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 20 October 2022.
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Counsellors to the board
The following people are appointed as Counsellors as at 20 October 2022.
Dr. Peter OrlovichAdvising on historical mattersChairperson 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Lecturer in Archives Administration at the University of NSW 1973-1999; Director, Short Course in Managing Archives and Historical Documents, School of History and School of Humanities and Languages, University of NSW, 1999-2018; Assistant Senior Archivist, State Archives of NSW, 1967-1972; Mitchell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 mattersProfessor 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. |
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Terry KassAdvising on historical and geographical mattersTerry Kass, B.A. (Hons), M. A. (Hons), Ph.D is an independent consulting historian with many years of experience researching and writing local and regional history as well as numerous reports for heritage assessments. He has a strong interest in local and regional history as well as the history of land settlement and surveying. Publications include histories of Parramatta, Grafton and surveying. Terry promotes the value of detailed archival research for local and regional history, particularly records regarding freehold land ownership and archival records regarding Crown Land. He has long been passionate about historical maps and plans. He has twice won the Phyllis Mander Jones Award from the Australian Society of Archivists for his publications about archives, whilst a number of other books and projects have attracted awards from the National Trust of Australia, New South Wales branch. Terry brings that knowledge and experience to his role on the Geographical Names Board. |
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Thomas GrinterAdvising on GNB PolicyThomas Grinter is the NSW Deputy Surveyor-General and Director of Survey Operations at DCS-Spatial Services. Thomas joined the surveying profession in 2005 and has been working in various roles within NSW government for the last 13 years. Thomas holds a Bachelor degree in Surveying, a Masters Degree in Engineering and is currently undertaking a Master’s Degree in Law. |
Julie ChristieAdvising on addressing mattersJulie represents Australia Post. |
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Marina DeGabrieleAdvising on Emergency Services mattersMarina represents Fire and Rescue NSW. |