Baddaginnie, Victoria
| Baddaginnie Victoria | |
|---|---|
 Shop, no longer operating; a wall with post office boxes is in the foreground with the post box and public phone | |
  Baddaginnie | |
| Coordinates | 36°35′S 145°52′E / 36.583°S 145.867°ECoordinates: 36°35′S 145°52′E / 36.583°S 145.867°E |
| Population | 465 (2011 census)[1] |
| Postcode(s) | 3670 |
| Location | |
| LGA(s) | Rural City of Benalla |
| State electorate(s) | Euroa |
| Federal Division(s) | Indi, Murray |
Baddaginnie (Sinhalese: බඩගිනී meaning hungry) is a small town in Victoria, Australia. It is located on the North East railway line, in the Rural City of Benalla, 12 kilometres south-west of Benalla itself on the old Hume Highway. It is situated in mainly flat unforested country, one kilometre west of Baddaginnie Creek. At the 2011 census, Baddaginnie and the surrounding area had a population of 465.[1]
The town was surveyed in 1857, named after the nearby Baddaginnie Creek, but settlement was slow, a Post Office finally opening on 16 September 1879.[2] A railway station was open and served passengers until July 1978.
George "Joey" Palmer, the 1880s Australian test cricketer, died there on 22 August 1910.
Although often mistaken for an Aboriginal word, Baddaginnie was the name given to the local township by Ceylonese railway workers building the Melbourne-Sydney rail line in the 1860s. According to local legend, when provisions failed to arrive at the settlement, the Ceylonese men named their camp ’baddaginnie’ meaning "hungry" in the Sinhala language (bada is ’stomach’ and ginnie is ’fire’). Another theory is that the name was supplied by the surveyor, who had spent some time in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), as the survey team was without food when it arrived there.
References
- 1 2 Australian Bureau of Statistics (31 October 2012). "Baddaginnie (State Suburb)". 2011 Census QuickStats. Retrieved 2 December 2014.
- ↑ Premier Postal History, Post Office List, retrieved 2008-04-11
External links
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