City of Townsville (LGA)

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This article is about the local government area of Townsville in Northern Queensland.
For the urban centre see Townsville, Queensland.
For other uses see Townsville (disambiguation).
City of Townsville
Queensland

Location within Queensland
Population: 169,484 people (est 2007)[1]
Established: 1865
Area: 3733 km² (1441.3 sq mi) [2]
Mayor: Les Tyrell
Council Seat: Townsville City Council
Region: North Queensland
Website: http://www.townsville.qld.gov.au/
LGAs around City of Townsville:
Coral Sea Coral Sea
City of Townsville Burdekin
Dalrymple Dalrymple Burdekin

The City of Townsville is an Australian Local Government Area (LGA) located in North Queensland, Australia. The LGA encompasses the city of Townsville, together with the surrounding rural areas, to the south are the communities of Alligator Creek, Woodstock and Reid River, and to the North are areas like the Northern Beaches and Paluma, and also included is Magnetic Island. It currently has a population of 169,484 people[3]

Following local government reform undertaken by the Government of Queensland, the City of Townsville was amalgamated with the City of Thuringowa. The amalgamation process was coordinated under the Local Transition Committee and an Interim Chief Executive Officer.[4] The process of amalgamation was completed on the election of a new combined Council on March 15th 2008.

Contents

[edit] History

Townsville's Town Hall 1895 with, from left to right, Aldermen T. Enright, E.J. Forrest, D.F. Treehy (Townclerk), P. Lillis (Rate Receiver), J. N. Parkes, McDougall (Accountant)
Townsville's Town Hall 1895 with, from left to right, Aldermen T. Enright, E.J. Forrest, D.F. Treehy (Townclerk), P. Lillis (Rate Receiver), J. N. Parkes, McDougall (Accountant)

Townsville became a gazetted town in 1865 and was upgraded to a municipality in 1866. The surrounding rural area was granted a Divisional Board in 1879 and was named Thuringowa. In 1902 Thuringowa was upgraded to become a Shire and in 1903 Townsville became a city. The borders of the Town and then Municipality of Townsville were expanded to keep pace with urban growth in 1882, 1918, 1936, 1958 and 1964, the purpose of expanding the borders was to keep urban and rural administrations separate.[5] This State Government convention changed under the Bjelke-Peterson Government and the borders between the two Local Governments became static. By 1986 the Shire of Thuringowa had grown to a population of 27 000 and was declared a city.[5]

In 1939, Fred Paterson stood successfully as an alderman for the Townsville City Council, becoming the first member of the Communist Party to win such an office in Australia. He was then re-elected in 1943. The same year, he stood for the federal seat of Herbert, but was narrowly defeated.

A succession of endorsed Australian Labor Party Mayors and majority Councillors held a continuous Civic government from 1976-2008, this was the longest continuous Labor administration in the Country until Tony Mooney was defeated in 2008.

[edit] Townsville City Council

Townsville City Council is the Local Government Authority that services the Local Government Area of Townsville. The City Council is represented by 12 Councillor's and the Mayor who have been elected by the whole city. The current Mayor is Cr Les Tyrell and was elected on March 15 2008, Cr Tyrell was the former Mayor of Thuringowa city. The former Mayor of Townsville was Tony Mooney who had held the position since 1989 when he succeeded Mike Reynolds.

The Townsville City Council was created in 1903 after Townsville was granted City status, The Council provides many services to residents of the city of Townsville, including Infrastructure, Water, Garbage, Public Works, and Entertainment and Leisure i.e Parks, Theatres, events etc.

Currently the Council has total operating expediture of $201.3M and a capital works budget of $103.3M [6]

[edit] Civic Cabinet

The current Civic Cabinet consists of one Mayor and 12 Councilors.

Councillors (undivided council without divisions):

  • Deanne Bell
  • Sue Blom
  • David Crisafulli
  • Brian Hewett
  • Ray Gartrell
  • Jenny Hill (Labor)
  • Jenny Lane
  • Dale Last
  • Natalie Marr
  • Robert McCahill
  • Vern Veitch
  • Tony Parsons

[edit] Sister cities

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/subscriber.nsf/log?openagent&32180ds0002_2001-07.xls&3218.0&Data%20Cubes&399AA3AACFA076F6CA25741A000DEB28&0&2006-07&31.03.2008&Latest
  2. ^ http://www.ltc.townsville.qld.gov.au/stayinginformed/Pages/default.aspx
  3. ^ http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/subscriber.nsf/log?openagent&32180ds0002_2001-07.xls&3218.0&Data%20Cubes&399AA3AACFA076F6CA25741A000DEB28&0&2006-07&31.03.2008&Latest
  4. ^ A Message from the Chairman, Cr Tony Mooney
  5. ^ a b (May 2007) Townsville City Council Submission to the Local Government Reform Commission (Submission), Townsville: Townsville City Council, page 2. Retrieved on 2007-05-25. 
  6. ^ http://www.townsville.qld.gov.au Townsville City Council web site - Budget 2006/07
  7. ^ [http://www.townsville.qld.gov.au/about/sister_cities.asp Townsville City Council - Townsville's Sister Cities]. Retrieved on 2007-06-12.

[edit] External links

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