A placename word study today.
‘Malua Bay’ is on the south coast of New South Wales (13 kilometres south of Batemans Bay) with a population of a little over 2,000.
It used to be called ‘Mosquito Bay’ but (strangely enough!) this name failed to attract holiday makers.
So, in the 1960s a competition was held to find a new name.
The winner was Frank McGrath (he collected five pounds prize money), and his suggestion was ‘Malua Bay’.
Where did his idea come from?
Well, he liked a bet and followed the races, and he chose the name from the winner of the 1884 Melbourne Cup.
There is statue of this handsome horse ‘Malua’ outside the Visitor Information Centre in Deloraine in northern Tasmania (where the horse was bred).
So, the search goes back one step with the question—where did the horse get its name?
The answer seems to be, almost certainly, from Fiji—where it means ‘to linger’ or ‘not hurry over anything.’
They talk there (I am told) about ‘Fiji time’—a leisurely way of ignoring the clock.
‘Fiji time’ is also known as ‘malua fever’—a bit like the Spanish notion of mañana (pronounced man-YAH-nuh) meaning ‘tomorrow’ (or I’ll get around to it eventually).
This Fijian word was used as the name for a number of different ships (or yachts) in the South Pacific in the late 1800s, which probably inspired the owners of the horse to give it this word as a name.
So, that’s how “Malua Bay’ was named—from the Fijian word for ‘to linger’, to a number of sailing ships in the South Pacific, to a Tasmania racehorse, and from there (eventually!) to re-name old ‘Mosquito Bay’ on the south coast of New South Wales.
A long journey for one small word.
Tonight I will join John Stanley on 2GB, 4BC, 2CC, 2LT and the Tapt Radio Network for 'The Word Clinic' -- right after the 10pm news. This is your chance to ask a question about words or language either on the talkback line or by text.
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