A mayor in far north Queensland has copped vile abuse after her council refused to change a local place name that some say is a reference to the rape of Indigenous women.
Burdekin Shire councillors, including mayor Pierina Dalle Cort, rejected a request from the state government to rename Yellow Gin Creek as part of a ‘program of review of place names which may cause offence or harm’.
In a 6-1 vote on July 9, the council passed a motion to ‘provide feedback to (the) Department of Resources’ about why it would not be changing the name ‘due to the creek’s local historical significance to the region’.
The state government has focussed its program of changing offensive names on places with the word ‘Gin’ in them as in the past, the word had been used to describe Aboriginal women, particularly those who had been sexually abused by white men.
Queensland councils that are home to 16 Black Gin Creeks and 14 other creeks with Gin in the name have been sent letters asking for them to be renamed.
This included Burdekin’s letter over Yellow Gin Creek, which some locals believe refers to a woman of mixed Aboriginal and white heritage.
‘I’m not racist,’ Ms Dalle Cort told Daily Mail Australia on Friday. ‘I love the black community we have here.’
She said a poll had shown that 92 per cent of people agreed with not changing the name.
Burdekin Shire councillors rejected a request from the state government to rename Yellow Gin Creek (pictured) as part of a ‘program of review of place names which may cause offence or harm’
The mayor also said that since the vote, she had been contacted by a local Indigenous woman who told her ‘the Jura elders are wanting to keep (the) Yellow Gin Creek (name)’ because it was named for one of their ancestors.
Ms Dalle Cort said she is aware of the sensitivities around race in Queensland and elsewhere.
‘I know it’s an issue everywhere … I’ve had some hate mail (about the Yellow Gin Creek issue), but that goes with the job.’
She said she had experienced racism herself when she was younger.
‘My background is Italian and Sicilian, and growing up I was called a wog …
‘We can’t change history, but what we do in the future is what counts as well,’ the mayor said.
Ms Dalle Cort also said the place name could be referring to a drink called yellow gin, ‘which was distilled by early pioneers as a form of inexpensive alcohol’.
Ultimately, despite the state government’s fears, there is no historical documentation indicating the reason the name was chosen, ‘so you don’t know which is right, which is wrong’.
In a 6-1 vote on July 9, the council passed a motion to ‘provide feedback to (the) Department of Resources’ about why it would not be changing the name ‘due to the creek’s local historical significance to the region’. The councillors are pictured, with mayor Pierina Dalle Cort in front
Queensland’s Place Names Act of 1994 was updated in April 2024 to make it easier to rebrand place names considered racist or offensive, but the state government still requires local councils to make many of the changes.
The state can rename roads or bridges with problematic names, but not creeks.
In 2016, Queensland’s Transport Department renamed Yellow Gin Creek Bridge to ‘Youngoorah Bridge’ after the Juru word for ‘women’.
Ms Dalle Cort said she has been told the local Aboriginal elders were ‘happy to talk’ to her about the issue of Yellow Gin Creek’s name.
