About the Geographical Names Board

About us

The Geographical Names Board (GNB) is governed by the Geographical Names Act 1966 and recognises the importance of unambiguous and official place names. The GNB has a statutory responsibility to establish, update, preserve and publicise place naming in NSW.

Place names reflect the relationship between people and place and create a link that forms the basis for communication, location and addressing. Authoritative place names are essential for emergency services, postal and service delivery as well as professional and personal navigation.

Since its establishment in 1966, the GNB has officially recorded more than 65,000 place names for geographical features such as rivers and mountains, suburbs, railway stations and reserves. 

Our mission

To provide NSW with expert, customer centric services that are easy, fair, accessible, transparent and empathetic.

To create enduring, fit for purpose, community driven place naming, through open and transparent practices and procedures, that reflects contemporary Australia; our diversity, history, identity and values.

What we do

As set out in the Act, the GNB has the following powers and functions:

• assign names to places
• approve that a recorded name of a place will be its geographical name
• alter a recorded name or a geographical name
• determine whether the use of a recorded name or a geographical name will be discontinued
• adopt rules of orthography (spelling), nomenclature (naming) and pronunciation with respect to geographical names
• investigate and determine the form, spelling, meaning, pronunciation, origin and history of any geographical name
• the application of any geographical name with regard to position, extent or otherwise
• compile and maintain a vocabulary of Aboriginal words used or suitable for use in geographical names and to record their meaning and origin
• compile and maintain a dictionary of geographical names with a record of their form, spelling, meaning, pronunciation, origin and history
• publish a gazetteer (dictionary) of geographical names
• inquire into and make recommendations on any matters relating to the names of places referred to it by the Minister
• compile, maintain and publish a list of road names.