Controversial Willshire Street could yet be renamed

THE NT’s Place Names Committee will meet on Tuesday to discuss renaming a controversial street in Alice Springs

Willshire Street, Alice Springs. Image: SUPPLIED

• Council votes to abandon renaming street named after controversial police officer
• Residents push to change street named after colonial-era killer

The Northern Territory’s Place Names Committee will meet on Tuesday to discuss renaming Alice Springs’ Willshire Street, the controversial street named for a 19th-century police officer implicated in the deaths of two Aboriginal men.

A spokesman said the committee will not reach a final decision on Tuesday as it is still working through the process with council.

Alice Springs Town Council has been consulting with the community on a possible name change since June, but abandoned the issue after last week hearing from the street’s residents at a council meeting.

Ultimately, however, it is the Place Names Committee that is responsible for recommending to the Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics Minister whether the name should be changed.

The minister is responsible for approving new names and changes to existing names under the Place Names Act 1967.

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Any individual or organisation can approach the Place Names Committee to request a change to a name for a place, such as a road, park, suburb or sporting ground.

However, published guidelines for naming must be adhered to.

For example, “names should demonstrate a strong association with the NT’s history, culture, development, events or communities.”

Additionally, names cannot be discriminatory, and only surnames can be used when naming a place after a person if that place comprises part of an address.

Willshire Street, south of The Gap off Traeger Ave, is named after colonial era policeman William Willshire.

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Constable Willshire was charged with murder after his men attacked and killed two sleeping Aboriginal men in 1891. Willshire was later acquitted.