As a follow-up to the previous post, I think that most local people don’t realise the significance of the sign at Koonwarra and I quote from “Victorian Places”:
“Koonwarra is a rural village in South Gippsland, 8 km south of Leongatha. According to Bunce’s Language of the Aborigines of the Colony of Victoria (1859), Koonwarra is an Aboriginal word-meaning swan. The village is west of a bird habitat on the Tarwin River wetlands.”
The Black Swans breed in wetlands on the Leongatha side of Koonwarra in winter/spring and I have photographed them over the last few years. I have also witnessed hundreds of birds gathered there at different times and by the Aboriginal name; they have obviously been doing so for a very long time.
