Humpty Doo

Humpty Doo has a history which is as colourful as its name, but the origin and meaning of that name have been lost to history. Today you can get an argument anywhere in the Territory if you claim to know the only true story behind the name.

One version has it that when the explorer McKinlay’s men were marooned in the region by floodwaters in 1866 one man looked for high ground and said “any hump’ll do!” Trouble was the explorers weren’t near Humpty Doo, and there were no humps anyway.

Others say the name is a derivation from “Umpty Dumpty” - meaning upside down, back to front or just chaotic. There is a similar possibility of derivation from the term “umpity doo” - meaning “all OK, everything all right”

Or perhaps the origin lies in the disused Australian slang term “umpty-doo”, which means intoxicated or topsy turvy. The term was used in this sense at about the turn of the century, and in 1911 the Sydney Bulletin said that “umpty-doo” was then one of a number of slang terms which meant “drunk”. Others terms were “skew wiff”, “tiddly” and “full”. Its an explanation which resonates with some of the recent history of the area!

Good stories all of them, but probably the true derivation is from “Umdidu”. Before 1914 this was the name given to a buffalo shooting station in the area. Writer Elsie Masson visited the station in 1914 and wrote that the name came from a local Aboriginal word meaning “resting place”. Gradually the name was corrupted to “Umpty Doo”, then “Humpty Doo.”

Take your pick – nobody really knows.