Place names are used to identify key landmarks and features in our environment and represent cultural values. They have long-term impacts on a person’s sense of identity and belonging.
Consistent and accurate place names are the basis of vital activities—addressing, emergency services, map production, communication services, and population censuses and statistics.
Official recognition of a place name is achieved by adding the name to the Queensland Gazetteer. Information from the Gazetteer is used in many databases that support the delivery of services, including emergency services.
Approval to add, change or remove a place name is defined by the Place Names Act 1994. This Act outlines the requirements for naming geographical features and areas in Queensland.
This guide explains the place naming process for places named by the Department of Resources and for places named by other agencies.
,While the Department of Resources names some geographical features and areas, other agencies name other places in Queensland.
These tables show the naming authority for specific types of places in Queensland.
| Type of place | Naming authority |
|---|---|
| Anchorages, bars, bays, beaches, capes, caves, cays, channels, cliffs, craters, deserts, dunes, escarpments, fords, forests (unprotected), gorges, gulfs, harbours, hills, inlets, islands, isthmuses, lagoons, lakes, lookouts, mountains, pans, passages, passes, peaks, peninsulas, plains, plateaus, pockets, points, ranges, rapids, reaches, reefs, reservoirs, ridges, rock holes, rocks, sand banks, scrubs, shoals, soaks, sounds, spits, springs, valleys, watercourses (including rivers, creeks, gullies, brooks, etc), waterfalls, waterholes, wetlands, etc. | Department of Resources |
The following places can be owned and operated by multiple levels of government and private entities.
Type of place | Naming authority |
|---|---|
| Bikeways, bridges, car parks, cattle grids, culverts, cuttings, fords, overpasses, public transport infrastructure (e.g. busways, busway stations and bus stops, park n ride facilities, light rail stations), railway crossings, rest areas, roads, tunnels, viaducts, walkways, etc. | State level – Department of Transport and Main Roads for the naming of roads, and Translink for the naming of public transport infrastructure Local level – Local Governments name roads |
| Buildings and similar structures (including schools, correction centres and hospitals) |
Department of Education for educational institutions Queensland Corrective Services for corrections centres Queensland Health for hospitals and health facilities |
| Railway infrastructure such as stations, railway stops (excluding public transport light rail stations) | Queensland Rail |
| Sports fields/grounds, courts, racing tracks, raceways and similar | Stadiums Queensland have naming power for major sports facilities |
| Boat ramps, jetties, marinas, pontoons, harbour infrastructure | Department of Transport and Main Roads |
| Dam walls and similar structures | Seqwater and Sunwater |
| Vehicles, boats, aircraft and other mobile assets | Queensland Corrective Services for the naming of vehicles, or Maritime Safety Queensland for the naming of its vessels |
| Canals and open drains, except where they connect parts of a predominantly natural watercourse | No identified naming authority |
| Statues, monuments and commemorative plaques | No identified naming authority |
| Survey marks, trigonometric stations, telecommunication towers, water towers, electrical infrastructure and similar | No identified naming authority |
| Mines, mine fields, oil fields, quarries and similar | No identified naming authority |
| Airports, airfields, landing strips, runways, heliports, helipads and similar | No identified naming authority |
| Homesteads and houses | No identified naming authority |
| Stations and other similar significant properties | No identified naming authority |
| Rural properties | No identified naming authority |
| Type of place | Naming authority |
|---|---|
| Towns and cities | Department of Resources |
| Addressable localities (bounded localities and suburbs) | Department of Resources |
| Local Government Areas | Department of Housing, Local Government, Planning and Public Works, and Local Government Change Commission |
| The State of Queensland | Requires a change to The Australian Constitution |
| Electorates (including local and federal government Divisions /Wards) | Local electorates – Queensland Redistribution Commission State electorates – Queensland Department of Housing, Local Government, Planning and Public Works / Local Government Change Commission Federal electorates – Australian Electoral Commission |
| National parks, conservation parks, resources reserves, special wildlife reserves, nature refuges, coordinated conservation areas and Indigenous Joint Management Areas | Department of Environment, Science and Innovation |
| Marine Parks | Queensland Department of Environment, Science and Innovation |
| World and other Heritage Areas | There is no single naming authority for these places. They can be owned and operated by multiple levels of government. At a state level. the Department of Treaty, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships, Communities and the Arts is responsible for cultural heritage areas Heritage is the responsibility of the Australian Government. |
| Timber reserves and state forests | Department of Environment, Science and Innovation Department of Agriculture and Fisheries |
| Municipal parks and reserves | Local Governments |
| River Improvement Trust Areas | Queensland Department of Regional Development, Manufacturing and Water |
| Tourism regions, business districts, pastoral districts, agricultural regions, irrigation regions, administrative regions and similar |
There is no single naming authority for these places. They can be owned and operated by multiple levels of government. At a state level some examples include Tourism and Events Queensland for tourism regions, Queensland Health for Health Service Areas and Queensland Fire and Emergency Service for Fire Levy Districts. |
| Industrial estates, residential estates, business parks and similar | There is no single naming authority for these places. They can be owned and operated by multiple levels of government. Development Queensland is responsible for commercial estates |
| Ports | Department of Transport and Main Roads and various Ports Corporations |
| Community title schemes | Titles Queensland |
The Department of Resources follows this process for adding, changing or removing a name of a natural feature, town, city or addressable locality (suburb). Other naming authorities will have their own processes for naming a place.
The following issues must be considered when approving a new place name or changing or removing a name
(under the Place Names Act 1994):
Dual naming enables a place to represent both traditional and post-colonial histories by having 2 names of differing origin. One or both names may be used. If both names are used, they are separated by a forward slash (solidus) preceded and followed by a space.
Dual names are suitable for public place names as long as they do not adversely impact:
The outcomes of naming places by other naming authorities can be used in place naming proposals for approval. This reduces the need to perform duplicate processes. It also recognises the work of other organisations.
A name that was changed or removed can be used for up to 5 years (with a possible extension) to aid a smooth transition to the new name. This applies where an abrupt change may impact many people and businesses. For example, the renaming of a town or a well-known area.
The continuation of an existing name allows for use in commerce without being penalised under the Place Names Act.
The inclusion of Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples recognises traditional languages by reinstating traditional place names or removing insensitive place names. It acknowledges the role of past acts of dispossession and discriminatory legislation that have had a lasting impact on Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islander people—trauma, cultural and educational loss and economic disadvantages.
It does this by:
The Queensland Gazetteer is the official repository for approved place names and their geographical locations.
Information in the Gazetteer must be:
You can suggest to name, rename or remove a name for a geographical feature, city, town or locality (suburb). You can also suggest changes to locality boundaries.
To make a suggestion, you will need to provide the following information and supporting documentation:
You will need to provide a biography with:
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Thank you for taking the time to make this suggestion.
We will consider your documentation carefully and notify you of our decision as soon as possible.
We consider the views of the relevant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, and the wider community, for place name suggestions of unnamed features, or when changing the name of an existing feature.
Where names are derived from Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander languages, it is accepted that a name which might appear to be complex will, over time, become familiar and easy to use within the community.
When a proposal to name a locality is being developed, the boundaries of the locality must be clearly defined and described on a plan. In general, boundaries should:
Some exceptions to these principles may sometimes be necessary, for example in areas with complex local government boundaries, localities in coastal or in large areas such as forests, lakes and national parks.
Feature extents shown on plans or described in decisions are indicative of the extent to which a name applies and are not intended as legal boundaries. Feature extents are not recorded in the place names database. Instead, each feature has a coordinate value which represents an approximate centroid of the feature. In watercourse and gully features, the coordinate value represents the downstream extent of the feature (e.g. where it joins another watercourse or reaches the ocean).
Before European settlement, geographical features and other areas within Australia were described and recognised within one or more of the approximately 260 Aboriginal languages and Torres Strait Islander languages. Through these names, Indigenous knowledge about places, seasons, plants, animals, lore, spirituality and culture was held and transferred across generations.
Some of these names, words, stories and languages were transcribed by early European explorers into the English language and have been adapted into the names of geographical features and localities which still exist today, such as Mount Coolum or the locality of Maroochydore. However, the names of many other places were changed and assigned a European name.
As a result of colonisation, and subsequent waves of immigration and settlement, Indigenous names for places have been obscured, compromised and sometimes lost. As First Nations people continue to reclaim culture and revive traditional languages, it is expected that Indigenous names for places will become better known among non-Indigenous people. These names will then feature more prominently in modern Australian culture, and our collective understanding, knowledge, and connection to places.
Before 1859, Queensland place naming was the responsibility of the Surveyor General of New South Wales. Across the colony of New South Wales, early explorers and settlers would name places in commemoration of events, public figures and places from European culture, but also name places after close friends or benefactors.
To discourage this practice, and to recognise the Indigenous languages and culture that already existed, Major Sir Thomas Livingston Mitchell (Surveyor General of New South Wales, 1828–1855) gave a directive in 1828 that surveyors must, where possible, use and record Indigenous languages for place names. This extended to the names of settlers’ grants, new leaseholds on Crown Lands and new parishes. However, when transcribing, Mitchell insisted that Indigenous languages be simplified and made easier to read and pronounced in English, which led to mispronunciation of many Indigenous language words when used for place naming purposes. By the 1850s it had become conventional practice to record and use Indigenous languages for place names.
After the separation of the states, names were supplied by the Railways Department, Post Office and the Department of Public Instructions for ratification by the Department of Lands and the Surveyor General.
In the early 1920s, an unofficial committee comprising the Surveyor General, Commissioner of Railways, head of the Department of Public Instructions and university representatives was formed to approve and ratify all new place names. Professor Cumbrae-Stewart, representing The University of Queensland, was an influential committee member, who later became Chairman of the Queensland Place Names Committee. Other contributors to the recording of the history of place names were Sydney May and Colin Gill.
The Queensland Place Names Act 1958 set up the Place Names Board to approve names in the state. The Queensland Place Names Act 1988 disbanded the board and passed the responsibility for place naming to the Surveyor General, with Executive Council approving the names.
The Place Names Act 1994 gave the power for approval of place names to a Minister of the Crown. The Minister for Resources and Critical Minerals currently exercises this power. Records were first recorded on a card system, started by the unofficial committee in the 1920s. These cards were moved to The University of Queensland and later returned to the Department of Lands (Survey Office). In the 1940s, another more extensive card system was compiled using information from cadastral, topographic and military maps and the existing card system. In 1988, a computer system for place names was developed and all available information was entered into the Queensland place names database.
The Place Names Act 1994 has not changed substantially since it came into force almost 30 years ago. In 2024, the Act was amended to respond to significant shifts that had occurred in community expectations, advances in technology and developments in business practices, policy and regulation.
Names recorded in the place names database have been collected over time through both formal and informal processes. There are names in the database that are not included the gazetteer which may be unofficial or may be formally named under another authority. The alternative name field is reserved for the recording of Indigenous names to recognise where they differ from official place names. Not all listed Indigenous names have been verified by the appropriate First Nations Peoples.
Naming places in Queensland, 23 Oct 2024, [https://oss-uat.clients.squiz.net/environment/land/title/place-names/naming]
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