>From Les Blake's "Place Names of Victoria" Duneed is named after Mount Duneed and Mount Duneed is an old volcano and it's name comes from the Gaekic dun meaning a circular earthen mound, John Sebire, Lilydale On Sunday 06 Sep 2009 20:36:07 John Stewart wrote: > The following will, hopefully, clarify matters for recent correspondents. > > Duneed is a Parish in the State of Victoria, County Grant, Land District of > Geelong. Its boundaries are: to the North, Waurn Ponds Creek; to the East, > Surf Coast Highway; to the South, Thompsons Creek; to the West, Hendy Main > Road. > > Over time, it has been associated with all or part of a number of > localities, such as Waurn Ponds, Grovedale, Mount Duneed, Freshwater Creek, > Pettavel, Moriac, Mount Moriac. These localities have rather loose > boundaries and most spill over into surrounding Parishes. The actual land > feature of Mount Moriac is in the Parish of Modewarre, just West of Hendy > Main Road. > > There is a cemetery in the extreme NW corner of the Parish (on Reservoir > Rd., near Hendy Main Road) which was originally known as the Duneed > cemetery. However in 1864 another cemetery was established near the summit > of Mount Duneed and, to avoid confusion, the Duneed cemetery was re-named > the Mount Moriac cemetery. Old habits died hard and for some time > thereafter, someone nominated as being buried in the “Duneed” cemetery > could have been in either ! > > The Parish name has never changed. Duneed / Dunneet is thought to be an > Australian Aboriginal word, but I have been unable to find a meaning for > it. As far as I can determine, there is no such name in the UK. > > John

Victorian place names database from DSE which includes many sources including Les Blake's work mentions the locality or town of Mt Moriac & Duneed as both being at 144.189 East & 38.212 South. It mentions that before 1864 Mt Moriac town or locality (NOT parish) was known as Duneed. I feel sure this has a Scottish origin as indicated by John Sebire. There are a number of other Dun...... towns around. My Gaelic dictionary gives the meaning of Dun as "heap, mountain, fortress or fortification" which is near enough to John's "circular earthen mound" I'm confident the person who named the town and/or the parish (whichever came first) was of Scottish origin. I can't for a moment accept that the origin was indigenous. Regards, Chris -----Original Message----- From: aus-vic-geelong-district-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:aus-vic-geelong-district-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of John Sebire Sent: Sunday, 6 September 2009 8:55 PM To: aus-vic-geelong-district@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [GEELONG] Duneed >From Les Blake's "Place Names of Victoria" Duneed is named after Mount Duneed