City of Townsville Queensland |
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Location within Queensland |
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Population: | 185,768(2010)[1] | ||||||||||||
Established: | 1865 | ||||||||||||
Area: | 3733 km² (1,441.3 sq mi) [2] | ||||||||||||
Mayor: | Les Tyrell | ||||||||||||
Council Seat: | Townsville City | ||||||||||||
Region: | North Queensland | ||||||||||||
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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 175,542 residents,[3][4] and is the 18th largest LGA in Australia.
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The City of Townsville was first established as a Municipality under the Municipal Institutions Act 1864 on 15 February 1866. The surrounding rural area, which was given the name Thuringowa, was established on 11 November 1879 as one of 74 divisions around Queensland under the Divisional Boards Act 1879. On 31 March 1903, Thuringowa became a shire 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.
Townsville City Council is the Local Government Authority that services the Local Government Area of Townsville. The council is represented by 12 councillors and the Mayor, who have been elected by the whole city. The current mayor is Cr Les Tyrell, who was formerly the mayor of the City of Thuringowa until the 2008 elections. The former Mayor of Townsville was Tony Mooney who had held the position since 1989 when he succeeded Mike Reynolds.
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 expenditure of $201.3M and a capital works budget of $103.3M [7]
The populations given relate to the component entities prior to 2008. The next census, due in 2011, will be the first for the new City.
Year | Population (City total) |
Population (Townsville) |
Population (Thuringowa) |
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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 |
The current Civic Cabinet consists of one mayor and 12 councillors.
Councillors (undivided council without divisions):
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