Place Names Register Extract

Humpty Doo

Extract date: 23/04/2024

Name Humpty Doo
Type Designation Locality
Place Id 2047
Place Type Administrative Area
Status Registered
Date Registered 29 October 1997
Location (Datum GDA94)  
Latitude: -12° 35' S (Decimal degrees -12.5842)
Longitude: 131° 07' E (Decimal degrees 131.1258)
Locality / Suburb  
  (None Found)
Local Government Area  
  Litchfield Council
History/Origin The locality of Humpty Doo is named after the station originally called "Umpity Doo" as shown on the 1910 Survey Plan of Agricultural Lease No. 28 held by Oscar Herbert and showing improvements on the Homestead property. Various versions of the original name can be found:

(1) from the ARMY slang term "umpty" used in 1917 for the dash when reading morse; and
(2) by W Hatfield in I find Australia, 1943 referring to Humpty Doo Station and mentions that the name is derived from the colloquialism "everything done wrong or upside down".

Whether Oscar Herbert meant his named station to mean "everything was going well" or "everything was going upside down" was never recorded, but it is believed that the slang name of "UMPTY" version and "Umpity Doo Station" of 1910 became Humpty Doo in post-war years.

Elsie Masson's book "Untamed Territory", 1914 refers to the picturesque "Umdidu", which was translated by a journalist in 1953 into "Umdudu". This was supposed to be an English language corruption of the aboriginal term which meant " a popular resting place".

The range of variant origins indicate some of the meanings suggested and applied. However Oscar Herbert's homestead "Umpity Do" of 1910 gave rise to the Humpty Doo locations of more recent years. Oscar and his brother Evan died in 1974 at Koolpinyah.

Register & Gazettal information

Date Gazettal Comment
29/10/1997 NTG43
09/09/2013 Revocation and renaming of Howard Springs and Girraween localities

The Northern Territory Gazetteer is maintained by the Place Names Section,
Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics.
GPO Box 1680, Darwin NT 0801. Ph 08 8995 5333.
place.names@nt.gov.au

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