Place Names Register Extract

Gosses Bluff

Extract date: 16/04/2024

Name Gosses Bluff
Type Designation Cliff
Place Id 13237
Place Type Feature
Status Recorded
Date Registered
Location (Datum GDA94)  
Latitude: -23° 48' S (Decimal degrees -23.8)
Longitude: 132° 19' E (Decimal degrees 132.3167)
Locality / Suburb  
  Namatjira
Local Government Area  
  MacDonnell Shire Council
History/Origin Ernest Giles named this range on 8 September 1872 after Mr Henry Gosse, who whilst working on the Overland Telegraph Line had journeyed into the ranges to the west of Alice Springs.

In "Geographic Travels in Central Australia" Giles wrote:
"I named this Gosse's Range, after Mr Harry Gosse, who had been out from the Alice Springs Telegraph-Station; but where his travels took him to I did not hear."

Fayette Gosse in "The Gosses: an Anglo-Australian Family" (1981) on her chapter on William Christie Gosse, Explorer wrote:
"William, then thirty, nominated his brother Henry , twenty-four, as bushman, pointing out that he could bake bread and shoe horses and had already travelled eighty miles to west of Alice Springs while working on the construction of the Overland Telegraph."

In the 1800s and early 1900s, the names Henry and Harry were interchangeable when referring to a person.

By 1885, Goyder was using the name Gosses Bluff Range (Pastoral Compilation, 1885) and by 1930 the name "Gosses Bluff" was the accepted name for the feature.

The 1961 edition of the 1:250,000 Hermannsburg map sheet used the name Gosse Bluff.

In 1969 the Surveyor General advised the Director of National Mapping that "..as most other maps still show Gosses Bluff, this name should be retained", with National Mapping replying that they would use "Gosses Bluff" on all future maps. The 1989 edition of the 1:250,000 Hermannsburg map sheet (and subsequent sheets) have used the name Gosses Bluff.

In 1993 "Tnorala (Gosse Bluff) Conservation Reserve" was declared

Register & Gazettal information

Date Gazettal Comment
  (None Found)  

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GPO Box 1680, Darwin NT 0801. Ph 08 8995 5333.
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