Editing Toowoomba (section)

==Etymology==
The exact origin of the city's current name is unknown, although it is widely accepted that the name derives from an Aboriginal language.<ref name="naming">{{Cite web |date=November 30, 2021 |title=Historic Toowoomba Region locations |url=https://www.tr.qld.gov.au/our-region/history/historic-locations/117-historic-toowoomba-region-locations# |access-date=October 8, 2023 |website=Toowoomba Region}}</ref>

When Toowoomba was first discovered by Europeans, it was named "Drayton Swamp" (in reference to the Toowoomba Swamp) and was often nicknamed "The Swamp". One theory is that after European settlement, the local Aboriginal people referred to it as "Tawampa", which is borrowed from "The Swamp".<ref name="naming"/>

Another theory is that it derives from the name "Toogoom". This theory was first proposed by author [[Steele Rudd]] in a letter to the [[Toowoomba City Council]]. He claimed that his father told him that in 1848, he first saw Toowoomba and that he assisted in laying it out the following year. He believed that it derived from the native name "Toogoom" because of the reeds that grew in the area. Rudd also wrote that he remembered that the original Aboriginal name for "The Swamp" was ''Chinkery Yackan'' meaning "water like the stars".<ref name="naming"/><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17049613 |title=Letters |newspaper=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |issue=30,043 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=18 April 1934 |accessdate=1 September 2023 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>

Another theory was proposed by the wife of pioneer Toowoomba resident Thomas Alford. She claimed to have asked the Aboriginals what they called the area; they replied with "Woomba Woomba", meaning "the springs and the water underneath". However, she claimed that the Alfords thought this would not be a suitable name for their house and store, so they added the prefix "too-" and omitted one "Woomba" (as this would be a synonym of "two Woomba"), hence "Toowoomba".<ref name="naming"/>

In 1875, [[William Henry Groom]] wrote an account of Toowoomba. He stated that "Toowoomba" derived from the Aboriginal term "great in the future". However, he did not provide a source for his information.<ref name="naming"/>

Another theory was proposed by [[botanist]] [[Archibald Meston]] in a book titled ''A Geographical History of Queensland''. He wrote:<ref name="naming"/>

{{blockquote|"Toowoom" or "Choowom" was the local blacks' name for a small native melon (''[[Cucumis pubescens]]'') which grew plentifully on the site of the township. The terminal "ba" is equal to the adverb "There", so the whole word means "melons there", and to an Aborigine it meant "the place where the melon grows".}}

While this melon still exists and can be found in areas along the [[Balonne River|Balonne]] and [[Warrego River]]s, as well as in areas closer to Toowoomba, there is no evidence that the melon grew near the Toowoomba swamps.

A man named Enoggera Charlie proposed another theory in a news story he wrote for the ''[[Sydney Morning Herald]]''. He claimed that when he was looking for work as a tar boy, he camped overnight near the Toowoomba Swamp. He claimed that when he asked a [[shepherd]] about the naming of the Toowoomba Swamp, he was told that near the junction of the East and West Swamps, there was a log with an inscription informing [[swagman|swagmen]] of the way to a well-known [[homestead (buildings)|homestead]] where [[field ration|food rations]] were available. He claimed that the inscription read "To Woombrah".<ref name="naming"/>

A man named Ardlaw Lawrence put forward his theory shortly after Enoggera Charlie. He suggested that the name was an [[Anglicisation|Anglicised]] form of "Boowoomga", which comes from the term for "thunder" in the dialect spoken by the Aboriginal tribe inhabiting areas along the [[Burnett River|Upper Burnett River]] (including the town of [[Gayndah]]). However, it is highly unlikely that this theory is correct, as this dialect was not spoken in the [[Darling Downs]] region (but rather in the [[Wide Bay-Burnett]] region) and Lawrence did not state why he transferred the name to the Darling Downs.<ref name="naming"/> In fact, the distance between Toowoomba and Gayndah is just over 218 kilometres [[as the crow flies]].

In 1899, [[George Essex Evans]] published his theory in a pamphlet. He wrote that "Toowoomba" was an Aboriginal word meaning "meeting of the waters", although no evidence was provided to support this claim.<ref name="naming"/>