How places are named

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.

Post-colonial place naming in Queensland

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 Place Names Act

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.