Local Government Areas of Queensland

Map of Local Government Areas in Queensland

Local Government Areas in South East Queensland

The Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Queensland, Australia are the defined areas within which legally constituted Local Government authorities, known as Councils, have responsibilities to provide local services. Determining the size and shape of the Local Government Areas is the sole responsibility of the Queensland Government. In the past, many local government areas (especially in South East Queensland and the Darling Downs region) have been amalgamated or abolished, either voluntarily or involuntarily. The most significant of these processes took place in March 2008, when 97 local government areas and 20 indigenous councils were amalgamated under a statewide reform process — until this time, the majority of Queensland's local government areas had remained unchanged for decades and some even dated back to the establishment of local government for regional areas in 1879.

There are four classifications of local government in Queensland:

1. Cities (predominantly urban or suburban areas)
2. Regions (created following amalgamations in 2008)
3. Shires (predominantly rural or outer suburban areas)
4. Towns (smaller urban areas; presently not in use)

History

The first Local Government Areas in Queensland predated Queensland's separation from the Colony of New South Wales in 1859. By 1879, almost all of Queensland was under some form of local administration, either as a municipality under the Local Government Act 1878, or as a division under the Divisional Boards Act 1879. With the passing of the Local Authorities Act 1902, which repealed both previous acts and extended councils' authority over the areas they controlled, the municipalities became Towns (unless they had City status) and the divisions became Shires on 31 March 1903. In 1915–1917 and again in 1949, significant changes were made to local government in south-eastern Queensland and also in far northern Queensland. By the time the Local Government Act 1936 came into effect, although the different categories of local government areas still existed, they were essentially a naming convention and had no practical meaning under the Act. A City had to be proclaimed by the Governor following certain criteria being met.

In 1923, a number of local governments in Brisbane were amalgamated into the City of Brisbane, covering what was then the entire metropolitan area. Its council, Brisbane City Council, effectively became a "super-council" with some powers normally reserved for the state. It has its own Act of Parliament, the City of Brisbane Act 1924, and a population today of over 1 million. Due to population growth and suburban spread, however, almost half of metropolitan Brisbane's population actually lives in neighbouring areas such as Ipswich, Logan, Moreton Bay and Redland, which are all managed under the Local Government Act.

In 1989, the Electoral and Administrative Reform Commission was set up to investigate and report on a range of reforms to Queensland public administration, and one area of its purview was the Local Government Act 1936 and local council boundaries. As a result of its recommendations, the Goss Labor government then in charge amalgamated several councils and a new Local Government Act 1993 was introduced.

Indigenous councils

In the mid-1980s, with the passage of the Community Services (Torres Strait) Act 1984 and Community Services (Aborigines) Act 1984, many former Aboriginal reserves and missions (particularly in the Cape York region) and several Torres Strait islands were granted by way of a Deed of Grant in Trust to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island communities. Formally recognised management bodies known as Indigenous community councils (or DOGIT councils) were set up to administer the land covered in the deed on behalf of the community. These bodies had quite different responsibilities to traditional local governments due to the nature of land ownership involved and the different relationship of the council to the community. In 2005–2007, as part of the Queensland Government's response to the Cape York Justice Study undertaken by Justice Fitzgerald QC in November 2001,^[1] these bodies became "Aboriginal Shire Councils" and "Island Councils" and obtained additional powers associated with local governments. A considerable number of them were amalgamated in 2008 into either the Torres Strait Islands Region or the Northern Peninsula Area Region which are Local Government Act bodies with special features, with lower-order community councils once again managing individual deeds and grants.

2007 reforms

In April 2007, an extensive Local Government Reform process was set up by the Beattie Government, who set up a Local Government Reform Commission to report on the State's local government areas other than the City of Brisbane.^[2] This was in part due to the number of financially weak councils with small populations in rural areas, dating from an earlier time when industry and population had justified their creation. The Commission reported back on 27 July 2007, recommending massive amalgamations all over the State into "regions" administered by regional councils and centred on major towns or centres, based on a range of criteria such as economy of scale, community of interest and financial sustainability. Some changes happened in much larger areas as well — the Sunshine Coast was to come under one local authority instead of three, as was the Moreton Bay region to the north of Brisbane; Beaudesert was split into urban/planned urban and rural sections, with the former going to Logan, and the twin cities of Townsville and Thuringowa in North Queensland were merged.

This was not without considerable controversy in many of the affected areas and even a threat of Federal intervention from the Howard Government, who funded plebiscites on the change in December 2007 in many affected areas, which recorded a strong "No" vote in most cases but with fairly low turnout by Australian referendum standards.

On 10 August 2007, the Commission's amalgamation recommendations passed into law as the Local Government (Reform Implementation) Act 2007, with only a few name changes as alterations. "Local Transition Committees" (LTCs) were created for each new area, made up of councillors and staff from the original areas, and on 15 March 2008, the old entities formally ceased to exist and elections were held to fill the new councils.

List of local government areas

See also

• List of former Local Government Areas of Queensland

References

External links

Queensland portal

• Shires of Australia at statoids.com
• Local Government Association of Queensland

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