Members are appointed to the Board in accordance with the provisions set out in Section 3 of the Geographical Names Act 1966. The Act allows for a total of nine members, four of which are those people who hold the office of, or are a respective nominee of:
- the Surveyor General of NSW
- the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment
- the State Librarian and
- the Department of Customer Service.
- the governing bodies of the Local Government and Shires Association of New South Wales
- the governing body of the Royal Australian Historical Society
- the governing body of the Geographical Society of New South Wales
- the New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council
- the Chairperson of Multicultural NSW.
Members of the board
The following people are appointed as Board members as at 4 May 2021.
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Counsellors to the board
The following people are appointed as Counsellors as at 4 May 2021.
Dr. Peter OrlovichAdvising on historical issuesChairperson and Secretary of the Honorary Counsellors' Committee, Geographical Names Board of New South Wales, 1967 to 1973. Appointed Member of the Board as Nominee of the Council of the Royal Australian Historical Society, 1976 to October 2001. Appointed as Counsellor to the Board, 2001 to the present. Presented with an award in 2016 by The Hon. Tony Kelly, NSW Minister for Lands, in recognition of 50 years outstanding service to the Geographical Names Board and commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the passing of the Geographical Names Act 1966. Adjunct Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities and Languages, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of New South Wales (2020-2023). Formerly Senior Lecturer in Archives Administration at the University of NSW 1973-1999; Director, Short Course in Managing Archives and Historical Documents, School of History and School of Humanities and Languages, University of NSW, 1999-2018; Assistant Senior Archivist, State Archives of NSW, 1967-1972; Mitchell Library Fellow, 1965-1967. |
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Prof. Jakelin TroyAdvising on language issuesProfessor Jakelin Troy (Jaky) is Ngarigu of the Snowy Mountains southern NSW. Jaky started with the Geographical Names Board as a member during her time as Director, NSW Aboriginal Languages Research and Resource Centre within the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, in the early 2000s. She has continued with the Board since then as a Counsellor advising on languages matters in particular. She is Director, Indigenous Research, Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) at The University of Sydney. Jaky is a leading researcher at Sydney, focusing her work on the disciplines of linguistics, anthropology, history, musicology and fine art. She is well known for her work with communities on the Aboriginal language of Sydney, and is currently working with her own community to renew the use of Ngarigu. She wrote the pioneering ‘NSW Aboriginal Languages Curriculum K-12’ for the NSW Board of Studies and was lead writer ‘Australian Curriculum – Languages: Framework for Aboriginal Languages and Torres Strait Islander Languages’ for the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority. She designed The University of Sydney’s ‘Ngarangun: Indigenous Research Strategy’ and oversees its implementation. Jaky established the ‘Sydney Indigenous Research Network’ as part of this work to support Indigenous researchers and research in Australia and overseas. In 2019 she was named as one of the Financial Review’s Top 100 Women of Influence in the category Innovation. |
Julie ChristieAdvising on addressing issuesJulie represents Australia Post. |
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Marina DeGabrieleAdvising on Emergency ServicesMarina represents Fire and Rescue NSW. |
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Angus MannAdvising on development issuesAngus represents the Urban Development Institute of Australia (UDIA) NSW. |
Secretary
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Lisa PowellPlace Names ManagerLisa Powell is the Place Names Manager and Secretary for the Geographical Names Board (GNB). Prior to this Lisa worked in the survey profession for over a decade. She holds a Bachelor of Spatial Science Technology degree majoring in GIS and a Diploma of Spatial Information Services (Surveying). As Place Names Manager, Lisa leads the GNB Secretariat team to support its customers and enable the Board to effectively undertake its powers and functions. Lisa is passionate about educating and enabling the community to engage in the place naming process so that place naming in NSW is reflective of the rich and diverse culture of our nation. |