W..W..Walumbilla…[Beep]
Came across a obscure booklet on the weekend called Ozzobooko - Australian Place Names Revisited.
Back in the Bicentennial year of 1988, perhaps over a cask of shaggy red, authors Bruce and Brian Ridley cooked up possible definitions of homegrown towns. Here’s a sample of the W pages. (Feel free to suggest your own town-name meanings.)
WADEYE - Hi-tech electronic device that causes traffic lights to change amber just before you get to them
WAHROONGA - Steer a supermarket trolley in a slightly sideways direction to compensate for the damaged wheel
WALLA WALLA - Accident-prone individual such as one who gets jammed in electric doors or bitten by his own false teeth
WALLUMBILLA - Feeling of blind panic that confronts you when asked to leave a message after the beep
WALPOLE - Walk briskly into a swing door that’s been locked
WAREEK - Hideous gift
WARRNAMBOOL - Sound made by a warped cassette
WHIPORIE - Regarding the behaviour of a garden hose when you’ve turned the tap on and are trying to recapture it
WILLOUGHBY - One who proposes a game of Scrabble, and then changes the rules before play commences
WONYIP - Vegetable that grows in the place of the carrots that you actually planted
[Source Ozzobooko, Bruce and Vrian Ridley, Inca Books, 1988]