Discussion: Forrest

write-up is very interesting.
are there lots of trees around there or how did the name come about?

Lordie lordie!

You can't see the forest for all the r's.

Most of the stations along the railway line are named for significant political figures of the early 20th century - mostly PMs though Forrest was a WA Premier (among other things).

Apart from those in the settlement itself I don’t think there’s a tree within 50km of the place.

Is he the same Forrest that the Victorian one is named after? (although ours has trees)

Yours also has MTB trails!

I know!!! It's on the list. :-)

I live in one of several Forrest streets in Perth. He surveyed the WA-SA route, hence that spot on the Nullarbor being named after him. After Federation he switched to federal parliament, and was minister for defence and treasurer for a while. He was also acting PM for 3 months.

Something I didn't know was that Bunbury had been honoured with a peerage - Forrest became Baron Forrest of Bunbury, but died soon after. I will have to mention this to 'Aunty Jill'.

He doesn't sound like a pleasant type by modern-day standards - his biographer said that his characteristics included 'social snobbery, laissez-faire capitalism, sentimental royalism, patriotic Anglicanism, benevolent imperialism and racial superiority'.

So, quite different to the current mob then.

Are you sure he hasn't been reincarnated as Tony Abbott?

By the way, Wikipedia wasn't helpful on the origin of the name of the Victorian Forrest, but given that it was renamed from something else in 1891, I'd say there's a fair chance that it's named after the WA one.

It occurs to me that if we are going to revoke things named after Barry Humphries, then we really should also go after all these last century WASP mysogynist, racist, homophobic politicians after whom half the country is named. I will start a campaign immeidately to get my street renamed. Given the current Council's make-up, there's more than half a chance.