Rodney Cockburn

Rodney Cockburn (21 October 1877 – 28 September 1932) was a South Australian journalist, author of a popular reference book on South Australian place names.

Cockburn was born in Kent Town, South Australia, a son of George (c. 1835 – 2 December 1909) and Mary Cockburn (née Stewart) (c. 1844 – 10 May 1880).

He was educated at Flinders Street State school, and joined the Register as a "library boy" around 1892, and was elevated to the literary staff, where he was rated "one of the best journalists in Australia" and "the smartest journalist of his years, column-crowding the dailies", before he was made an "excellent sub-editor"

When in July 1914 the Peake government decided to institute a South Australian Hansard office, a function which had previously been contracted to the local press, Cockburn was selected assistant to Fred Johns's leader. He served in that position for eighteen years, until forced by ill-health to retire. Cockburn was admirably suited to the job, as he was noted for his speedy and accurate shorthand. Johns remembered his "bright and breezy nature, and sparkling wit and humor" somewhat offset by "temperamental faults — and who hasn't them". The work entailed not only recording the proceedings of the two houses of Parliament, but also of the various committees, notably the Public Works committee. Nevertheless, the position clearly allowed of time and facilities to pursue private research, as Johns produced a huge number of concise biographies of notable Australians which became a series of reference books, and Cockburn the voluminous notes on the histories of South Australian towns and geographical features, and the ensuing work for which he is remembered today, the manuscript of which the Mitchell Library acquired in 1936, and which was used by Stewart Cockburn for a new edition of his famous father's work entitled What's in a Name.

In August 1916, at the height of World War I anti-German sentiment, Cockburn was appointed to the South Australian Nomenclature Committee, which was given the hugely popular task of expunging place names of Teutonic origin or association from the State's map. Their deliberations resulted in the Nomenclature Act of 1917 and their consequent wholesale replacement (see List of changed names).

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