 In the 1860s, the name was reported by Queanbeyan newspaper owner John Gale to be an interpretation of the name or , meaning "hollow between a woman's breasts", and referring to the Sullivans Creek floodplain between Mount Ainslie and Black Mountain.An 1830s map of the region by Major Mitchell indeed does mark the Sullivan's Creek floodplain between these two mountains as "Nganbra".