Wendouree is a suburb of Ballarat. I was born and raised in Wendouree West, which means every respectable middle class big knob in this shit village has permanent license to take you down a notch.
I think Wendouree was named as such because the vampires who founded this fucked in the head, jumped-up armpit up on the western plains wanted to make like they were cool with the locals. They didn’t just find out what the people who were already here called the area; they performed an act of cultural appropriation, and stole a phrase from the local Wadawurrung mob. They were already in the habit of stealing the land I guess.
Unfortunately for the lily white as fuck cultural appropriators, the phrase they colonised was the equivalent in English of “bugger off.” The Wikipedia entry for Wendouree admits as much:
Wendouree (/ˌwɛndəˈriː/) is a large suburb on the north western rural-urban fringe of the city of Ballarat, in Victoria, Australia. It is the second most populated suburb in the City of Ballarat with a total of 10,376 inhabitants at the 2021 census.[1]
It is named after nearby Lake Wendouree, which derives its name from the Wathaurong word wendaaree, meaning “be off” (or “go away”). It incorporates the unofficial locality of Wendouree West.
I guess some lily white colonisers shot all the locals before anyone could tell them they were being told where to go hey.
I fixed the map of Ballarat now anyway:
You’re welcome.
About the Author
