Our Local Naming Process

Street names in the Ararat Rural City Council area can originate from two places: Council may identify a road that needs a name, or local residents can put forward a suggestion for consideration.

Once a name is proposed, it goes to community consultation for 30 days via Engage Ararat, our online engagement platform, so residents can share their views and any concerns about the proposed name.

If the consultation shows clear community consensus in support of the name, Council takes the proposal to a Council meeting for a vote. Once endorsed by Council, the name proceeds to the state-wide registration process (outlined below) for formal approval and gazettal.

If consensus isn't reached during the first round of consultation, Council runs a second round of community consultation to work through concerns and explore alternatives before a name is finalised. This approach was used for Withers Lane, where an initial consultation for Prospector's Lane produced a clear interest in commemorating the Withers Family, prompting a further round of engagement with the community before a final name was agreed and progressed.

The State-Wide Process in Victoria

Every proposed road, feature or locality name in Victoria must ultimately comply with the Naming Rules for Places in Victoria, which sit under the Geographic Place Names Act 1998. These rules are administered by Geographic Names Victoria (GNV), part of the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, on behalf of the Registrar of Geographic Names, who is appointed by the Minister for Planning.land+2

Councils act as a "naming authority" - one of several types of bodies (alongside government departments, authorities and some private organisations) permitted to submit naming proposals to the Registrar. Once Council endorses a name locally, it's lodged with GNV, which checks the proposal against the naming rules before it can be formally registered.

Key requirements under the naming rules include:

• No duplication of a name within roughly 5–6 kilometres of another name, regardless of council boundaries
• Names must be relevant to the local area, such as drawing on Aboriginal culture, local flora and fauna, war contributions, exploration and settlement history, or local industry
• Preference for names already used informally by the community
• No risk to public safety, emergency response or postal/delivery services
• Encouragement to use Traditional Owner language names, subject to agreement from the relevant Traditional Owner group(s)
• No offensive or discriminatory names, no directional words (North, South, East, West), and strict rules on length, punctuation and format

Once approved, the name is entered into VICNAMES, Victoria's official Register of Geographic Names, which holds more than 200,000 registered road and place names across the state.