Gaboordjoolup

Gaboodjoolup

Description & Location

The name of the bay in the South Perth Foreshore where the present ferry jetty is located, between Mends Street and Queen's Street. Although this shore is mostly even today, the site of Gaboordjoolup prior to reclamation had a more pronounced, meandering nature along the coast that mimicked the serpentine path of the Waugyl, the giant rainbow snake of Noongar Dreaming. 

This low-lying stretch of land was flood prone, with a sand bank extending out at least twenty metres further along the Perth Water, towards Miller’s Pool. As a result, the site resisted most development up until the 1930s, when reclamation work commenced along the Swan and Canning River foreshores. 

The flood-prone shoreline may be reflected in the placename of Gaboodjoolup, which most likely means the place where “water comes here into the land”. 

References

Bolleter, J. (2015). Take Me to the River: The Story of Perth’s Foreshore, p. 28.

State Records Office of WA. Cons993. 1948/0150. List of native names for naming farms, etc., p. 162.  

School of Indigenous Studies. (n.d.). Boodjar: Nyungar Placenames in the South-West of Western Australia. Wadjuk: Gaboodjoolup. Crawley: University of Western Australia. Retrieved from http://www.sis.uwa.edu.au/research/boodjar.

State Library of NSW. (1899). Box 5 Folder 1: Western Australian Place Names, 1899-1903, p. 26.

The Western Australian Journal. (1833, April 20). The Perth Gazette and Western Australian Journal, p. 62. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article642121.     

WA Achievers. (n.d.). History Narrow: The Narrows Bridge. Retrieved from http://www.wabiz.org/a-z/n/the-narrows-bridge/history.