So, as a centrist sometimes I like to criticise the stupid shit the left and says does and to a lesser extent, and to a lesser extent, what the far right says or does. But that's mostly because what the far right says is so stupid it's not worth my brain cells. So here's something that some people on the moderate and far right have criticised- giving Indigenous names to transit stops in the New World, renaming new world cities with Indigenous names, etc.
So, let's actually discuss the matter and the thing that encouraged me to start this thread. Sydney is on the verge of opening a new light rail line and a new metro line, with a light rail stop called "Yallamundi" and a metro stop called "Gadigal". This is despite the fact that the surrounding areas don't have that name. So naturally, some people opposed those names on principal saying we shouldn't be "giving into" Aboriginals by giving these stations Aboriginal names. I think that's completely ridiculous. When I point to them the fact that there are train stations with Aboriginal names in suburbs with Aboriginal names such as "Warrawee" or "Yagoona", they genuinely don't know what to say that. It's completely ridiculous to whinge about this, and if you disagree that it is, I'd like to see why it matters.
Then you get the other matter and why people to complain about these names- a reason that's not completely idiotic. Wayfinding. The entire purpose of a station's name is wayfinding. Yallamundi is just an awful name for wayfinding. The word "Yallamundi" means storyteller, which is named that for the university there. That's awful for wayfinding purposes. I wrote to the geographic names board of NSW to suggest that they rename that area as "Yallamundi" but they said no, which is just silly. I mean, it would be good for wayfinding, especially considering that it's a bloody university with thousands of students from all around the world that need wayfinding. I'd be happy with the "University of Western Sydney- Yallamundi Campus", but that's not gonna happen according to the geographics name board of NSW (hmmm... maybe I should write to the university?) and considering that Tallawong became a suburb for that station as recently as 2019, why can't we do the same for Yallamundi? (For the record, a different light rail stop serving a critical mental hospital is known as "Ngara" and also has the same wayfinding problem)
Gadigal is a different matter because it's one of 10 downtown stations so the area around there can easily be come to known as "Gadigal"
I fully support station names like "Yagoona" or "Barangaroo" or "Toongabi" or "Berowra" or any of the dozens of other Aboriginal station names. Why? Because Yagoona station is in Yagoona, so claling it anything would be insane. Barrangaroo station(which is on the same line as Gadigal and will open at the same time as Gadigal) is in Barrangaroo, and therefore naming it anything else would be wrong. Toongabi station is in Toongabi, so naming it anything else would be silly, Berowra station is Berwora, so it wouldn't make sense to give it any other name, and the list goes on
Tallawong station was in Schofields, but there's already a Schofields station 3 kilometres away, so they gazetted a new suburb and named it "Tallawong" which was, in my opinion, the correct coarse of action.
Then we have renaming cities and towns with Aboriginal names. I don't have too much of an issue with this (within limits), but it upsets me when at Cairns airport, the display signage for domestic destinations keeps alternating between Aboriginal names and commonly used names for cities like Brisbane and Melbourne, then it defeats the purpose of such signs in the first place and makes reading the board unnecessarily difficult. If they absolutely must have the Aboriginal name up there, put both up at the same time. But, within limits, I have no issue with changing the official name. Within limits.
Anyways NSG, what do you make of all this?
