Legal addresses

Both the Board and the Department of Lands are committed to Disaster Recovery and Emergency Services. Authoritative addressing is seen as a major benchmark in this commitment as it provides a navigable reference to all properties within NSW.

Road and address locality names are important navigation tools; not only for residents but for councils, emergency services and mapping services. The gazettal of these names reduces confusion, lowers the incidents of duplication and ensures appropriate names are made official. Consequently, the naming process has been standardised to ensure that any changes are easily understood by community members and service providers.

The Board has a statutory responsibility to determine definitive boundaries for suburbs and localities throughout New South Wales. The Board works closely with local councils when defining boundaries because local residents are one of the most significant users of the names. The process of determining boundaries is one of acknowledging existing names and formalising their extent according to common local usage.

The Board is also required to be notified of all road naming proposals. The Surveyor General and/or the Registrar General can object to any road naming proposal that doesn’t meet the Board’s guidelines as set out in thefollowing publications:

The NSW road and address locality naming process (PDF 93.3 kb)

The naming and addressing of private roads and roads in community subdivisions (PDF 150.8 kb)

Road naming in NSW (PDF 136.3 kb)

Rural addressing for NSW (PDF 142.9 kb)

Guidelines for the naming of roads (PDF 132.9 kb)

Determining suburbs and localities in NSW (PDF 138.6 kb)