Although the precise circumstances of the naming of Rapid Creek remain obscure, the name must have been applied by Surveyor-General George W. Goyder's surveyors not long after the arrival of the 1869 Northern Territory Survey Expedition. The outline of the creek, running as it does from Marrara swamp to the sea between Casuarina Beach and Nightcliff, is present on Goyder's map, but no name appears on it. Goyder personally visited the locality on Saturday, 3 April 1869 and described the creek, without naming it, as "a strong shallow stream near Night Cliff". Source