Shipped Ashore: The origins and deployment of mermaid place names in Australia and related visual representations

Abstract

Since European and, specifically, Anglo-Irish colonisation in the late 1700s, a number of Australian locations have been given the name ‘mermaid.’ This article examines the principal derivations of these place names – including those relating to the voyages of the HMC Mermaid around Australia’s coastline in the early 1800s – and some of the manners in which these names have been represented in signage, place branding, commercial applications and/or public discourse. In providing this critical survey, the article examines the inscription of a traditional European folkloric entity (and modern media representations of it) into Australian public culture and, in some instances, the related impact of these on destination branding.