Silly Street Names Down Under
I wonder what the streets were named that they finally resorted to AAAA road?
AAAA rating for silly street names in Howard Springs, Darwin
By Alyssa Betts | Northern Territory News | February 10, 2009 12:01am
A NORTHERN TERRITORY council appears to have run out of steam when cooking up road names.
Keep a keen eye out and drivers might spot the AAAA Rd out in Howard Springs.
And then there’s the IIII Rd and the EEEE Rd in Berry Springs while Road namers in Humpty Doo christened one track No Name Rd.
AAAA Rd is sometimes also known as Chicken Lane, and No Name Rd is occasionally swapped for Wafflers’ Way.
Litchfield Shire president Mary Walshe said while the names might seem unusual, there were no plans to whip up anything even more outlandish.
She said it was best not to make street names too interesting because people stole the signs.
“People start pinching too many of them if you start getting inventive,” she said.
The roads are ungazetted, and are unofficial identifiers the council and locals started using when Litchfield was still a wild and woolly place.
“It was well before development and subdivisions – this is going back to the early ’70s – and people used tracks along railway easements or power easements because there wasn’t any other access to their land,” Ms Walshe said.
She said the names were given to these tracks so that they were distinguishable on administration maps and so ambulances on emergency call outs knew where to go.
The Litchfield Shire Council spends about $10,000 a year on replacing stolen street signs.
“Instead of nicking them, (it’d be better) if people just took photos,” Ms Walshe said.