Find or add historical information
 | Find historical information - to find information on the origin of a place in Victoria search VICNAMES historical information. Please refer to VICNAMES user notes for assistance | |
 | Add historical information - to contribute information on the origin of a place name in Victoria submit to VICNAMES historical information. Please refer to VICNAMES user notes for assistance |  |
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About VICNAMES Historical Information
The historical information component of VICNAMES was developed by the Office of Geographic Names to enable the public to access and contribute information on the origins of Victorian place names. It is part of the Australian National Placenames Survey (ANPS) research project.
The aim of the ANPS is to prepare a national register of geographical names. The national register will supplement the National Gazetteer, and will be constructed on recognised principles for the research and documentation of history, geography, linguistics, cultural knowledge, surveying and mapping. It will record all known Australian place names, excluding road and street names, documenting their pronunciation, generic class, status (gazetted, obsolete, non-gazetted, sensitive, disputed), origin, meaning, history, cultural significance (both name and site), and map reference and location. The database will enable the production of a series of place name dictionaries, both local and national, over the next few decades.
Information entered into the VICNAMES database will be sent to and used in the ANPS database.
When you submit historical information to the database the Historical Content Administrator (HCA) for your area will automatically be contacted to verify your historical information before it is made available to the public. We require your contact details so that the HCA can contact you if there are further details or amendments required before your information can be viewed by the public. Your personal details will be treated with confidentiality at all times and will not be made available when your submission has been verified and published on-line.
Who are the Historical Content Administrators
The Victorian Committee of the Australian National Placenames Survey comprises members with a dedicated interest in place names research. Each member of the Victorian committee is responsible for overseeing the registration of historical information in a particular region of Victoria and they are referred to as a Historical Content Administrator (HCA).
If you have any queries regarding the research process please contact the Historical Content Administrator in your area.
You might wish to undertake place names research as an individual or as part of a larger group. There are many place names research groups currently involved in projects around Victoria through their association with the Victorian Committee of the Australian National Placenames Survey (ANPS).
If you would like to conduct research as an individual or as part of a new research group contact your local Historical Content Administrator (HCA) before you begin to inform them of the area you are planning to research and to check that you are not duplicating the work of another group.
If you are already part of a research group, the HCAs suggest that you compile your research information as a group every one to two months. The ANPS is interested in compiling multiple historical sources for each place name, but would appreciate receiving only one copy of each separate source.
The HCAs also suggest that you discuss and list any problems that you have had in the collection process and send this information to your local HCA who will resolve these problems before the information is finalised in the database. Problems might include difficulties with referencing sources, uncertainty with the credibility of the source information, and the presence of more than one data entry form for the same source.
Data Entry Forms
Download and print the form below that is relevant to your information source. For assistance with completing these forms view the instructions:
Instructions for completing data entry forms (PDF - 86 KB)
Place Name Data Form- Book (PDF - 64 KB) Place Name Data Form - Edited book section (PDF - 64 KB) Place Name Data Form - Journal Article (PDF - 64 KB) Place Name Data Form - Newspaper/Magazine (PDF - 63 KB) Place Name Data Form - Manuscript (PDF - 63 KB) Place Name Data Form - Map (PDF - 64 KB) Place Name Data Form - Artefact (PDF - 62 KB) Place Name Data Form - Oral History (PDF - 63 KB) Place Name Data Form - Website (PDF - 64 KB)
Once you have completed your form enter your details into VICNAMES.