City of Townsville (LGA)

:"This article is about the local government area of Townsville in Northern Queensland."
:"For the urban centre see Townsville, Queensland.
For other uses see Townsville (disambiguation)."

Infobox Australian Place | type = lga
name = City of Townsville
state = qld


imagesize= 180
caption = Location within Queensland
pop = 169,484 people (est 2007)http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/subscriber.nsf/log?openagent&32180ds0002_2001-07.xls&3218.0&Data%20Cubes&399AA3AACFA076F6CA25741A000DEB28&0&2006-07&31.03.2008&Latest]

area = 3733
mayor = Les Tyrell
area_footnotes = [http://www.ltc.townsville.qld.gov.au/stayinginformed/Pages/default.aspx]
est = 1865
seat = Townsville City Council
region = North Queensland

url = http://www.townsville.qld.gov.au/
near-nw =
near-n = "Coral Sea"
near-ne = "Coral Sea"
near-w =
near-e = Burdekin
near-sw = Dalrymple
near-s = Dalrymple
near-se = Burdekin

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 169,484 people

Following local government reform undertaken by the Government of Queensland, the City of Townsville was amalgamated with the City of Thuringowa. The amalgamation process was coordinated under the Local Transition Committee and an Interim Chief Executive Officer. [ [http://www.ltc.townsville.qld.gov.au/Pages/Welcome.aspx A Message from the Chairman, Cr Tony Mooney ] ] The process of amalgamation was completed on the election of a new combined Council on March 15th 2008.

History

Townsville became a gazetted town in 1865 and was upgraded to a municipality in 1866. The surrounding rural area was granted a Divisional Board in 1879 and was named Thuringowa. In 1902 Thuringowa was upgraded to become a Shire and in 1903 Townsville became a city. The borders of the Town and then Municipality of Townsville 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.cite book
title = Townsville City Council Submission to the Local Government Reform Commission
origdate =
url = http://www.townsville.qld.gov.au/wwwdocs/yourcouncil/docs/TCC_Submission.pdf
format = Submission
accessdate = 2007-05-25
year = 2007
month = May
publisher = Townsville City Council
location = Townsville
pages = page 2 ] 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.

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.

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.

Townsville City Council

Townsville City Council is the Local Government Authority that services the Local Government Area of Townsville. The City Council is represented by 12 Councillor's and the Mayor who have been elected by the whole city. The current Mayor is Cr Les Tyrell and was elected on March 15 2008, Cr Tyrell was the former Mayor of Thuringowa city. The former Mayor of Townsville was Tony Mooney who had held the position since 1989 when he succeeded Mike Reynolds.

The Townsville City Council was created in 1903 after Townsville was granted City status, 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 expediture of $201.3M and a capital works budget of $103.3M http://www.townsville.qld.gov.au Townsville City Council web site - Budget 2006/07]

Civic Cabinet

The current Civic Cabinet consists of one Mayor and 12 Councilors.
*Mayor: Les Tyrell (Independent)
*Chief Executive Officer: Ray Burton [ [http://www.townsville.qld.gov.au/council/media?media_id=97 Council announces CEO ] ] Councillors (undivided council without divisions):
* Deanne Bell
* Sue Blom
* David Crisafulli (Deputy Mayor)
* Brian Hewett
* Ray Gartrell
* Jenny Hill (Labor)
* Jenny Lane
* Dale Last
* Natalie Marr
* Robert McCahill
* Vern Veitch
* Tony Parsons

Sister cities

* Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea since 1983
* Shunan, Japan since 1990
* Iwaki City, Japan since August, 1991
* Changshu, People's Republic of China since 1995
* Suwon, South Korea since 1996
* Foshan, People's Republic of China since 2006cite web|url=http://www.townsville.qld.gov.au/about/sister_cities.asp|title=Townsville City Council - Townsville's Sister Cities|accessdate=2007-06-12]

References

External links

* [http://www.townsville.qld.gov.au/ Official website]
* [http://www.lgp.qld.gov.au/docs/corporate/publications/planning/demographics/profiles/demographic_and_housing/townsville.pdf Population stats of LGA]
* [http://www.townsville.qld.gov.au/about/atlas/ Townsville Region Social Atlas (2001 Census)]