Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation ready to help St Arnaud if residents want a new town name

The central Victorian city was named after French general Jacques Leroy de Saint-Arnaud, who was revered for his leadership in the Crimean War. But some St Arnaud residents said he should be condemned after he ordered the mass killing of more than 500 Indigenous people in Algeria.

Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation chief executive Rodney Carter said the organisation would support the process to change the name of the town.

"We would do everything in our power to help the St Arnaud people," he said.

"We would do it in a supportive way - we wouldn't want to impose."

St Arnaud was given its name after a large number of French migrants settled in the town in the late 1800s.

Mr Carter said he understood some St Arnaud residents were not interested in changing the town's name.

"It's ok for them to feel like that because they love their town and they love what they understand their town is about," he said.

"But that might not align with the name of the town. That's where it becomes not about the good identity of the town - it's about this historical person. I would think that if the St Arnaud people knew what the man did, they wouldn't want the name."

Mr Carter said the Dja Dja Wurrung would help the town find an Indigenous name, if governments chose to go down that path. He said the Gurri Wanyarra Wellbeing Centre and the Ulumbarra Theatre in Bendigo showed places could connect with language.

"From a Dja Dja Wurrung perspective, it's not about us wanting to have any place name," he said.

"For us, country needs language. It needs other cultural elements as well but that is founded on language. Language is extremely healing."

The Northern Grampians Shire said while it was open to consulting with St Arnaud residents about a name change, it had received no petitions or requests from the public. State Member for Ripon Louise Staley said she would not support changing the name of St Arnaud.