Surf Coast Shire
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Surf Coast Shire Victoria |
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 Location in Victoria |
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| Population: | 19,461 | ||||||||||||
| Established: | 1994 | ||||||||||||
| Area: | 1560 km² (602.3 sq mi) | ||||||||||||
| Mayor: | Dean Webster | ||||||||||||
| Council Seat: | Torquay, Victoria | ||||||||||||
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Surf Coast Shire is a Local Government Area in Victoria, Australia. It is located in the southern part of the state, near Geelong. It includes the towns of Aireys Inlet, Anglesea, Lorne, Moriac, Torquay and Winchelsea. It has an area of 1,553 square kilometres. It had a population of 19,700 in 2001. The mayor is Aireys Inlet councillor and health promotion officer Libby Mears.
The shire was formed in 1994, as part of the local government amalgamations that occurred under then-Premier Jeff Kennett. Most of the former Winchelsea Shire, the Barrabool Shire, and the Torquay section of the former City of South Barwon, which was, at that point, part of the City of Greater Geelong, was merged into the new shire. Its first elections were held in 1995.
It is currently one of only a handful of municipalities in Victoria to be unsubdivided. As a result, the entire municipality votes to elect the nine councillors. This was preceded by a ward system where three councillors were elected from Torquay, three from Anglesea and one from Lorne, Winchelsea, Moriac and Aireys Inlet respectively, which was abolished before the 2004 council elections. A position of Deputy Mayor briefly existed from 2004 to 2005, but was abolished for the 2005 mayoral election.
The operation of the shire has been controversial in recent years. In the late 1990s, it set up a business arm, SurfLink, in an attempt to supplement its funding. The effort failed, and the business closed some years afterwards. There were inconsistencies in the accounting, and a large sum of money was missing. However, two state government inquiries failed to come to any conclusions. In addition to the SurfLink saga, the shire is also deeply in debt, which they have only recently begun to address.
[edit] Current council
- Cr Beth Davidson (1998)
- Cr Keith Grossman (1995-98, 2004)
- Cr Rose Hodge (2004)
- Cr Ron Humphrey (2004)
- Cr Roland Livingstone (2004)
- Cr Libby Mears (2004)
- Cr Lindsay Schroeter (1995)
- Cr Jim Tutt (2004)
- Cr Dean Webster (2004)
[edit] Mayors
- Noel Bates (1995-1997)
- Henry Love (1997-1998)
- Julie Hansen (1998-2000)
- Mike Barrow (2000-2001)
- Beth Davidson (2001-2004)
- Keith Grossman (2004-2005)
- Libby Mears (2005-2006)
- Rose Hodge (2006-2007)
- Dean Webster (2007-2008)
