List of Australian place names changed from German names
Old name New name Date of name change
Germantown Grovedale 1 March 1916
Hochkirch Tarrington 1 March 1918
Mount Bismarck Mount Kitchener
Reinholtz 's PO Reynold 's PO 5 November 1920
Waldkirch Freshwater Creek ( Anglesea Road , south-west of Grovedale )
Weinberg Road , Hawthorn Wattle Road
West Prussia Road , Wantirna Wantirna Road
Grünwald Arkona
Bismarck Avenue , Surrey Hills Warwick Avenue December 1918
Bismarck Street ( off Doncaster Road ) , Doncaster Victoria Street circa 1914
Victoria
Victorian stamp with Hochkirch postmark
During World War I, many German or German-sounding place names in Australia were changed due to anti-German sentiment. The presence of German-derived place names was seen as an affront to the war effort at the time. The names of locations were often Anglicised (Peterborough), given Aboriginal names (Kobandilla, Karawirra), or were named after notable soldiers (Kitchener and Holbrook) or World War I battlefields (Verdun, The Somme). This was done by local councils or the postal authorities, often as the result of a petition by locals. In South Australia, the Nomenclature Act, 1917 officially changed the name of towns and districts in 1918 while the Nomenclature Act, 1935 restored the former German names to the towns of Hahndorf and Lobethal, and the Adelaide suburb of Klemzig.