Mispronounced suburb names

Whenever I see the suburb "Tarneit" discussed - it makes me think "Gosh, tarn-it" (as in darn-it) ... but have been informed by someone who lived in Melbourne that it's more tar-neet or even tar-nee-et.

I was thinking we should start a list of suburb or place names which are commonly mispronounced by people who are not locals - or conversely, have to be carefully spelled out over the phone.

Examples I came up with:

Thebarton in Adelaide - correct: the-bar-ton ... the as in then - incorrect: The Barton (I think I heard @DaveM say this at a meetup before he moved to Adelaide)

Artarmon in Sydney catches a few people out ... could be worse - they could have used the name it was derived from Ardthelmon (pronounced Art-e-mon)

When we lived in Colonel Light Gardens in Adelaide, I had so much trouble explaining to people on the phone how it was spelled. Call an insurance company or bank etc - call centre is interstate or overseas - they have no idea what to write.

"Three words - Colonel - as in a colonel in the army - Light - as in turn on a light - Gardens. Colonel. C-O-L-O-N-E-L. Yes I know it sounds nothing like the way it is spelled. No, you forgot the Light in the middle. It's three separate words. Yes, it was named after the guy who designed the Adelaide CBD area and parklands - Colonel Light. Okay then - you have a nice day too."

I think I would get sick of living in Woolloomooloo pretty quickly.

Dee Why on Sydney's northern beaches has always amused me.

Kiama on the south coast - Kee-arma vs Kih-amma

Wollongong is another one people frequently get wrong ("YES I KNOW WE SAY WOOL-ON-GONG, BUT TRUST ME - I KNOW HOW IT IS SPELLED").

Any others that cause amusement to locals when outsiders mispronounce (or mis-spell) them?

 

Ahh yes - any name with a number in it would be tricky.

Some town planners should be shot (or at least given a stern talking to about the mental anguish their decisions cause )

 

Ask someone in a pub if they want a four-ex, then offer them a condom (Forex) or some foreign currency (also Forex - foreign exchange). Either way, you're getting beaten up!

Strangely, when googling Four-ex, I found an awful lot of companies doing foreign exchange calling themselves Fourex ... that's just wrong.

 

I've always pronounced it Man-dew-rah - is that correct?

 

Manuka in Canberra.

Unlike Manuka in New Zealand, which stresses the second syllable, in Canberra the first syllable is stressed.

 

Yes, the kids get a chuckle at some of the pronunciations the GPS system gives.

I need to check to see whether Waze has built a system for correcting pronunciations of street and place names - I seem to recall something like that was coming.

 

My wife speaks English as a second language.

We lived in England for a few years. She could get her head around Thames, but not Edinburgh, Leicestershire or Worcestershire (the sauce is called "English sauce").