The Geographical Names Board of New South Wales, a

statutory authority A statutory body or statutory authority is a body set up by law (statute) that is authorised to implement certain legislation on behalf of the relevant country or state, sometimes by being Primary and secondary legislation, empowered or deleg ...

of the Department of Customer Service in the

Government of New South Wales The Government of New South Wales, also known as the NSW Government, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of New South Wales. It is currently held by a coalition of the Liberal Party and the National Party. The Governmen ...

, is the official body for naming and recording details of

place Place may refer to: Geography * Place (United States Census Bureau), defined as any concentration of population ** Census-designated place, a populated area lacking its own Municipality, municipal government * "Place", a type of street or road ...

s and

geographical Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...

names in the state of

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. Whilst the board is an independent body, it is responsible to the general manager of land and property information, currently Des Mooney (presently chairman of the board); who reports to the director general of the Department of Finance and Services, currently

Michael Coutts-Trotter Michael Coutts-Trotter is an Australian public servant who is the current Secretary of the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet for Premier Dominic Perrottet. He was previously Secretary of the New South Wales Department of Communities and J ...

. Both the general manager for land and property information and the director general of the department report to the Minister for Finance and Services, currently Greg Pearce. The board was established in 1966 pursuant to the ''Geographical Names Act 1966''.

Board composition

The board consists of nine members, four of which are those people who hold the office of, or are a respective nominee of: *the Surveyor General of New South Wales who is also chairman of the board, *the Director General of the Department of Planning and Infrastructure, *the State Librarian, and *an officer of the Land and Property Information division, nominated by the Director General of the Department of Finance and Services The other members are nominated by: *the Local Government and Shires Association of New South Wales, *the

Royal Australian Historical Society The Royal Australian Historical Society, formerly Australian Historical Society, is a voluntary organisation founded in Sydney, Australia in 1901Helen Doyle, "Royal Australian Historical Society" in Graeme Davison, John Hirst and Stuart Ma ...

, *the Geographical Society of New South Wales, *the New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council, and *the Chairperson of the Community Relations Commission.

Activities

The ''Geographical Names Act, 1966'', empowers the board to assign names to places, to investigate and determine the form, spelling, meaning, pronunciation, origin and history of any geographical name and the application of such name with regard to position, extent or otherwise. A place is described in the Act as "any geographical or topographical feature or any district, division, locality, region, city, town, village, settlement or railway station or any other place within the territories and waters of the State of New South Wales but does not include any road, any local government area, urban area, county or district under the Local Government Act, electoral district or subdivision, or any school". The Act also specifies the procedures for formalising names. In recent years the board has been given the power to preserve and promote Aboriginal languages and acknowledge Aboriginal culture through place naming in NSW. The board does this by preferencing traditional Aboriginal place names or names with Aboriginal origin wherever it can. The board is dedicated to restoring traditional Aboriginal names to features with introduced names through its dual naming policy and recognising important traditional Aboriginal placenames alongside longstanding introduced names. The board's policy mirrors the

United States Board on Geographic Names The United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) is a federal body operating under the United States Secretary of the Interior. The purpose of the board is to establish and maintain uniform usage of geographic names throughout the federal governm ...

in that it seeks to eliminate possessive names from all place names in NSW. Roads called Smith's Road are changed to Smiths Road or Smith Road.

References

External links

The board's website

Search for a place name

UNGEGN
{{New South Wales Government Departments Geography of New South Wales Government agencies of New South Wales Names of places in Australia Australian toponymy Geographical naming agencies

Board composition

Activities

See also

References

External links