City of Townsville

This article is about the local government area. For the metropolitan area, see Townsville, Queensland. For the Townsville CBD suburb, see Townsville City, Queensland. For other uses, see Townsville (disambiguation).
City of Townsville
Queensland

Location within Queensland
Population 185,768 (2013)[1]
 • Density 49.764/km2 (128.887/sq mi)
Established 1865
Area 3,733 km2 (1,441.3 sq mi)[2]
Mayor Jenny Hill
Council seat Townsville City
Region North Queensland
Federal Division(s) Herbert, Dawson, Kennedy
Website City of Townsville
LGAs around City of Townsville:
Hinchinbrook Coral Sea Coral Sea
Charters Towers City of Townsville Burdekin
Charters Towers Charters Towers Burdekin

The City of Townsville is an Australian local government area (LGA) located in North Queensland, Australia. It 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 Northern Beaches and Paluma, and also included is Magnetic Island. It currently has a population of 175,542 residents,[3][4] and is the 18th largest LGA in Australia.

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, B.P. McDougall (Accountant)

The City of Townsville was first established as the Borough of Townsville under the Municipal Institutions Act 1864 on 15 February 1866. The surrounding rural area, which was given the name Thuringowa Division, was established on 11 November 1879 as one of 74 divisions around Queensland under the Divisional Boards Act 1879. On 31 March 1903, Thuringowa Division became the Shire of Thuringowa and Townsville was granted city status under the Local Authorities Act 1902, the ancestor of the current Local Government Act 1993.

The borders of the Townsville municipality 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. He then contested and won the Bowen seat in the Queensland Parliament, holding it from 1944 until 1950.

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.

Following local government reform undertaken by the State Government of Queensland, the City of Townsville and the City of Thuringowa were amalgamated in 2008.[6] The process of amalgamation was completed on the election of a new combined council on 15 March 2008.

Mayors

Other notable aldermen include:

Townsville City Council

Townsville City Council is the Local Government Authority that services the Local Government Area of Townsville. The council is represented by 10 councillors and the mayor, who have been elected by the whole city. The current mayor is Cr Jenny Hill, who was formerly the deputy mayor of the pre-amalgamation City of Townsville in 2007 and early 2008.

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.

In 2006 the council had an operating expenditure of $201.3M and a capital works budget of $103.3M[16]

Civic cabinet

The current civic cabinet consists of one mayor, elected at large, and 10 councillors, elected from 10 individual divisions. At the last Queensland Local Government election, held on 19 March 2016, Jenny Hill from the centre-left Team Jenny Hill was elected mayor of Townsville, along with 10 other councillors from the same team. No councillors were elected from the rival centre-right Jayne Arlett's team, nor were any independents, effectively creating an undivided council. Les Walker, from Team Jenny Hill, was elected as deputy mayor.

Position Person Party
Mayor of Townsville Jenny Hill Team Jenny Hill
Division 1 Councillor Margie Ryder Team Jenny Hill
Division 2 Councillor Paul Jacob Team Jenny Hill
Division 3 Councillor Ann-Maree Greaney Team Jenny Hill
Division 4 Councillor Mark Molachino Team Jenny Hill
Division 5 Councillor Russ Cook Team Jenny Hill
Division 6 Councillor Verena Coombe Team Jenny Hill
Division 7 Councillor Kurt Rehbein Team Jenny Hill
Division 8 Councillor Maurie Soars Team Jenny Hill
Division 9 Councillor Colleen Doyle Team Jenny Hill
Division 10 Councillor Les Walker (Deputy Mayor) Team Jenny Hill

Towns and localities

Population

The populations given relate to the component entities prior to 2008. The 2011 census, was the first for the new City.

Year Population
(City total)
Population
(Townsville)
Population
(Thuringowa)
1911 15,731 10,636 5,095
1921 23,690 21,353 2,337
1933 29,300 25,876 3,424
1947 36,436 34,109 2,327
1954 43,098 40,471 2,627
1961 53,715 51,143 2,572
1966 65,303 62,403 2,900
1971 72,023 68,591 3,432
1976 91,279 80,365 10,914
1981 98,900 81,172 17,728
1986 112,917 82,809 30,108
1991 125,010 87,288 37,722
1996 131,371 87,052 44,319
2001 143,841 92,701 51,140
2006 158,647 99,483 59,164
2011 174,462

Sister cities

References

  1. Townsville City Council (30 June 2013). "City Profile And Statistics, Townsville, Australia, 2013". Retrieved 27 July 2014.
  2. http://www.ltc.townsville.qld.gov.au/stayinginformed/Pages/default.aspx
  3. "Regional Population Growth, Australia, 2007–08: Population Estimates by Statistical District, 2001 to 2008". Australian Bureau of Statistics.
  4. Australian Bureau of Statistics (23 April 2009). "Regional Population Growth, Australia, 2007–08". Retrieved 30 September 2009.
  5. 1 2 Townsville City Council Submission to the Local Government Reform Commission (Submission). Townsville: Townsville City Council. May 2007. p. 2. Retrieved 25 May 2007.
  6. A Message from the Chairman, Cr Tony Mooney
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 "Mayors of Townsville" (PDF). Townsville City Council. Retrieved 28 May 2014.
  8. "Chronological history of Townsville, 1770 to 1900". Townsville City Council. Retrieved 28 May 2014.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 Mathew, John (2008), Highways and byways : the origin of Townsville street names (PDF) (Rev. ed.), Townsville Library Service, ISBN 0 9578987 54
  10. "Local Government Elections.". The Western Star and Roma Advertiser (Toowoomba, Qld.: National Library of Australia). 15 February 1888. p. 3. Retrieved 4 October 2013.
  11. Manion, Jim. "Hodel, Joseph (1850–1943)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre for Biography, Australian National University. Retrieved 26 December 2013.
  12. Consolidated Index to Queensland Government Gazette 1859–1919. Queensland Family History Society. 2004. ISBN 1 876613 79 3.
  13. "2008 Townsville City Council – Mayoral Election – Election Summary". Electoral Commission Queensland. Retrieved 21 December 2013.
  14. "2012 Townsville City Council – Mayoral Election – Election Summary". Electoral Commission Queensland. Retrieved 21 December 2013.
  15. "Aikens, Mr Thomas (Tom)". Re-Member Database. Queensland Parliament. Retrieved 18 June 2014.
  16. http://www.townsville.qld.gov.au Townsville City Council web site – Budget 2006/07
  17. "Townsville City Council – Townsville's Sister Cities". Archived from the original on 3 January 2007. Retrieved 12 June 2007. horizontal tab character in |title= at position 28 (help)

External links

Coordinates: 19°15′27.50″S 146°49′04.45″E / 19.2576389°S 146.8179028°E / -19.2576389; 146.8179028

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