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Shellharbour City Council. Celebrating 165 Years

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Shellharbour City Council

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NameShellharbour City CouncilGeolocation^[1] Last edited by: Will Chittick

Description200 residents of Shellharbour signed a petition 14 January 1859 to form a Municipality which was proclaimed on 4 June 1859. The new Council prepared estimates for expenses such as tolls, rates, dues, fencing, roads, bridges, punts, wharves and other public works.

The first hustings were held at the rear of Robert Wilson’s flour mill at Shellharbour, and a poll was demanded for the election of positions. It was feared not many would turn up to vote because of the terrible weather but the people travelled from all over the new Municipality to vote.

Nine Aldermen were elected -
Robert Wilson
Andrew McGill,
Patrick Collins,
Ebenezer Russell,
William Wilson (Chairman),
Robert Martin,
William James,
William Moles
Joseph Dunster.

The new Council secured books and by-laws and sought a suitable seal ‘The design being executed most chastely and in exact accordance with the request of Council namely, a sheaf of wheat, a cow in full milk and a cabbage tree’.

As a Council Chambers had not yet been built, Mr. Edward Graham a storekeeper at Shellharbour, provided a room for rental at his Peterborough Store, on the north west corner of Mary and Addison Streets. Meetings were conducted here until the first Council Chambers was built in Addison Street in 1865. The old Council Chambers at Shellharbour Village served until the late 1890s, when the establishment of the railway saw the transfer of operations to Albion Park. In 1969, due to growth of the Municipality, the Chambers were moved to new premises at Warilla. Shellharbour achieved city status on 1 January 1996.

From 1901, the entire business of the Municipality stretching from Shellharbour to the top of Macquarie Pass, and from Minnamurra to Calderwood, was once handled by one man, Gabriel Timbs Jnr. the Town Clerk. He was also the Town Clerk of the adjoining Municipality of Jamberoo, visiting there by horse and sulky once a week. The Council work force comprised of four men and a horse and dray at Albion Park, plus two men and a dray at Shellharbour. Picks and shovels were the tools of the trade.

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Shellharbour Municipal Council Aldermen and Town Clerk, c.1870.

L-r: William James (Mayor), John Fraser, Thomas Fenwick, Thomas Coughrane, William Fryer, Edward Killalea, John Russell, Richard Hall (Clerk).

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CollectionShellharbour City Council. Celebrating 165 YearsPlaceShellharbour Civic Centre Last edited by: Will Chittick

LocalityShellharbour City LGAOrganisationShellharbour City LibrariesShellharbour City MuseumShellharbour Tourism

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Shellharbour City Council