Shire of Beenleigh

Map of Beenleigh Division and adjacent local government areas, March 1902. Legend: Cleveland Division (11), Tingalpa Division (16), Waterford Division (18), Yeerongpilly Division (20)

The Shire of Beenleigh is a former local government area in the south-east of Queensland, Australia, centred on the town of Beenleigh. It existed from 1879 to 1949.

History

Councillor G. F. Rose, Chairman of the Beenleigh Shire Council, 1909

On 11 November 1879, the Beenleigh Division was created as one of 74 divisions within Queensland under the Divisional Boards Act 1879 with a population of 1578.^[1][2]

With the passage of the Local Authorities Act 1902, it became a Shire on 31 March 1903.^[2][3]

Amalgamations in 1948

On 9 December 1948, as part of a major reorganisation of local government in South East Queensland, an Order in Council replacing ten former local government areas between the City of Brisbane and the New South Wales border with only four.^[4][5] The former ten were:

• Beaudesert
• Beenleigh
• Cleveland
• Coolangatta
• Coomera
• Nerang
• Southport
• Tamborine
• Tingalpa
• Waterford

The four resulting local government areas were:

• the new Shire of Albert, a merger of Beenleigh, Coomera, Nerang (except for the Burleigh Heads area), the southern part of Tingalpa and the eastern part of Waterford^[6]
• an enlarged Shire of Beaudesert, an amalgamation of Beaudesert and Tamborine with the western part of Waterford
• Town of South Coast, an amalgamation of the Towns of Southport and Coolangatta with the Burleigh Heads part of Nerang (which later became City of Gold Coast)
• the new Redland Shire, an amalgamation of Cleveland and the northern part of Tingalpa (which later became Redland City)

The Order came into effect on 10 June 1949, when the first elections were held.

The former council chambers of the Shire were relocated to Beenleigh Historical Village in 1982.^[7]

Chairmen

• 1880: Mr Davy, J.P.^[8]
• 1909: G. F. Rose
• 1927: Otto Kleinschmidt ^[9]
• William Heinrich Heck (several years)^[10]
• Carl Frederich Wilhelm Rehfeldt^[10]

References

1. "Proclamation [Beenleigh Division]". Queensland Government Gazette. 11 November 1879. p. 25:988.
2. "Agency ID324, Beenleigh Divisional Board". Queensland State Archives. Retrieved 2 September 2013.
3. "Agency ID325, Beenleigh Shire Council". Queensland State Archives. Retrieved 2 September 2013.
4. "New coast names.". The Courier-Mail (Brisbane: National Library of Australia). 10 December 1948. p. 3. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
5. "DETAILS OF SOUTH COAST SHIRES.". Queensland Times (DAILY ed.) (Ipswich, Queensland: National Library of Australia). 10 December 1948. p. 1. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
6. "Agency ID290, Albert Shire Council". Queensland State Archives. Retrieved 4 September 2013.
7. "Early Australia". Beenleigh Historical Village. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
8. "General News.". The Queenslander (Brisbane: National Library of Australia). 13 March 1880. p. 326. Retrieved 11 May 2014.
9. Pugh, Theophilus Parsons (1927). Pugh's Almanac for 1927. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
10. Fox, Matthew Joseph (1923). History of Queensland: its People and its industries (PDF). Brisbane: States Publishing Company. Retrieved 5 April 2014.

Coordinates: 27°42′55″S 153°12′04″E / 27.7154°S 153.2012°E