What's in a name

Some people want to change the name of Australia's highest mountain because Tadeusz Kosciuszko never visited this country.

With this logic, we might as well rename Umina's Trafalgar Ave and Nelson St, as well as Waterloo Ave, Woy Woy, and Wellington St, Umina, since Britain's two great national heroes never came here either.

Here is a brief rundown of the people behind the street names.

Horatio Nelson (1758-1805) was 30 years old when Captain Arthur Phillip arrived with the First Fleet in 1788, naming Sydney after the British Home Secretary, Lord Sydney, another man who never set foot on Australian soil.

Nelson had a tough life.

He joined the Royal Navy when he was 12 years old.

He lost an eye in the Battle of Corsica in 1794, and his right arm in a rash attack on Santa Cruz de Tenerife three years later.

When Napoleon planned to invade England in 1805, Viscount Nelson, admiral and commander-in-chief of the Royal Navy, destroyed the French fleet off Cape Trafalgar.

The Duke of Wellington (1769-1852), British statesman and military commander, drove the French from Spain in the Peninsular War (the Iberian Peninsula!), then completely crushed Napoleon in the Waterloo campaign in 1815.

Britain rightly regarded Nelson and Wellington as national heroes, and New Zealand even named two important cities after them.

There are smaller Wellingtons in NSW and South Australia and rather insignificant Nelsons in NSW and Victoria.

Eric Shackle, March 1