About
Name History
The Making of a Township continued....
The Toolara lots were reoffered when the Lands Department put up 36 town and suburban lots in the 'Town of Wallu' ( as Tin Can Bay was known then) for the auction which was held on the 10th of November in 1922.
17 of the 25 Wallu Town lots on offer were sold on perpetual lease arrangements to M.E. Pearce, W Bushell,
T. H. Steele, B. Dickson, D.D. Woodrow, A.G.D Austin, A.J. Gillis, R.M. Hose, Mabel C. Power, S.F. Sheldon, D. Mulcahy, A. Williams, A. Chisholm, B. Power, L.M. Pearce, A.D.S. Skyring and J.W. Burkhardt with prices from around 8-36 pounds.
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Unfortunately, there were still no bids for the lots in the Town of Toolara
Thus marks the 10th of November 1922 as the official day the area once known as Wallu, but by the name of Tin Can Bay today, was formally made a township.
Tin can Bay Name Origin
The Town of Wallu was formally changed to Tin Can Bay in 1937.
There are many theories on how Tin can Bay got its name, such as a story of reference to the Bay from the early logging days when it's claimed the mail was canned for the boat journey towing the logs through the Straits creating an informal name of Tin Can Bay.
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Various Published thoughts include:
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Excerpt from the book Winds of Change by Ian Pedley- How Tin Can Bay got its name is a subject of controversy. The generally excepted theory is that it came from tun-kin, the Aboriginal word for Dugong. others claim it came from tin-kin for big fish or from tind-hin, the aboriginal name for mangroves.
From Wikipedia - The origins of Tin Can are uncertain but is believed to be derived from an indigenous name, possibly tinken meaning vine with large, ribbed leaves from Doombarah Clan Duliinbara dialect, kabi language.
Other theories are Zachariah Skyring who was a blood brother to the local indigenous tribe so he could speak local dialect, said the aboriginal word for this area was TUNCUNBA, BA means ' place of' and TUNCUN means 'plenty' - hence a place of plenty.
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But the proper cultural naming reference for Tin Can Bay actually comes from the Dun'gun'Bah, meaning 'plentiful place' in relation to the belly of the dugong or Yuan'gun, which is the Dungadji dialect of the Gubbi Gubbi language group(nation) of the Bidhala Dambari (coastal people who eat the shellfish) Dullinbara Tribe. it's a shared dialect with the Ngalingbara of the Budala and Buadjala(coastal people to the north including River Heads, Hervey Bay and north K'Gari.)
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When you need to get away for a holiday just remember the name Tin Can Bay!
When are you coming to visit?