Woronora, New South Wales

Woronora Sydney, New South Wales
Woronora, on the banks of the Woronora River
Woronora
Coordinates	34°01′40″S 151°02′29″E / 34.02772°S 151.04152°E / -34.02772; 151.04152Coordinates: 34°01′40″S 151°02′29″E / 34.02772°S 151.04152°E / -34.02772; 151.04152
Population	2,151 (2006 census)
Postcode(s)	2232
Location	27 km (17 mi) from Sydney CBD
LGA(s)	Sutherland Shire
State electorate(s)	Heathcote
Federal Division(s)	Hughes
Suburbs around Woronora: Bangor Bonnet Bay Jannali Bangor Woronora Sutherland Woronora Heights Woronora Heights Sutherland

Woronora is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Woronora is located 27 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Sutherland Shire. Woronora Heights is a separate suburb, to the south-west.

'Woronora' is an Aboriginal placename. Records show the spelling of the name has varied since it first appeared in the 19th century, the earliest being Wooloonora (Dixon, 1827, quoted in Walker 1974:66), followed by Wolonora (Dixon, 1837), and Woronora (Mitchell, 1835). The name was first applied to the Woronora River, a tributary of the Georges River, before being given to a hundred, an electoral district, a local road east of the river, and finally the suburb itself.

The following meanings have been suggested for Woronora:

Variations such as 'black cliffs' and 'sharkless waters' have also been suggested by local residents.

The Aboriginal language known variously as Dharug, Eora or simply 'the Sydney Language' was spoken around Woronora at the time of colonisation (Troy 1994:61). Lists of Dharug words gathered around the turn of the century provide a number of possibilities regarding the number of morphemes and likely constituents of the placename. An analysis of the number of syllables in Dharug words recorded by Mathews (1901) shows over 50% contained two syllables, and just under 40% contained three, while only 1.45% contained one syllable:

It therefore seems likely that Woronora is made up of two disyllabic elements.

In light of what historical Dharug information is available, the meaning of the suffix of Woronora seems most transparent. A range of phonetically similar words are present in the sources: