Municipality of The Glebe

Former local government area in New South Wales, Australia From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Municipality of The Glebe was a local government area of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The municipality was proclaimed on 1 August 1859 and, with an area of 2 square kilometres, included the modern suburbs of Glebe and Forest Lodge. The council was amalgamated with the City of Sydney to the east with the passing of the Local Government (Areas) Act 1948, although parts of the former council area were transferred in 1967 to the Municipality of Leichhardt to the west (now the Inner West Council).

CountryAustralia
Established1 August 1859
Council seatGlebe Town Hall
Quick facts Country, State ...
Municipality of The Glebe
Glebe Town Hall in 1935, photographed by Sam Hood.
Glebe Town Hall in 1935, photographed by Sam Hood.
CountryAustralia
StateNew South Wales
RegionInner West
Established1 August 1859
Abolished31 December 1948
Council seatGlebe Town Hall
Area
  Total
2 km2 (0.77 sq mi)
Population
  Total20,510 (1947 census)[1]
  Density10,300/km2 (27,000/sq mi)
ParishPetersham
LGAs around Municipality of The Glebe
Rozelle Bay Blackwattle Bay
Leichhardt/
Annandale
Municipality of The Glebe Sydney
Camperdown
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Council history and location

The municipality was proclaimed by the Governor of New South Wales, Sir William Denison, on 1 August 1859, with the boundaries described in the Government Gazette as "bounded on the east by Bay-street, northerly, from the Parramatta Road, at the junction of the Newtown Road, to Blackwattle Swamp Cove on the north and west by the waters of Port Jackson, and by Johnston's Creek, upwards, to the Orphan School Creek; on the south by that creek, upwards, to the Parramatta Road; and by that road, easterly, to Bay-street aforesaid."[2] On 16 August 1859, a further proclamation, following a petition, divided the municipality into three wards: Outer Glebe Ward, Inner Glebe Ward and Bishopthorpe Ward.[3]

The Council first met on 1 September 1859, when the first chairman was elected, George Wigram Allen, who would be elected a further 17 times. Other early aldermen of the council included architects Edmund Blacket (1859–1870) and George Allen Mansfield (1866–1877), and the future NSW Premier George Dibbs (1870–1871). The first council meetings were held in the long room of a local hotel, but a few months later moved to a house which Chairman Allen had placed at their disposal until a purpose-built cottage was rented for the purposes of Municipal Chambers.[4] In July 1879 the council approved a 5000-pound design for a new town hall located at the junction of St John's Road, Mount Vernon Street and Lodge Street, designed by Ambrose Thornley.[5] The Town Hall, surmounted by a clock which had been donated by Sir George Wigram Allen, was completed and opened on 24 June 1880 by Mayor Dunn.[6][7]

Following the enactment of the Municipalities Act, 1867, the title of chairman was renamed "Mayor" and the council became known as the Borough of The Glebe (From 28 December 1906, following the passing of the Local Government Act, 1906, the council was again renamed as the "Municipality of The Glebe"). On 17 January 1871, a further proclamation created a fourth ward, Forest Lodge Ward, in the south-west, with each ward now returning three aldermen each.[8] With the bankruptcy and dire financial straits of its southern neighbour, Camperdown Council was moved to the position of amalgamating the council with one or several of its neighbours. A resolution passed by Camperdown on 27 October 1903 invited Glebe and Newtown councils to discussions over such a proposal, which was firmly rejected by The Glebe.[9] Camperdown eventually merged with the City of Sydney in December 1908.

By 1925 the Glebe council was controlled by Labor representatives with 11 Labor Aldermen elected to council, and William Walsh became Glebe's first Labor Mayor. On 31 May 1939, the Minister for Local Government, Eric Spooner, recommended to the Governor, Lord Wakehurst, that Glebe Council be dismissed and replaced by an Administrator, Barton Hopetoun Nolan, the Inspector of Local Government Accounts for the Department of Local Government, whose report on the accounts of the council had unveiled significant misappropriation and corruption.[10] Elections intended for February 1940 were postponed by the Minister for Local Government, Lewis Martin, and were eventually held on 8 December 1940, with five Australian Labor Party (Non-Communist) candidates elected aldermen.[11][12]

By the end of the Second World War, the NSW Government had realised that its ideas of infrastructure expansion could not be effected by the present system of the patchwork of small municipal councils across Sydney and the Minister for Local Government, Joseph Cahill, following the recommendations of the 1945–46 Clancy Royal Commission on Local Government Boundaries, passed a bill in 1948 that abolished a significant number of those councils.[13] Under the Local Government (Areas) Act 1948, The Glebe Municipal Council was merged with the larger neighbouring City of Sydney which was located immediately to the east and south, becoming the Glebe Ward, returning two aldermen.[14]

Mayors

Sir George Wigram Allen (1824–1885), first chairman and Mayor 1859–1878, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly 1875–1882.
More information Officeholder, Party ...
OfficeholderPartyTitleTerm startTerm endNotes
George Allen n/a Chairman 1 September 185923 December 1867[15]
Mayor 23 December 186715 February 1878
John Henry Seamer 15 February 187813 February 1879[16]
William Cary 13 February 18799 February 1880[17]
Thomas John Dunn 9 February 188012 February 1881[18]
Charles Field 12 February 188110 February 1882[19]
Michael Chapman 10 February 188213 February 1885[20][21][22]
Thomas John Dunn 13 February 188517 February 1888[23][24][25]
Percy Charles Lucas 17 February 188810 February 1890[26][27][28]
George Frederick Burcher 10 February 189010 February 1891[29][30]
Percy Charles Lucas 10 February 189113 February 1892[31]
William George Yeates 13 February 189216 February 1893[32][33]
Percy Charles Lucas 16 February 189312 February 1894[34]
William Alston Hutchinson 12 February 189413 February 1896[35][36][37][38]
William Cary 13 February 189611 February 1898[39][40]
Percy Charles Lucas 11 February 18987 February 1901[41][42][43]
Henry Macnamara 7 February 19015 February 1903[44][45][46]
Thomas Nosworthy 5 February 190315 February 1906[47][48][49][50]
Percy Charles Lucas 15 February 190613 February 1908[51][52]
Stanley Cole 13 February 19086 February 1911[53][54][55][56]
Frederick Lewis Artlett 6 February 19118 February 1915[57][58]
Stanley Cole 8 February 191510 February 1916[59][60]
Ralph Willis Stone 10 February 191619 February 1918[61][62][63]
Henry Punter 19 February 191810 February 1919[64][65]
Finlay Elgin Munro 10 February 19196 February 1920[66][67]
Stanley Cole 6 February 192031 December 1922[68][69][70]
William Thomas Tate 31 December 192213 December 1923[71]
Henry Punter 13 December 192311 December 1924[72]
Percy Charles Lucas 11 December 192410 December 1925[73]
William Joseph Walsh  Labor 10 December 19255 December 1929[74][75][76][77][78]
Francis Thomas Dick 5 December 19294 December 1930[79][80]
Albert James Ward 4 December 19307 January 1932[81][82]
James Diver 7 January 19321 December 1932[83][84]
Bob Gorman 1 December 19327 December 1933[85][86]
Matthew Aloysius Fitzpatrick 7 December 19337 December 1934[87][88]
James Joseph Lahiff 7 December 19345 December 1935[89][90]
Stephen Patrick McCormack  Labor 5 December 193510 December 1936[91][92]
Horace Foley 10 December 1936December 1938[93][94][95][96]
Stephen Patrick McCormack  Industrial Labor December 193831 May 1939[97]
Barton Hopetoun Nolan n/a Administrator 31 May 19398 December 1940[98][99][100]
Harold Charles Splatt  Labor (N-C) Mayor 12 December 1940December 1942[101][102]
Colin Campbell Colbourne December 1942December 1943[103]
William Joseph Beasley  Labor December 1943December 1944[104]
Colin Edgar Elphick December 1944December 1945[105]
Albert Henry Lawson December 1945December 1946[106]
Cornelius O'Neill December 1946December 1947[107]
Michael Ward December 194731 December 1948[108]
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Town Clerks

More information Town Clerk, Term start ...
Town ClerkTerm startTerm endNotes
Henry Saunderson October 1859July 1860 [109][110]
Charles Storey July 1860November 1862 [111]
Henry Colley November 186226 March 1870 [112]
William de Burgh Hocter 26 March 18708 February 1879 [113]
Thomas Law (acting) 8 February 187924 February 1879 [114]
D. J. O'Connor 24 February 187917 January 1884 [115]
Thomas Denby Glasscock 17 January 18846 July 1933 [116][117][118][119]
George Henry West 6 July 1933August 1940 [120][121]
W. E. Taylor August 1940July 1946 [122]
Frank O'Grady July 194631 December 1948 [123]
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References

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