Waverley Council

the [[Local government in Australia

Waverley Council is a Local government area in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. First incorporated on 16 June 1859 as the Municipality of Waverley, it is one of the oldest surviving local government areas in New South Wales. Waverley is bounded by the Tasman Sea to the east, the Municipality of Woollahra to the north, and the City of Randwick in the south and west. The administrative centre of Waverley Council is located on Bondi Road in Bondi Junction in the Council Chambers on the corner of Waverley Park. The elected Waverley Council is composed of twelve councillors elected proportionally across four wards, each electing three Councillors, and the most recent election was held on 4 December 2021. The current mayor of Waverley Council since September 2019 is Councillor Paula Masselos of Lawson Ward, a member of the Labor Party.

With the enactment of the Municipalities Act of 1858, which allowed for the creation of Municipalities for areas with over 500 electors, several petitions calling for the incorporation of the Waverley area were received by the Colonial Government and published in New South Wales Government Gazette on 11 November 1858 and 17 May 1859. One of the earliest meetings of local residents formed to call for a "Municipality of Waverley" was held at the Tea Gardens Hotel on Bronte Road on 20 December 1858. The Governor of New South Wales approved the proclamation establishing the Municipality of Waverley on 13 June 1859, and it was subsequently published in the Government Gazette on 16 June 1859. The first returning officer, Charles St Julian, was appointed to conduct the first meeting of electors a few days later. The first election was held on 14 July 1859, with nine Councillors elected proportionately, and the Council first met on 23 July 1859 at the Tea Gardens Hotel, with John Birrell elected as the first chairman. On 21 February 1860, the council was divided into three wards electing three councillors each: Waverley Ward, Bondi Ward and Nelson Ward. A fourth ward covering the western corner of Waverley, Lawson Ward, was added on 22 April 1887, thereby bringing the number of aldermen to 12. On 6 October 1944, the recommendation of a 1941 NSW Local Government Department Commission of Inquiry removing the Mill Hill area (37 acres) from the Municipality of Randwick and include it in the Waverley Municipality was proclaimed in the Government Gazette.

The first council meeting was held on 16 June 1859, but there was no permanent office for the conduct of Council duties some early meetings were held in the Charing Cross Hotel and others in the old School of Arts building in Bronte Road. In December 1860 the Council accepted an offer from Francis O'Brien to donate a site for a Council Chambers on Bondi Road. The cost of building was to be limited to £500, although approximately £700 was eventually spent. The foundation stone was laid in 1861, and a first meeting of Council was held there on 21 November 1861, the first Council building erected by any municipality under the Municipalities Act of 1858. Discussions were held during the early 1900s over the need for new Council Chambers, and in 1913 a portion of the north west corner of Waverley Park, which was the first public park in Waverley gazetted in 1880, was dedicated as the site for a new building. A report of the same year stated that the original building was too small for the staff, and had poor ventilation and lighting. It was later sold for £1,600. The new building was completed by the end of 1913, and on 6 January 1914 the Council met for the first time in the new chambers. Parts of the 1913 chambers still form the shell of the present Council Chambers, although extensive alterations in 1962, and further development in 1976 and 1977 have altered its appearance considerably.

A 2015 review of local government boundaries recommended that the Municipality of Waverley merge with the Woollahra and Randwick councils to form a new council with an area of and support a population of approximately Following an independent review, in May 2016 the NSW Government sought to dismiss the council and force its amalgamation with Woollahra and Randwick councils. Woollahra Council instigated legal action claiming that there was procedural unfairness and that a KPMG report at the centre of merger proposals had been "misleading". The matter was heard before the NSW Court of Appeal who, in December 2016, unanimously dismissed Woollahra Council's appeal, finding no merit in its arguments that the proposed merger with Waverley and Randwick councils was invalid. In July 2017, the Berejiklian government decided to abandon the forced merger of the Woollahra, Waverley and Randwick local government areas, along with several other proposed forced mergers.

NSW Local Government Elections are held every four years on the second Saturday of September as stipulated by the Local Government Act 1993.

ChairmanPartyTermNotes John Birrell No party 23 July 1859 – 17 February 1860 Charles St Julian 19 February 1861 – 13 February 1862 Edmond John Baily 13 February 1862 – 29 May 1862 Charles Browne 17 June 1862 – 16 February 1863 John Crone Raymond 16 February 1863 – 29 October 1863 Charles Simmons 29 October 1863 – 20 February 1864 William Barker 20 February 1864 – 14 February 1865 John Birrell 14 February 1865 – 22 February 1866 Stephen Dickson 22 February 1866 – 13 February 1867 Charles Kelso Moore 13 February 1867 – 17 February 1868 MayorPartyTermNotes David Fletcher No party 17 February 1868 – 15 February 1869 Stephen Dickson 15 February 1869 – 15 February 1870 Robert Yeend 15 February 1870 – 14 February 1871 William Cary 14 February 1871 – 13 February 1872 John Macpherson 13 February 1872 – 11 February 1873 Stephen Dickson 11 February 1873 – 12 February 1874 William Henderson 12 February 1874 – 26 February 1875 John Macpherson 26 February 1875 – 13 February 1883 William Henry Simpson 13 February 1883 – 9 February 1886 William Martin 9 February 1886 – 11 February 1887 Thomas James Dickson 11 February 1887 – 12 February 1889 Alfred Charles Hewlett 12 February 1889 – 13 February 1890 Frank Guest 13 February 1890 – 10 February 1891 William Henry Simpson Independent 10 February 1891 – 21 February 1893 William T. Ball Independent 21 February 1893 – 13 February 1895 Alfred Charles Hewlett Independent 13 February 1895 – 14 May 1897 Gustavius John Waterhouse Independent 14 May 1897 – 15 February 1899 Watkin Wynne Independent 15 February 1899 – 14 February 1900 Harry Charles Evans Independent 14 February 1900 – 5 March 1901 Walter Carter Independent 5 March 1901 – 11 February 1903 William John Blunt Independent 11 February 1903 – February 1904 Joseph Cuthbert Kershaw Independent 11 February 1904 – 28 November 1905 John Walter Alldis Independent 1 December 1905 – 13 February 1906 Robert George Watkins Independent 13 February 1906 – 7 February 1911 John Campbell Independent 7 February 1911 – 27 August 1912 Leslie James Lamrock Independent 27 August 1912 – February 1914 Joseph Barracluff Independent February 1914 – 8 February 1916 Leslie James Lamrock Independent 8 February 1916 – 14 December 1916 Henry William Frederick Rogers Independent 19 December 1916 – February 1920 Cornelius William Kavanagh Independent February 1920 – December 1925 Robert William Jackaman Independent December 1925 – December 1927 David Hunter Independent December 1927 – 5 January 1932 Charles Fenton Independent 5 January 1932 – December 1932 Francis Hamilton Frith Independent December 1932 – December 1933 William Howe Independent December 1933 – 30 January 1934 James Wadsley Rupert Fieldhouse Independent 26 February 1934 – 6 March 1934 David Hunter Independent 6 March 1934 – December 1935 Raymond Nott Independent December 1935 – December 1936 James Wadsley Rupert Fieldhouse Independent December 1936 – December 1937 Raymond Nott Independent December 1937 – December 1938 James Wadsley Rupert Fieldhouse Independent December 1940 – December 1941 Leslie James Fingleton Independent December 1941 – December 1942 Gordon Anderson Labor 2 December 1943 – December 1945 Herbert Sharman December 1945 – December 1946 Thomas Hogan Independent December 1948 – December 1949 Keith Harris Weekes Independent December 1950 – December 1951 William Aston Independent December 1951 – December 1953 Carl Jeppesen December 1953 – December 1956 Ray M. O'Keefe Independent December 1960 – December 1962 James R. Markham Independent September 1983 – September 1984 Carolyn Ann Markham Independent September 1986 – September 1987 Paul Pearce September 1996 – 8 April 2004 Peter Moscatt 8 April 2004 – 22 September 2005 Mora Main Greens 22 September 2005 – 21 September 2006 George Newhouse Labor 21 September 2006 – 20 September 2007 Ingrid Strewe 20 September 2007 – 30 September 2008 Sally Betts Liberal 30 September 2008 – 22 September 2011 Sally Betts Liberal 27 September 2012 – 26 September 2017 John Wakefield Labor 26 September 2017 – 27 September 2019 Paula Masselos 27 September 2019 – present William Mortimer 25 October 1859 – 9 February 1872 Jonathan Wiley 12 March 1872 – 31 December 1875 William Wiley 1 January 1876 – 10 January 1882 Robert Thomas Orr 10 January 1882 – 18 May 1897 John Clubb 29 May 1897 Arthur Kyron February 2014 – 29 April 2016 Peter Brown 29 April 2016 – 15 February 2017 Peter Monks (acting) 14 February 2018 – 20 March 2018 Ross McLeod 20 March 2018 – 26 February 2021 Emily Scott 26 February 2021 – present

The Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award, formerly The Nib Waverley Library Award for Literature, is organised and supported by the council, and the awards ceremony held in Waverley Library each year.