Baddaginnie in Victoria, Australia - A small contribution Sinhalese has made to the Aussie language

Baddaginnie is a small town in Victoria, Australia. It is located on the Albury-Wodonga railway line, in the Rural City of Benalla, 12 kilometres south-west of Benalla itself on the old Hume Highway. It is situated in mainly flat unforested country, one kilometre west of Baddaginnie Creek.
Although often mistaken for an Aboriginal word, Baddaginnie was the name given to the local township by Ceylonese railway workers building the Melbourne-Sydney rail line in the 1860s. According to local legend, when provisions failed to arrive at the settlement, the Ceylonese men named their camp `baddaginnie` meaning `hungry` in the Sinhala language (bada is `stomach` and ginnie is `fire`)

Pic. by Road Photos & Information,Victoria

. Another theory is that the name was supplied by the surveyor, who had spent some time in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), as the survey team was without food when it arrived there. The town was surveyed in 1857, but settlement was slow. A Post Office finally had the opening on 16 September 1879. 

At the 2006 census, Baddaginnie and the surrounding area had a population of 460.

Sources - lankanewspapers.com, onmydoorstep.com.au