Names
Australian Placenames of German Background
Pyrmont, NSW
Pyrmont is an inner suburb of Sydney, two km south-west of the CBD. It is also part of the Darling Harbour area of Sydney Harbour.
In Germany Bad Pyrmont is a well-known spa town, about 50km south-west of Hannover, the capital of the state/Land of Lower Saxony.
The Pyrmont Bridge Hotel at Pyrmont, Sydney
The Sydney Gazette reported in December 1805 that on Thursday the 18th December a group of twenty-one ladies and gentlemen made an excursion by boat from Parramatta to Captain Macarthur’s estate on the Pyrmont peninsula. The group enjoyed a picnic under the shelter of a spreading fig tree in the picturesque area. One of the young ladies discovered a spring of clean and uncontaminated water there and she suggested that the area be called Pyrmont, after the German health spa town. 'The name was subsequently used for the estate by Macarthur and later for the suburb which developed here as well as the nearby bay.'[1]
◀ Placenames in New South Wales...
♦ Notes:
'Pyrmont'. The Names of Sydney: Suburbs M to P. Visit Sydney Australia. Online here: <www.visitsydneyaustralia.com.au/names-suburbs-mp.html>
♦ References:
Tampke, Jürgen and Colin Doxford. (1990). Australia, Willkommen. Kensington (NSW): New South Wales University Press. p.13