Why don’t Australian place names have apostrophes in them?
Australian place names don’t have apostrophes in them, because government legislation removed all possessive apostrophes from place names.
To a grammar pedant, places like Kings Cross in Sydney, Aireys Inlet in Victoria and Surfers Paradise in Queensland seem a bit weird.
You can leap through hoops trying to find an explanation why there shouldn’t be an apostrophe in the names, but eventually you end up stumped.
There is a reason for monstrosities such as Badgerys Creek, Frenchs Forest and Yorkeys Knob, however. And that reason is bureaucracy.
Each Australian state has a quango called the Geographical Names Board (or something very similar) ruling on Australian place names. And each has, at some point in the last few decades, successfully got legislation passed limiting what places can be called.
Rules include trying to give a new place an appropriate Aboriginal name or naming it after a topological feature. But the more controversial rulings are on punctuation – and possessive apostrophes have been deemed unnecessary.
Every place that did have a possessive apostrophe has had its name altered.
The possessive apostrophes have been stripped out. This leads to some grammatical horror shows, but also plenty of confusion. That’s because the rules don’t apply to buildings or organisations. So, you can have a St Mary’s Church in the town of St Marys. Fun, fun, fun!
Australian place names without an apostrophe
Some Australian place names without an apostrophe include Watsons Bay and Wisemans Ferry in Sydney, Kings Park in Perth and Cahills Crossing in Kakadu National Park.
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