List of Australian repeated place names

Australian places include ones with names where a word is repeated to make the name. These names are nearly always derived from indigenous Australian languages.

These names are examples of reduplication, a common theme in Australian toponymy, especially in names derived from Indigenous Australian languages such as Wiradjuri. Reduplication is often used as an intensifier such as "Wagga Wagga" many crows and "Tilba Tilba" many waters.

The phenomenon has been the subject of interest in popular culture, including the song by Australian folk singer Greg Champion, Don't Call Wagga Wagga Wagga. British comedian Spike Milligan, an erstwhile resident of Woy Woy, once wrote "Woy it is called Woy Woy Oi will never know".

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Name	State	Place name meaning (where known)
Ban Ban Springs	Queensland	Ban means "grass" in the local Kabi dialect.
Baw Baw National Park	Victoria	Baw Baw is an Aboriginal word meaning "echo".
Beggan Beggan	New South Wales
Bli Bli	Queensland	Named after "billai billai", Aboriginal for swamp oak.
Boonoo Boonoo National Park	New South Wales	The place name means "poor country with no animals to provide food" and is Aboriginal in origin.
Bong Bong	New South Wales	The place name is Aboriginal for "blind or a watercourse lost in a swamp" or "many watercourses; many frogs".
Bongil Bongil	New South Wales	The name Bongil Bongil is the name of a sub-group of the Gumbaingerie tribe which occupied the general area bounded by the Clarence River in the north, the Nambucca River in the south, Dorrigo in the west and the Pacific Ocean.
Bungle Bungle Range	Western Australia	A corruption of "bundle bundle", a grass common to the Kimberley region.
Curl Curl	New South Wales	Name may be derived from Aboriginal phrase "curial curial" meaning river of life.
Mount Dom Dom	Victoria
Doon Doon	New South Wales
Drik Drik	Victoria	An Aboriginal word for "Stoney Stoney"
Gin Gin	Queensland	The name was derived from the original station name, which used a local Aboriginal word indicating "red soil thick scrub".
Gin Gin	New South Wales
Gingin	Western Australia	Name may be derived from local Aboriginal word for "place of many streams"
Gol Gol	New South Wales
Goonoo Goonoo	New South Wales	"Plenty of water".
Greg Greg	New South Wales
Grong Grong	New South Wales	"Very hot".
Gumly Gumly	New South Wales
Jellat Jellat	New South Wales
Kin Kin	Queensland
Kurri Kurri	New South Wales
Lang Lang	Victoria	Lang Lang was formerly known as Carrington, after Lord Carrington. The Aboriginal name "Lang Lang" means "Clump of Trees".
Mitta Mitta	Victoria
Mona Mona Mission	Queensland	(Aboriginal community in far north Qld)
Mooney Mooney	New South Wales
Terrick Terrick National Park	Victoria
Terry Hie Hie	New South Wales
Tilba Tilba	New South Wales	Said to be a Thawa Aboriginal term for 'many waters'.
Wagga Wagga	New South Wales	'Wagga wagga' is probably a Wiradhuri term for 'many crows'. It should be noted that 'waggan', for one type of crow and 'waggura', for another have been recorded; also: reeling (a sick man or a dizzy man); to dance, slide or grind.
Walla Walla	New South Wales
Wallan Wallan	Victoria
Wangi Wangi	New South Wales
Woy Woy	New South Wales	Said to be an Awabakal Aboriginal term for 'deep water' or 'lagoon'
Wujal Wujal	Queensland	(Aboriginal community in far north Qld)
Yeo Yeo	New South Wales

See also

• Reduplication for general linguistic analysis
• List of Australian place names of Aboriginal origin

Further reading

• Kennedy, Brian, & Kennedy, Barbara. & Australian Broadcasting Corporation. (2006) Australian place names ABC Books for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Sydney, N.S.W. ISBN 073331760X
• Reed, A. W. (1967) Aboriginal place names Sydney ; Wellington : A.H. & A.W. Reed. ISBN 0730101274 (pbk)