Geographical Names Board of New South Wales

The Geographical Names Board of New South Wales is the official organization that records details of  places and geographical names in  New South Wales, Australia. It was set up in 1966. The Board has nine members.

 Members of the Board 
Four of the members (or someone who represents them) are: :
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, selected by the Director General of the  Department of Finance and Services
The other members are selected by:
the Local Government and Shires Association of New South Wales,
the Royal Australian Historical Society,
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, gives the Board the right to name places, and to find out and decide on the form, spelling, meaning, pronunciation, origin and history of any geographical name. It also decides where and how the name can be used.

A place is 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.  It does not include roads, any local government areas, urban areas, counties or districts under the Local Government Act, electoral districts, subdivisions, or schools.  

The Board has the power to keep and promote Aboriginal languages and acknowledge Aboriginal culture through place naming in NSW. The Board does this by using traditional Aboriginal place names or names with Aboriginal origin wherever it can. The Board can give traditional Aboriginal names to features that have been given introduced names through its dual naming policy.

The Board's policy is the same as the U.S. Board of Geographical Names, which removes possessive names from all place names in NSW. Roads called Smith's Road are changed to Smiths Road or Smith Road.

 Other countries 
 Geographical Names Board of Canada
 United States Board on Geographic Names

 Related pages 
 List of cities in Australia
 UNGEGN

References

 Other websites 
 The Board's website
 Search for a place name 

Category:Geography of New South Wales