Whether they are Indigenous or inherited from European settlers, place names add to the richness that is the heritage of the mountains.

Namadgi is, of course, an Indigenous name. It was first written down by Polish scientist and explorer John Lhotsky in 1834 when he was staying at Duntroon and local Aboriginal people responded to his question about the high mountains to the south-west by saying 'Namadgi'.

Like many Aboriginal names, the emphasis should be on the first syllable, though most people still mispronounce the name of the ACT's national park by emphasising the second one. Many other Indigenous names of the ACT-NSW high country reflect that first syllable emphasis - think of Jindabyne and Eucumbene for example.

The early European settlers picked up the Indigenous names by ear and reflected the true pronunciation themselves. What we today call the Goodradigbee River they called the Gooradigbee, and today's Boboyan was always Bobeyan, both with first syllable stress. Similarly Currango and Yarrangobilly in Kosciuszko National Park had that same stress, and bush people today retain that form of speech.

When settlers arrived from England, Scotland, Ireland and elsewhere, they named things after what they were used to at home. So, lyrebirds were called pheasants and places were named after them. Today's maps retain Pheasant Creek at Gudgenby, and Pheasant Hill near Bobeyan. Banksia was called honeysuckle and so we have Honeysuckle Creek.

Names reflect early rural practices. Sheep had to be folded or fenced at night to protect them from dingo attack and so portable timber hurdles were made. Hurdle Creek at Tidbinbilla recalls this sort of work. In the upper Cotter valley on the way down from Yaouk Gap is Drag Creek, no doubt named for the 'drags' or logs that were attached to drays to slow their descent on steep slopes.

Calves were weaned from cows by the fitting of 'muzzles', hand-whittled pieces of timber fitted onto their faces to prevent access to the mother's teats. The eucalypt called Black Sallee was always used for this practice and so the timber was known by the stockmen as Muzzlewood, and places where it grew were similarly named. Muzzlewood Flat upriver of the SkiTube terminal is so named, as is another place of the same name near The Barry Way south of Jindabyne.

Again in the upper Cotter there is Licking Hole Creek, recalling places where stock licked natural salts from the ground. Scottish shepherds called these places 'smiggin' holes, and so explained is the name of the ski resort of Smiggin Holes - or simply Smiggins - in Kosciuszko. Observant bushwalkers might have noticed that kangaroos and wallabies also lick these salts, leaving small excavations.

Hospital Creek at Gudgenby reflects early forms of animal husbandry and the use of this area for ailing, lambing or calving stock. Nursery Swamp near Orroral was named for the same reason. Creamy Flats and the larger Big Creamy Flats just inside the Cotter watershed were named after the colour of brumbies there in the early 20th century or before.

Particular events resulted in names still in use today. Breakfast Creek in Namadgi is named for the place where Scottish settler Elizabeth McKeahnie and her kids had breakfast after fleeing Gudgenby Homestead in fear of Aborigines one night in the 1840s.

Twenty years later when would-be gold seekers were moving through the mountains to the new strike at Kiandra, they were warned not to take the 'left hand creek' as they went up the Naas River valley. So Left Hand Creek it became and it is still found on modern bushwalkers' maps.

In the 1890s Mary Ann Green lost her flock of turkeys for several days but the birds were later found at a small hill a little way from her home and so it became Turkey Hill.

Many names, both Indigenous and European, have been lost. Not shown on maps today is Greens Peak just behind Tidbinbilla. It lived for many years though in the oral record, commemorating how around 1900 George and younger brother William Green rode roughshod across the steep, timbered rocky slopes to round up cattle which had strayed and become half wild.

Individuals whose place names have survived include ex-convict Thomas Shanahan, Michelago's first publican, who has Shanahans Mountain named after him in southern Namadgi. The wealthy De Salis grazing family, who prior to the 1890s depression owned Cuppacumbalong and the extensive lease at Cooleman Plain in modern-day Kosciuszko, are remembered in De Salis Creek in the upper Cotter owing to the lease they obtained there in 1896. Elsies Falls at Tidbinbilla is named after Elsie Blewitt of Nil Desperandum.

The Webbs who were associated with grazing over extensive parts of the high country in the 19th century are recalled in more than one place today. Similarly the Franklins of Brindabella Station are remembered in Mt Franklin on the Brindabella Range, and nearby Stockyard Gap and Creek recall their grazing activities. McAlister Saddle near Mt Jagungal in Kosciuszko memorialises an intrepid early gold miner and bold skier.

Mt Tennant (officially Tennent) recalls bushranger John Tennant of the 1820s who had his hideout on the peak and raided local properties now submerged beneath Canberra suburbia. Meanwhile the Indigenous name for that eminent mountain was Tharwa, a name which lives on in the village at its foot.

Other high-country names, like Broken Cart and Tin Pot, evoke bush images in the imagination. Ones like Pugilistic Hut and Pretty Plain make odd juxtapositions. While others, like Pigeon Square, defy any sort of easy explanation!