. As with most published place-name meanings from this region, that gloss comes from settler-era records rather than from language workers, so treat it as the widely repeated version rather than a confirmed translation.

Is Casino named after a gambling house?

No. Casino was named by the settler George Stapleton around 1840, and the name is generally attributed to Monte Cassino in Italy. It has nothing to do with gambling, and the town's identity is built on cattle rather than cards.

Why do published meanings of the same name disagree?

Because almost all of them were written down in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by English speakers who did not speak the language. A recorder might write down the word for a nearby feature, an answer to a different question, a personal name, or a mishearing. Those guesses were then copied into tourist signage and local histories for a century. Language centres and Elders hold the reliable knowledge.

Can I use a Bundjalung place name for my business or website?

Ask first. Using a language word as a business name, domain or brand without permission is a common and avoidable problem — the relevant Local Aboriginal Land Council or language centre is the place to raise it, and they will tell you whether the word is appropriate, whether you have the right form of it, and whether it should be used that way at all.