This is a list of the Mayors and Lord Mayors of the City of Brisbane, a Local Government Area of Queensland, Australia. The current Lord Mayor of Brisbane is Graham Quirk.
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The Municipality of Brisbane was gazetted on 25 May 1859 and proclaimed by the Governor of New South Wales on 7 September 1859. The first local government area in Queensland, Brisbane was the only one incorporated prior to the establishment of Queensland as a separate colony.[1]
On 31 March 1903 the Local Authorities Act 1902 came into effect, and Part 2, Section 10 of the Act proclaimed Brisbane a city.[2] The city's boundaries at this point only covered Brisbane's centre and the immediate surrounding suburbs.
On 1 October 1925 the City of Brisbane Act 1924 established a new City of Brisbane and its governing council, the Brisbane City Council. The new boundaries included 18 former local-government areas and parts of two others; it covered what was at that time the extent of Brisbane's metropolitan area.
The list of mayors of the Brisbane Municipal Council (1859–1903) appears below.[3][4]
| Mayor | Term |
|---|---|
| John Petrie | 1859–1862 |
| Thomas Blacket Stephens | 1862 |
| George Edmondstone | 1863 |
| Joshua Jeays | 1864 |
| Albert John Hockings (1st term) | 1865 |
| Richard Symes Warry | 1866 |
| Albert John Hockings (2nd term) | 1867 |
| John Hardgrave | 1868–1869 |
| William Pettigrew | 1870 |
| Francis Murray | 1871 |
| Edward Joseph Baines | 1872 |
| James Swan | 1873–1875 |
| Richard Ash Kingsford | 1876 |
| Alfred Hubbard | 1877–1878 |
| John Daniel Heal | 1879 |
| John Sinclair | 1880–1881 |
| Robert Porter | 1882 |
| Abram Robertson Byram | 1883 |
| John McMaster (1st term) | 1884 |
| Benjamin Harris Babbidge | 1885 |
| James Hipwood | 1886–1887 |
| Richard Southall | 1888 |
| William McNaughton Galloway | 1889 |
| John McMaster (2nd term) | 1890 |
| John Allworth Clark | 1891 |
| George Watson, Junior | 1892 |
| John McMaster (3rd term) | 1893 |
| Robert Fraser (politician) | 1894–1895 |
| Robert Woods Thurlow | 1896 |
| John McMaster (4th term) | 1897 |
| William Thorne | 1898 |
| William Andrew Seal | 1899 |
| James Nicol Robinson | 1900 |
| Thomas Proe (1st term) | 1901 |
| Leslie Corrie | 1902–1903 |
The Brisbane Municipal Council generally followed the practice of rotating the role of mayor among the aldermen, thus many mayors served for only one year and some served multiple times some years apart. The council "year" commenced and ended in about February to avoid a change-over during the summer holidays, so the mayor for 1890 would, strictly speaking, be the mayor into early 1891.
Most of the early aldermen and mayors of the Municipality of Brisbane were prominent local men rather than representatives of political parties.
Brisbane became a city on 31 March 1903. The list of mayors of the Brisbane City Council (1903–1925) appears below.[3]
| Mayor | Term |
|---|---|
| Leslie Corrie | 1902–1903 |
| Thomas Rees | 1904 |
| Thomas Proe (2nd term) | 1905 |
| John Crase | 1906 |
| William Murray Thompson | 1907 |
| Charles Packenham Buchanan (1st term) | 1908 |
| Thomas Wilson | 1909 |
| John Hetherington (1st term) | 1910 |
| Harry Diddams (1st term) | 1911 |
| Alfred John Raymond | 1912 |
| Harry Doggett | 1913 |
| Charles Jenkinson | 1914 |
| George Down | 1915 |
| John Hetherington (2nd term) | 1916–1917 |
| John McMaster (5th term) | 1918–1919 |
| Charles Packenham Buchanan (2nd term) | 1919–1919 |
| James Francis Maxwell | 1920–1921 |
| Harry Diddams (2nd term) | 1921–1924 |
| Maurice Barry | 1924–1925 |
On 1 October 1925, the City of Brisbane Act 1924 came into force, and 18 local government areas (including the Municipality of Brisbane) and parts of two others were amalgamated to form the City of Brisbane, governed by the Brisbane City Council.
The City of Brisbane Act was amended several times over the years by successive State Governments, which changed the way in which the Lord Mayor was elected, and also the number of wards in the city. The two main ways in which the Lord Mayor are elected are direct election and election by majority vote of councilors (originally called aldermen).
| Mayor | Party | Term | No Of Terms | Election Details | Departure Details | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| William Alfred Jolly | United Party (later renamed Nationalist Civic Party | 1925—1931 | 2 | Elected Mayor by Popular Vote | Retired just prior to the end of his term. | |
| Archibald Watson | Nationalist Civic Party | 1931 | N/A | Elected Mayor by Majority Vote of Aldermen for remainder of term (24/2/1931 to 11/5/1931) | Lost election of 2 May 1931 | |
| John William (Billy) Greene | Progress Party/Independent | 1931—1934 | 1 | Elected as Alderman of Wynnum and then elected Mayor by Majority Vote of Aldermen (as a Compromise Candidate) | Lost 1934 Election for Lord Mayor | |
| Alfred James Jones | Labor | 1934—1940 | 2 | Elected Mayor by Popular Vote | Lost election in 1940. | |
| Sir John Beals Chandler | Citizens' Municipal Organisation | 1940—1952 | 4 | Elected Mayor by Popular Vote | Lost election in 1952. | |
| Frank Edward Roberts | Labor | 1952—1955 | 1 | Elected Mayor by Popular Vote | Lost election as an Independent in 1955. | |
| Sir Thomas Reginald (Reg) Groom | Citizens' Municipal Organisation | 1955—1961 | 2 | Elected Mayor by Popular Vote | Retired in 1961 and did not re-contest. | |
| Clem Jones | Labor | 1961—1975 | 5 | Elected Mayor by Popular Vote | Retired in 1975 before the end of his 5th term. | |
| Bryan Vincent Walsh | Labor | 1975—1976 | N/A | Elected Mayor by Majority Vote of Alderman | Lost his seat of Chermside in 1976 election, despite Labor Victory. | |
| Frank Northey Sleeman | Labor | 1976—1982 | 2 | Elected Mayor by Majority Vote of Alderman | Did not recontest the 1982 election. | |
| William Charles (Roy) Harvey | Labor | 1982—1985 | 1 | Elected Mayor by Popular Vote | Lost 1985 election. | |
| Sallyanne Atkinson | Liberal | 1985—1991 | 2 | Elected Mayor by Popular Vote | Lost 1991 election. | |
| James Gerald (Jim) Soorley | Labor | 1991—2003 | 4 | Elected Mayor by Popular Vote | Retired midway through last term. | |
| Kieran Owen Timothy (Tim) Quinn | Labor | 2003—2004 | 1 | Elected Mayor by Majority Vote of Councillors | Lost 2004 election. | |
| Campbell Newman | Liberal | 2004—2008 | 2 | Elected Mayor by Popular Vote | Retired from Mayoralty to contest State Election. | |
| Liberal National | 2008—2011 | |||||
| Graham Quirk | Liberal National | 2011—present | 1 | Current Mayor | N/A | |
Prior to the creation of the Liberal Party in 1944, the conservative councilors were represented on a variety of different platforms: The Unity Party, Nationalist Citizens Party, Civic Reform League, the Citizens Municipal Organization and the Liberal Civic Party.[5]
The United Party, and its successor the Nationalist Citizens Party were created as the vehicle for conservative candidates to campaign against Labor candidates in the newly formed Brisbane City Council. The Nationalist Citizens Party was doomed when the very conservative Civic Reform League was created on 12 December 1930. This saw most of the conservative councilors from the Nationalist Citizens Party led by Acting Mayor Watson defect to the Civic Reform League, which failed to win the subsequent elections.[6] The Progress Party was created at the same time and for the 1931 election saw only 3 of its candidates win, including John Greene, who was made Lord Mayor as a compromise candidate amongst the 20 alderman.[7]
The Citizens' Municipal Organization (CMO) was ostensibly a non-political grouping, but was seen to be aligned with firstly the United Australian Party, then the Liberal Party (after 1944). The CMO was formed on 23 June 1936 and was the platform for the election campaigns of Sir John Chandler and Sir Reg Groom. The organization then became the Liberal Civic Party after the 1970 election due to the abysmal results against popular incumbent, Clem Jones. Finally in the 1976 election, the Liberal Party began to contest the elections directly.[8]