Product Code Database
Woronora is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Woronora is located 27 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Sutherland Shire. Woronora Heights is a separate suburb, to the south-west.
The following meanings have been suggested for Woronora:
Variations such as 'black cliffs' and 'sharkless waters' have also been suggested by local residents.
The Aboriginal language known variously as Darug language, Eora or simply 'the Sydney Language' was spoken around Woronora at the time of colonisation (Troy 1994:61). Lists of Dharug words gathered around the turn of the century provide a number of possibilities regarding the number of and likely constituents of the placename. An analysis of the number of syllables in Dharug words recorded by Mathews (1901) shows over 50% contained two syllables, and just under 40% contained three, while only 1.45% contained one syllable:
| TOTAL |
| 276 |
| 100% |
It therefore seems likely that Woronora is made up of two disyllabic elements.
In light of what historical Dharug information is available, the meaning of the suffix of Woronora seems most transparent. A range of phonetically similar words are present in the sources:
We may tentatively conclude therefore that *-ngurra could function as a Locative case suffix in Dharug.
The stem of Woronora is much harder to specify. Unfortunately, no word list contains a word *wooloo, *wolo, or *woro, but the following orthographically similar words are present:
Oft-cited definitions like 'black rocks' find no support in the written records. Words for 'black', 'shark' and 'water' do not resemble any element of Woronora, though we lack a record for the Dharug words for 'rock', 'cliff', 'river', and 'creek', and thus cannot categorically rule these out.
Guesses regarding the original form of the placename depend largely upon the degree of mishearing assumed to have taken place between the Aboriginal informant and the European recorder. Might a surveyor have missed a syllable in *wolaru-ngurra? Although English speakers frequently reproduced Rhotics as either /r/ or /l/ orthographically (Donaldson 2002:235), it is difficult to establish whether the name was misheard from Aboriginal sources three times (producing the Wooloo-, Wolo-, and Woro- variants), or whether the change in spelling was a product of changing European pronunciation without reference to Aboriginal people. The latter is quite likely considering that until the 1840s, and possibly beyond, it was the only official placename from the mouth of the river southwards (Dixon 1841), and thus must have been written and pronounced frequently in reference to a large area.
Assuming therefore that the original placename most closely resembled Wooloonora, and acknowledging the inadequacy of our records due to language loss, three potential definitions present themselves:
Cultural information could be the deciding factor in defining Woronora. Was there a Rain or Wallaroo Dreaming in this part of Sydney? Could reported dialogue of the Dreamtime ancestorsHercus reports such unlikely Victorian placename definitions as 'where is it?’, 'behind', and 'you come here', which suggest miscommunication between the surveyor and local informants, are in fact accurate, as they are the reported dialogue of Dreaming ancestors which took place at the sites indicated (Hercus, Luise. 2002. Is it really a placename? The Land is a Map: placenames of Indigenous origin in Australia, ed. by L. Hercus, F. Hodges and J. Simpson, 63–72. Canberra: Pandanus Books for Pacific Linguistics.) make sense of 'then place'? Or was there another noun unknown to us relating to black rock/s? Unfortunately the consequences of colonisation for the Dharug people in terms of land loss, dispersal and language loss mean this will probably never be known.
The Woronora River is tidal at this point. River levels and water quality at Woronora can be affected by the release of water from the Woronora Dam upstream from the suburb.
Woronora Plateau, is a geographical region adjacent to the Sydney Plain. Slightly higher in altitude, it is capped with Hawkesbury Sandstone. The Woronora River flows through the deeply dissected plateau to the Georges River from near the sources of the Port Hacking, within the Sutherland Shire.
Prince Edward Park is situated between the Woronora River and Sutherland. Along the river, a cleared area was created as a recreational park, with facilities for boating and fishing. It is also the location for the Sutherland Region Girl Guides canoeing facility, 1st Woronora River Scout Group and the Woronora Life Saving Club. Going towards Sutherland, the park is dense bushland, with some walking trails.
Similar to the adjoining suburbs of Bonnet Bay (where the streets are named after American Presidents) and Woronora Heights (where most streets are named after birds), Woronora has a notable street naming pattern. The majority of streets have river or water related names.
On the east side of the Woronora River there is a collection of streets named after rivers in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
| + !Street Name !River | |
| Tay Place | River Tay (the longest river in Scotland) |
| Severn Road | River Severn (the longest river in Great Britain) |
| Wye Close | River Wye (fourth longest river in the UK) |
| Mersey Street | River Mersey (a UK major river from Liverpool to south of Manchester) |
| Liffey Place | River Liffey (an Irish river that flows through the centre of Dublin) |
| Thames Street | River Thames (longest river in England and flows through London) |
Woronora is home to many native fauna and there are frequent sightings of Koalas (in the upper cemetery region). During 2020 a seal was seen for many weeks living on the Woronora Fire Brigade Pontoon. In December 2024 a Playptus was spotted in Woronora exiting and reentering the river.
==Gallery==
|
|
