Suburbs and localities are the names of geographic subdivisions in
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 ...
, used mainly for
address purposes. The term locality is used in rural areas, while the term
suburb
A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...
is used in urban areas.
closely align with the boundaries of localities and suburbs.
This Australian usage of the term "suburb" differs from common American and British usage, where it typically means a smaller, frequently separate residential community outside, but close to, a larger city. The Australian usage is closer to the American or British use of "district" or "neighbourhood", and can be used to refer to any portion of a city. Unlike the use in British or American English, this term can include inner-city, outer-metropolitan and industrial areas.
Localities existed in the past as informal units, but in 1996 the
Intergovernmental Committee on Surveying and Mapping and the
Committee for Geographical Names in Australasia (CGNA) decided to name and establish official boundaries for all localities and suburbs. There has subsequently been a process to formally define their boundaries and to
gazette them, which is almost complete. In March 2006, only
South Australia and the
Northern Territory had not completed this process.
The CGNA's ''
Gazetteer of Australia'' recognises two types of locality: bounded and unbounded. Bounded localities include towns, villages, populated places, local government towns and unpopulated town sites, while unbounded localities include place names, road corners and bends, corners, meteorological stations, ocean place names and surfing spots.
Sometimes, both localities and suburbs are referred to collectively as "address localities".
In the first instance, decisions about the names and boundaries of suburbs and localities are made by the
local council in which they are located based on criteria such as community recognition. Local council decisions are, however, subject to approval by the state's geographical names board. The boundaries of some suburbs and localities overlap two or more local government areas (LGAs). Examples of this are , which is split between the
City of Newcastle and
City of Lake Macquarie LGAs and , which is split between the
City of Maitland and
Port Stephens Council LGAs. In
unincorporated areas, localities are declared by the relevant state authority.
See also
*
Gazetteer of Australia
*
Geographical Names Board of New South Wales
*
List of localities in Victoria
References
{{Reflist
Types of populated places
Australian English
Names of places in Australia
Subdivisions of Australia