Place Names Register Extract
Humpty Doo
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Print Extract | Search Again| 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) | |
| View Map | View in NT Atlas | View in Google Earth | |
| 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 |