XPost: alt.usage.english, alt.english.usage   
   From: kehoea@parhasard.net   
      
    Ar an triochadú lá de mí Lúnasa, scríobh Peter Moylan:   
      
    > On 30/08/25 09:42, J. P. Gilliver wrote:   
    >   
    > > It was Ra*liff* colliery, one of the pits around a village near   
    > > Hauxley; the village (on what is now the A1068) was called Radcliffe   
    > > Terrace, but despite the "Terrace" part, was actually a quite large   
    > > village (bigger than Hauxley at times), until it disappeared almost   
    > > entirely in the 1970s. The first part of its name was variously   
    > > Ratliff, Radcliffe, and variations. Hmm, we've had another hot   
    > > summer, so maybe its outlines will have become visible again, let me   
    > > look ... Hmm, not very, certainly not as clear as it was in 2018.   
    > > (Google Maps aerial views are often great for seeing vanished   
    > > outlines!)   
    >   
    > When I was about 18 years old, so in the 1960s, my father showed me the   
    > ghost town of Whroo in Victoria. It had had a population of 10,000 in   
    > the gold rush era, but afterwards it just disappeared. My father had   
    > grown up halfway between Whroo and Moora (another town that's close to   
    > disappearing), so he was one of the few people who knew where Whroo was.   
    >   
    > When we got there, all I could see was bush. Then, gradually, I noticed   
    > faint straight lines in the grass, that showed where the foundations of   
    > buildings had been. That was all there was to see.   
    >   
    > Years later I went back there, and by following an overgrown bush track   
    > I discovered the cemetery. It was mostly unmarked graves, but I did find   
    > the grave of a French distant relative.   
    >   
    > Later on the town was rediscovered by the local historical society, so   
    > now there's an information board.   
      
   “The name is pronounced ‘roo’, and is thought to be derived from an   
   Aboriginal   
   word meaning lips. The word refers to a small, natural basin in the hilly   
   terrain which held spring water. It is about 400 metres south-east of the Whroo   
   cemetery.”   
      
   It’s a striking name.   
      
   --   
   ‘As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out /   
   How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout’   
   (C. Moore)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)