Mr Kneipp officially approved the move at the August ordinary meeting of council on Wednesday night.

At the meeting, the administrator said he would be contacting Local Government Minister Paul Toole on Thursday to request the necessary actions be undertaken to rename the council.It’s expected to take six to eight weeks before it is official.

Between the community opinion and the marketing advice he received, Mr Kneipp said it was an easy decision.

“I’ve lived in Wellington for 34 years, we’ve raised seven children here, we’ve invested in real estate in Wellington so we’ve got skin in the game and if I thought by calling it Dubbo Regional Council I was harming my investments here or the future prospects of Wellington than I certainly wouldn’t have gone through with it,” Mr Kneipp said.

“In the end it wasn’t a difficult decision to make but it will be a difficult decision to sell.”

Mr Kneipp said the Wellington contingent of the Local Representative Committee were in favour of ‘Dubbo Macquarie Council’ as it was the Macquarie River that connected the two towns, however the administrator said the river went through too many other council areas.

Real Estate Institute NSW Orana Division acting chairperson Bob Berry said calling the local government area Dubbo Regional Council was a common sense decision.

"We are confident the name of Dubbo Regional Council will  continue the recognition of Dubbo as one of the leading growth centres in Australia, and drive the success of Wellington and Dubbo as a merged regional council," Mr Berry said.

Extensive research was done into council’s identity through phone interviews online feedback and face-to-face interviews, in addition to a survey sent out by Dubbo MP Troy Grant.

The research conducted by Aurora found less than 40 per cent of respondents were satisfied with the council name and only one third of respondents to Mr Grant’s survey were satisfied with the name,” Mr Kneipp said.

It supported feedback from Dubbo and Wellington communities, he said.