Uncle Hewitt Whyman, a Yorta Yorta man who has lived in Wagga for more than 45 years, said he would like to know if Aboriginal people were consulted before the city renamed a road on Willans Hill to Captain Cook Drive.

Wiradjuri community members have called for a debate on the road's name and its plaque that declares Captain Cook "discovered" Australia's east coast.

"I would like to see the councillors argue on it: Why is it relevant? What history is behind it? What was considered in determining to put that plaque there in 1970 and did Aboriginal people participate?" Mr Whyman said.

The Black Lives Matter movement has sparked debate across Australia about names and statues that celebrate colonial figures, including the namesake behind the Wagga's Lord Baden Powell Drive, whose personal history is highly contested.

Mr Whyman, who is a Vietnam veteran and helped found many of the Aboriginal health and legal services in Wagga, said the plaque was representative of "Black history that is not being told".

"I'm not against signs or statues that might tell a story about why it is there," he said.

Mr Whyman noted there was no sign for nearby Murdering Island, where settlers opened fire on Aboriginal families.

'Nobody wants to hear about that. That's what's gnawing at Aboriginal people," he said.

Wiradjuri man, and Wagga Black Lives Matter rally organiser, Joe Williams said there was no reason to keep the Captain Cook Drive plaque claiming he discovered Australia.

"If people are so hung up about statues, let's have a conversation on having the right plaques with the right information on them," he said.

"The plaque is lies. It's not actually erasing history, it's getting history right."

Wagga-based Nationals MLC Wes Fang plans to present a petition to the NSW Parliament tomorrow calling for historic street names to be protected, including Lord Baden-Powell and Captain Cook drives.

"We have a proud history and we have aspects of history that we are not so proud of, but in all cases that history is what made us as a city, a state and as a country," he said.

"I don't think changing or erasing that history, which is what we have seen grow out of movements overseas and in the capital cities, is something that is healthy.

"I think we need to acknowledge the good and bad parts of history."

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Mr Fang said "near 200" people had signed the online petition over the weekend.

"The quiet Australians, the mainstream voters in Wagga, are very supportive of maintaining history," he said.

Wagga historian Sherry Morris said she would "like to see more street names after Aboriginal men and women".

"Particularly those helping the explorers who came to Wagga, like Charles Sturt," she said.