A RESIDENTIAL suburb in Tamworth could be in line for name change with questions raised about its exact title.
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Eagle-eyed history buffs have recently highlighted articles and old maps identifying Moore Creek sans ‘e’.
It caught the attention of councillor Juanita Wilson, who could call to mind a time the locality went by the Moor Creek moniker.
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“It's a minor matter, but the integrity of naming is significant,” Cr Wilson said.
She called for staff to get a report together on the issue at the last council meeting.
The Australian and NSW electoral commissions have the suburb registered as Moore Creek, but the extraneous ‘e’ remains elusive in news articles from 1916, as well a book printed in 1953, Charles Laserson’s Face of Australia.
However, an antecedent article in the Sydney Illustrated News from August 4, 1883, describes “Goonoo Goonoo, Moore and Sandy creeks” flowing into the southern head of the Peel River.
But there’s more twists in the titular tale.
Australian Agricultural Company’s (AACo) surveyor, John Armstrong was charged with mapping the region in 1834.
The Chronological History of Tamworth took interest in his notes.
“The present Attunga Creek was marked ‘Moowar Creek’ and the present Moore Creek was marked ‘Calingorady Creek’,” the book read.
“It is said that ‘Calingorady was the Aboriginal name for Tangaratta Creek.
“Some early maps show ‘Moowar’, spelt ‘Moore’ applied to what had earlier been marked as ‘Calingorady’.”
Meanwhile, a Letts Sons and Company map from 1871 coined it Mooar Creek.
Tamworth historian Melinda Gill said it wasn’t uncommon for place names to have shifts in spelling and “lots of creeks” in the area had slight name variations.
She said the AACo station built at Calala, was originally named Killala and the suburb’s spelling had a few iterations over time.