On Gunaikurnai Country. Named by Angus McMillan in 1840, an area near Bairnsdale. Kylie Carman-Brown noted that Scottish migrants named many sites in Gippsland as morasses, indicating sites with fresh water, where reeds and small trees may be present. She also noted that it can reflect the 'physical nature of this type of landscape', that is it is a feature which 'impeded their progress'. McMillan named it after nearly losing his favourite horse, Clifton, in the boggy landscape.
See: Kylie Carman-Brown, Following the Water: Environmental history and the hydrological cycle in colonial Gippsland, Australia, 1838-1900, ANU press, Acton, 2019, Chapter 6.
Clifton's Morass
Found in Transcriptions
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Notes on Kurnai Creation storiesPages 5Registration Number XM526Author Howitt, Alfred WilliamPhysical Description Notes, handwritten, ink, undated. Eleven sheets, small and lined, eleven pages. Paper is brittle and slightly yellowing with some edge tearing.