Whats 'Up' and 'why is it so'

We are loving Perth and the surrounding areas.  It is surprising though, how many places end with the word "up" and some of them can be quite a mouthful.  

We are staying in a suburb called Gwelup, we have been to Joondalup and Karrinyup.  There are others such as Konjonup, Gnowangerup, Jerramungup and Ongerup.  

An article that John read in the West Australian Newspaper on 2 July, answered the question; Why is it so?

This article that John shared with me indicated that there are a couple of schools of thought on this.  

Some say that those towns ending in "up" were named after water holes where Aboriginal family groups gathered or lived before the south was settled by European Settlers.   For example, during World War II, students at the North Perth Primary School cleared the land that was to become 'Goonderup Park'.  They were told that the word 'goonder' was the Aboriginal word for bark cradle and the "up" referred to a nearly swamp.

Others say that the reason that many Great Southern towns end in "up" is because the "up" means "place of" in Noongar (Aboriginal dialect).  For example, the Noongar word for male kangaroo is yonger but the Y fell off somewhere along the line and the town is now called Ongerup.  So, Ongerup means place of the male kangaroo.

Gnowangerup means place of the mallee fowl.  Gnow is Noongar for mallee fowl.  Kojonup means place of a stone axe and Jerramungup means place of the tall standing yate trees.

So all the place names in the Great Southern region which end in "up" have Noongar names which describe what they were known for.

Doesn't make pronouncing some of the names any easier but it is good to know why there are so many "ups"in this area.