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Place names and addressing

Get to know how places in Western Australia are named and understand the process.

Place names and addressing

Learn about the rich history of Western Australia’s capital city, suburbs and country towns. Discover curious facts about our unusual place names and find out more about the strict criteria used for naming roads and features.

What is Landgate’s role?

Under the legislated delegated authority of the Minister for Lands, Landgate administers all official naming actions for WA.

We maintain the official register for all named places in WA and oversee the naming and registration of:

  • roads
  • features
  • localities in the state.

What is GEONOMA?

GEONOMA is the authoritative register of all official WA names assigned under the Land Administration Act 1997 and previous Acts. It also includes other unofficial names that have been recorded where they are in common use to support location finding. Historic and superseded names are also retained in the register.