What’s in a name?

The Newsport team had a chuckle recently on finding two Port Douglas streets signs with incorrect spelling, the signs erected recently by Cairns Regional Council.

Pecten Avenue, in Four Mile, currently boasts a street sign reading “Pecton Ave” at its intersection with Conch Street.

One hundred metres up the same street, where Pecten Avenue intersects with Barrier Street, stands a sign with the correct spelling. P-e-c-t-e-n.

In nearby Reef Park, motorists and pedestrians who frequent Agincourt Street have also spied three signs reading “Argincourt St”.

Perhaps the sign writer got a little confused with the nearby Arlington Close?

A Cairns Regional Council spokesman said the street new signs “were ordered correctly, however were delivered with incorrect spelling” and replacement signs had been ordered and, when ready, would be installed as quickly as possible.

Street signs around the Douglas region have been slowly replaced with signs emblazoned with the Cairns Regional Council logo since amalgamation with Douglas Shire Council took place in 2008.

According to the Douglas Shire Historical Society, the name Pecten is the genus name of a scallop, following Four Mile’s theme of marine shell-named streets, such as Nautilus, Conch, Baler and Trochus.

Numerous streets within the Reef Park locality are named after individual reefs located in the nearby Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, and include Ribbon Avenue, Endeavour Street and Undine Streets.