- Suburbs and localities (Australia)
Suburbs and localities are the names of geographic subdivisions in Australia, mainly for
address purposes. The name locality is used in rural areas, while the equivalent in urban areas aresuburb s. Sometimes locality is used to refer to both localities and suburbs, and they are also called address localities. [ [http://www.gnb.nsw.gov.au/_media/gnb/pdf/P06_18_0009b_Determing_suburbs_and_localities_in_NSW_final.pdf Determining suburbs and localities in NSW] ] . Localities are also known as towns and rural districts in Victoria, such as on various [http://www.land.vic.gov.au/Land/lcnlc2.nsf/646e9b4bba1afb2bca256c420053b5ce/5bf8ffa0f2fc2686ca25733a00192ded/$FILE/06869758.pdf/Central%20Goldfields_V43a.pdf maps] . Note they are different to the ABS's Urban Centre Localities, a statistical division. Localities have also been used to refer to locations within cities which are not suburbs.Localities and suburbs are determined by the local council in which they are located, based on community recognition and subject to approval of the state's geographical names board. This doesn't prevent them from overlapping several Local Government Areas, however, as they are otherwise independent from them. Localities have existed in the past as informal units, before the 1996 decision of the Intergovernmental Committee for Surveying and Mapping and the Committee for Geographic Names in Australasia (CGNA) to name and establish official boundaries for all localities and suburbs [ [http://www.nrw.qld.gov.au/factsheets/pdf/land/l111.pdf Queensland Natural Resources, Mines and Water Place names - localities and suburbs] ] . In the last ten years there has been a process to formally define their boundaries and to
gazette them, which is almost complete. In March 2006 onlySouth Australia and theNorthern Territory had not completed this process. [ [http://www.nt.gov.au/lands/lis/newsletter/2006/march.shtml Naming of Northern Territory Suburbs and Localities] ] Localities also now relate closely with postcode boundaries. [ [http://www.psma.com.au/datasets/postcode-boundaries Postcode boundaries] ] There are over 15,000 locality and suburb boundaries in Australia. [ [http://extranet.mapinfo.com/products/Overview.cfm?ProductID=162&productcategoryid= MapInfo, Suburbs and Localities overview.] ]The CGNA's "Gazetteer of Australia" recognises two types of localities - bounded and unbounded. Their definition of bounded localities include towns, villages, populated places, local government towns and unpopulated town sites, while unbounded localities include place names, road corners and bends, corners, meteorological stations, ocean place names and surfing spots.cite web|title= Feature Codes used by the Gazetteer of Australia|url=http://www.ga.gov.au/map/names/featurecodes.jsp|publisher =
Geoscience Australia |accessdate=2007-03-04]Reference
External links
* [http://www.land.vic.gov.au/land/lcnlc2.nsf/LinkView/5068301BBA359BA04A25688E0000B327960B73AE58FA5B3BCA256E4C00187954 Maps of all localities in Victoria]
* [http://www.waec.wa.gov.au/download/StreetsPlacesTowns_Directory2004_Part1.pdf Streets, towns and places directory. Includes list of all suburbs and localities in Western Australia]
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