City of Broken Hill

Following a petition submitted by residents to the Colonial Secretary on 2 May 1888, the Municipal District of Broken Hill was first incorporated on 22 September 1888.^[4][5] The incorporation occurred during a typhoid epidemic, which killed 128 people, and the need for public health and water supply provisions was one of the main driving forces behind incorporation, and one of the biggest issues for the new municipality.^[6][7] One contemporary report commented that "The town is in a terrible state owing to defective sanitary arrangements. People continue to leave by trains daily in hundreds in view of the impending drought."^[8] As a consequence, in 1892 the private Broken Hill Water Supply Company completed construction on the Stephens Creek Reservoir, which provided the first reliable clean water supply to the town.^[9][10]

The first council was divided into four wards: Burke, Wills, Sturt and King, each returning three aldermen, and the first election, conducted by Charles George Gibson as Returning Officer, was held at the Broken Hill Court House on 24 November 1888.^[11][12] The ward system remained in place until early 1909 when the council requested that the state government abolish the wards and elect the aldermen proportionally, which was proclaimed on 24 May 1909.^[13][14] By 1891 the population had passed 23,000, making Broken Hill the third largest town in New South Wales, and that number continued to grow, reaching 25,000 by 1897.^[15][16] Civic improvements, spurred on by silver mining profits, continued during the 1890s with the construction of schools, a technical college, town hall, post offices and jail. Timber and temporary structures gave way to brick and stone, the town's streets were paved and recreation reserves were planted with trees.^[17][18][19] The council commissioned the Town Hall, designed in the Italianate style by Whittall & Wells of Adelaide, with the foundation stone laid by Sir Henry Parkes on 3 April 1890.^[20][21][22] The hall was officially opened by the Governor of New South Wales, Lord Jersey, with the Governor of South Australia, Lord Kintore, in attendance, on 6 August 1891.^[23][24]

The council was renamed the Municipality of Broken Hill following the passage of the Municipalities Act, 1897 on 6 December 1897. The council's population continue to grow in this period and by 1906, the council resolved to apply for City status, being able to fulfil the city conditions set in Local Government Act, 1906, and the City of Broken Hill was proclaimed on 17 July 1907, the only municipality to do so under the 1906 act.^[25]

• List of local government areas in New South Wales