Roland Turner

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Jindabyne, NSW, Australia

Today we (Mum, Dad, Maggie and myself) visited Jindabyne to stock up on provisions and happened to visit the Strzelecki monument, a bicentennial gift from the People of Poland to the People of Australia. I won't go into what this is, nor how odd it first seems to see a statue with a distinctly Soviet look to it on the banks of Lake Jindabyne, but what I do find interesting about it is what light it sheds on the spelling of Australia's highest mountain and the national park which contains it. Traditionally, the mountain and park have been named Kosciusko. More recently, it has been officially renamed Kosciuszko ostensibly because the previous spelling was incorrect. A quick comparison of the English and Polish versions of the plaque describing Strzelecki however suggests that the spelling is still incorrect in that, in Polish, it ends with 'I' rather than 'O'. I'd be most happy to have someone who knows better explain why the change was made in the way that it was.