One of the elders, Aunty Colleen Ingram, described the names as “literary tombstones” and said they preserved the gruesome history of the area, particularly Poisoned Waterhole Creek on the Sturt Highway near the town. 

“These places – where murderous acts occurred – should remind us what atrocities ignorance and intolerance can cause,” Aunty Colleen said. 

“We should be preserving the history held by these names and places ... to teach future generations of children.” 

In the 1830s several groups of Aboriginal families used to camp by the waterhole, situated near a local homestead. 

This angered the homestead owner who, eager to get rid of them, poured poison into the waterhole causing indigenous people – including women and children – to die. 

Those who survived sought refuge at Duck Bend, but a group of stockmen came and killed all except one man, who managed to escape. 

Other Aboriginals in the region were hunted by stockmen to a densely timbered island in the Murrumbidgee River, which is where the stockmen pointed their rifles and massacred them – hence the name Massacre Island. 

Aunty Colleen said she hoped the sites could be used to educate indigenous and non-indigenous Australians alike. 

“I was told about the massacres by my father but the oral tradition of passing down these records isn’t as alive as it used to be,” she said. 

“I hope we recognise the great lessons that can be learnt from these acts ... to promote reconciliation and deeper understanding.” 

Narrandera mayor Jenny Clarke said she was against “change for change’s sake”, and supported the opinions of Aboriginal elders.

“I think we should preserve our history,” she said. 

“A handful of people being offended isn’t always cause for change.”