City of Bankstown

Former local government area in New South Wales, Australia
the former [[Local government in Australia

The City of Bankstown was a local government area in the south west region of Sydney, Australia, centred on the suburb of Bankstown, from 1895 to 2016. The last mayor of the City of Bankstown Council was Clr Khal Asfour, a member of the Labor Party. A 2015 review of local government boundaries by the NSW Government Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal recommended that the City of Bankstown merge with the City of Canterbury to form a new council with an area of and support a population of approximately 351,000. On 12 May 2016, the NSW Government announced that Bankstown would merge with the City of Canterbury to be known as the City of Canterbury Bankstown.

The traditional Aboriginal inhabitants of the land now known as the Canterbury Bankstown were the Dharug (Darag, Daruk, Dharuk) and Eora peoples. Early indigenous groups relied upon the riparian network of the Georges River and Cooks River catchments towards Botany Bay, with extant reminders of this lifestyle dating back 3,000 years including rock and overhang paintings, stone scrapers, middens and axe grinding grooves. Following the arrival of Europeans in 1788, the new British settlers in the area burned oyster shells from the middens along Cooks River to produce lime for use in building mortar. The first incursions and eventual land grants in the area by Europeans led to increasing tensions, culminating in a confrontation between Europeans and a group of Aboriginal people led by Tedbury, the son of Pemulwuy, in what is now Punchbowl in 1809. However, following Tedbury's death in 1810, resistance to European settlement generally ended. The District of Bankstown was named by Governor Hunter in 1797 in honour of botanist Sir Joseph Banks. The area remained very rural until residential and suburban development followed the development of the Bankstown Railway Line with the passing of the Marrickville to Burwood Road Railway Act by the NSW Parliament in 1890, extending the rail line from Marrickville Station (later Sydenham Station) to Burwood Road (later Belmore Station) by 1895. With the passing of the Belmore to Chapel Road Railway Act in 1906, the line was extended further to Lakemba, Punchbowl and Bankstown by 1909. The petition was subsequently accepted and the Municipal District of Bankstown was proclaimed by Lieutenant Governor Sir Frederick Darley on 7 September 1895. The first six member council, standing in one at large constituency, was elected on 4 November 1895. With the passing of the Local Government Act 1906, the council area became known as the Municipality of Bankstown.

On 13 December 1933, the Minister for Local Government Eric Spooner dismissed Bankstown council for the first time, which was also the first time the minister's power to dismiss a council was exercised under the Local Government Act, 1919. Spooner dismissed the council as a result of an inquiry into the council's awarding of a sanitary contract, which had recommended that the council seek further tenders for the contract as a result of an irregular and deficient original tender process, and that there was a clear implication that there had been undue influence involved in the awarding of the contract. After the council refused to accept these findings, and resolved to award the contract as originally intended, Spooner dismissed the council the next day and appointed the inquiry commissioner, William Robert Wylie, Inspector of Local Government Accounts, as administrator until fresh elections could be held in December 1934. On 3 March 1954, the Minister for Local Government Jack Renshaw dismissed Bankstown council and appointed the Chief Inspector of Local Government, Henry William Dane, as administrator. Renshaw announced that the dismissal was due to the council being "not competent to discharge its responsibilities" after failing to act upon a report by the Department of Local Government that identified serious allegations of corruption and inappropriate acquisition methods for council materials by council's assistant electrical engineer, who was later dismissed in July 1954 following an official inquiry. On 8 November 1963, Bankstown council was dismissed for the third time by the Minister for Local Government (Pat Hills), with Dane appointed for a second term as administrator, when five aldermen were charged with conspiracy to demand and receive payment in consideration of doing acts pertaining to aldermanic office. It was alleged the aldermen William Thomas Delauney, Charles Henry Little, Georgen Allardice Johnstone, Alfred Frederick McGuren and Murt O'Brien, were involved in a conspiracy to seek £5,000 each for ensuring that a Lend Lease proposal for a shopping centre in Bankstown was approved. On 7 April 1965, Delauney and another accused who was not an alderman, Martin Goode, pled guilty to the charges, while the remaining four went to trial at the District Court of New South Wales (prosecuted by John Slattery QC and presided over by Justice Christopher Monahan). The Crown's case relied upon tape recordings of the accused, which the judge ruled as admissible despite an admission from the Crown that they had been illegally obtained. On 13 April 1965, Justice Monahan acquitted McGuren and O'Brien on the basis that there was insufficient evidence to connect them to the conspiracy. On 15 April 1965, Johnstone was acquitted and Little was found guilty, with Judge Monahan sentencing him, along with Delauney and Goode (who had pled guilty), to 12 months in prison.

Bankstown's city status was proclaimed in 1980 in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II, becoming the "City of Bankstown". On 12 May 2016, the City of Bankstown was merged with the City of Canterbury to form the Canterbury Bankstown Council.

On 29 June 1918 the new Council Chambers building located on South Terrace south of the Bankstown railway station (now No. 9 Bankstown City Plaza) was officially opened by the mayor, A. Townsend. Completed to a cost of £4,000, the new Council Chambers building was designed by prominent architect and mayor of Kogarah, Charles Herbert Halstead, and built by A. G. Swane. At the time of opening the street frontage included a post office, and a branch of the Australian Bank of Commerce. This remained the Council's primary meeting place and offices until new offices in the Civic Centre to the north were completed in 1963. The Council Chambers was the first building completed and took the form of a roundhouse and was built by Monier Builders Pty Ltd, with the interior fittings and furniture designed by Maison Paul Pty Ltd of Greenacre, featuring timberwork in Queensland walnut timber (Endiandra palmerstonii). The consulting engineers for the project were M. G. Bull (structural) and John R. Wallis, Spratt & Associates (electrical and mechanical). With the Council offices relocated to the nearby Bankstown Civic Tower, the remains of the Administration Building were cleared and its site became the location for a new central park which was officially named Paul Keating Park on 13 June 2000.

In 1963, as part of the works to complete the new Bankstown Civic Centre, the council commissioned sculptor Alan Ingham to create a memorial statue to Sir Joseph Banks. Ingham accepted on the basis that he would create a statue that would be to the 'spirit of botany', a more abstract representation of Banks' work in the field, that would blend with the modernist style of the new Civic Centre: "It would be controversial and create far more interest than a statue of the man". The cast aluminium statue was officially unveiled on 7 April 1964 atop a base of rocks. When the Town Hall was completed in 1973, the statue was moved to the Town Hall forecourt as part of a fountain.

The final element of the Civic Centre to be completed was the town hall, designed as a theatre for 1,500 people, at the north western end of the site. It was officially opened on 30 June 1973 by Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. The Town Hall project was overseen by Civil and Civic (a Lendlease subsidiary). In 2013, the Town Hall was upgraded and redeveloped as part of the Bankstown Library and Knowledge Centre project to become a 300 seat theatre named the "Bryan Brown Theatre", with the eastern side demolished and replaced by a new Library and "Knowledge Centre".

Town clerk and general managerTermNotes George Moss 7 November 1895 – 14 November 1895 Arthur R. Peek 30 March 1907 – 31 October 1912 Donald N. Morrison February 1913 – 24 July 1913 G. Thompson (acting) 28 January 1913 – 6 August 1913 John Glassop 6 August 1913 – November 1918 Lindsay S. Gibson November 1918 – 2 December 1921 W. G. Miller 1 January 1922 – 5 February 1929 Henry Emmett Harden 1929 – 23 March 1936 H. E. Maiden May 1936 – 1946 Cosmo Christopher Egan 1946 – 1958 Mark Fitzgibbon 1994 – 1999 Luke Nicholls 25 August 2009 – August 2011 Matthew Stewart August 2011 – 12 May 2016

The former Bankstown City region was approximately and had a population density of about 21.46 people per hectare. The boundaries of the former Bankstown City were, clockwise, the Prospect water supply pipeline and Liverpool Road (also known as Hume Highway) along the north, Roberts Road, Juno Parade, Koala Road, Punchbowl Road, Canterbury Road and the Salt Pan Creek along the east, the Georges River in the south and the Georges River, Prospect Creek, the Hume Highway and Woodville Road along the west. Salt Pan Creek is a saltmarsh and mangrove swamp that extends from Canterbury Road to Georges River.

Bankstown had 293 parks covering within its city limits. There are 41 sports grounds, 12 community parks and 18 natural parklands. In the CBD, major parks include Bankstown Oval, McLeod Reserve, Paul Keating Park and Bankstown City Gardens. Other major parks include Mirambeena Regional Park, The Crest, Middleton Park, O'Neill Park, Terry Lamb Complex, Garrison Point, Jensen Oval and the extensive parklands around Georges River, among others. The entrance to Georges River National Park is also located within the city. Paul Keating Park, in the centre of Bankstown, stands on the old site of the Council Administration building, which burned down in an accidental fire in 1997, and was named in 2000 for former prime minister and local MP for Blaxland, Paul Keating. The Park is used for a variety of concerts and festivals, and is otherwise a large playing field.

In 1946, Bankstown became the first municipality in Western Sydney to adopt the Library Act, 1939 by opening a Children's Library, located at Restwell Street. A central branch library was established on The Mall in Bankstown in 1954, followed by a mobile library service from 1955. In 2013, the Bankstown City Library was closed when the new "Bankstown Library and Knowledge Centre" next to the Town Hall was officially opened. Designed by architects Francis Jones Morehen Thorp (FJMT), the new library has been praised by the NSW Government Architect as a "reference for better design quality across the town centre" and as having "expanded the traditional idea of what a public library is, becoming a welcoming and socially engaging community hub". In 2015 the design received the Australian Institute of Architects Emil Sodersten Award for Interior Architecture, the Australian Institute of Architects (NSW Chapter) John Verge Award for Interior Architecture and Commendation for Public Architecture. Suita, Osaka, Japan. Bankstown signed its first international Sister City agreement with Suita City, Japan, in March 1989.

In 1963, to coincide with the official opening of the new Bankstown Civic Centre, Bankstown Council adopted a new civic badge to serve as the primary visual symbol of the council. It took the form of a royal blue and gold heraldic shield quartered into four fields by a white cross charged with a golden lion passant guardant from the Coat of Arms of New South Wales. The top left corner included a Southern Cross to represent Australia; A mace and mayoral chain in the top right corner to represent authority; A stork on an oak stump sprouting new branches in the bottom right corner and a fleur de lis in the bottom left corner are both taken from the coat of arms of Sir Joseph Banks, as are the blue and gold colours and white cross. A simple crown on top of the shield represents the monarchy of Queen Elizabeth II. The crest formed the primary logo of the council until 1995 when a logo featuring the 'Spirit of Botany' statue was adopted, which remained in use until the council's end in 2016. The coat of arms of Sir Joseph Banks as granted in 1803. The 'crest' of Bankstown Council, as adopted in 1963. The 'Spirit of Botany' statue unveiled in 1964. The 'Spirit of Botany' logo adopted in 1995