Thursday 12 June 2014

Cambrai live today

Cambrai has joined their Mid-Murray colleagues as part of the consortium today. Their collections are now searchable in the Mid-Murray Enterprise site here

A small piece of Australian social history is bound up in the name of the town of Cambrai.  It was one of many German named towns whose names were changed during and after WWI to be more "patriotic" and to remove many German names from the Australian map. Because of the amount of German settlement in South Australia there were many name changes here.  Cambrai was originally called Rhine Villa, but was renamed after a WWI battle. 

An extensive list of name changes in Australia can be found here. Some towns such as Hahndorf & Lobethal had their original names reinstated, while others have continued to use their changed names.

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