The Armidale Dumaresq Council is a former

local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a State (administrative division), state, province, divi ...

in the

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

and Northern Tablelands regions of

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. This area was formed in 2000 from the merger of the original City of Armidale with the surrounding Dumaresq Shire and abolished on 12 May 2016, where the council, together with

Guyra Shire Guyra Shire is the name of a former local government area located in the New England region of New South Wales, Australia. The shire was abolished on 12 May 2016, where the council, together with the Armidale Dumaresq Shire, was subsumed into th ...

, was subsumed into the Armidale Regional Council with immediate effect. The combined former area covered the urban area of Armidale and the surrounding region, extending primarily eastward from the city through farming districts to the gorges and escarpments that mark the edge of the Northern Tablelands. The last

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

of the Armidale Dumaresq Council was Cr. Herman Beyersdorf until the council was abolished on 12 May 2016, amalgamating with Guyra Shire to form the Armidale Regional Council.

Main towns and villages

Villages located in the former area included Kellys Plains, Dangarsleigh,

Wollomombi The Wollomombi Falls is a plunge waterfall on the Wollomombi River in the New England region of New South Wales, Australia. Location and features In the Oxley Wild Rivers National Park approximately due east of Armidale and off the Water ...

and Hillgrove.

Demographics

At the , there were people in the Armidale Dumaresq local government area, of these 47.8% were male and 52.2% were female. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 6.3% of the population which is nearly three times higher than both the national and state averages. The

median In statistics and probability theory, the median is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a data sample, a population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as "the middle" value. The basic fe ...

age of people in the Armidale Dumaresq Council area was 35 years; slightly below the national median. Children aged 0 – 14 years made up 19.1% of the population and people aged 65 years and over made up 14.4% of the population. Of people in the area aged 15 years and over, 42.5% were married and 10.7% were either divorced or separated. Population growth in the Armidale Dumaresq Council area between the 2001 census and the 2011 census was marginal. When compared with total population growth of Australia for the same periods, being 5.78% and 8.32% respectively, population growth in the Armidale Dumaresq local government area was significantly lower than the national average. The median weekly income for residents within the Armidale Dumaresq Council area was below the national average. At the 2011 census, the proportion of residents in the Armidale Dumaresq local government area who stated their

ancestry An ancestor, also known as a forefather, fore-elder or a forebear, is a parent or (recursively) the parent of an antecedent (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent and so forth). ''Ancestor'' is "any person from whom ...

as Australian or

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

exceeded 78% of all residents (national average was 65.2%). In excess of 58% of all residents in the Armidale Dumaresq Council area nominated a religious affiliation with

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

at the 2011 census, which was higher than the national average of 50.2%. Meanwhile, as at the census date, compared to the national average, households in the Armidale Dumaresq local government area had a lower than average proportion (7.0%) where two or more languages are spoken (national average was 20.4%); and a higher proportion (88.1%) where

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

only was spoken at home (national average was 76.8%).

Council

Former composition and election method

Armidale Dumaresq Council was composed of nine

councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

s elected proportionally as a single ward. All councillors were elected for a fixed four-year term of office. The mayor was elected by the councillors at the first meeting of the council. The most recent and last election was held on 8 September 2012, and the makeup of the council, prior to its abolition, was as follows: The last Council, elected in 2012 until its abolition in 2016, in order of election, was:

Amalgamation

A 2015 review of local government boundaries recommended that the Armidale Dumaresq Council merge with adjoining councils. The government considered two proposals. The first proposed a merger of the Armidale Dumaresq Council and the

Council merge to form a new council with an area of and support a population of approximately 30,000. The alternative, proposed by the Armidale Dumaresq Council on 1 March 2016, was for an amalgamation of the Armidale Dumaresq, Guyra, Uralla and Walcha councils. Following an independent review, on 12 May 2016 the Minister for Local Government announced that the merger with the Guyra Shire would proceed with immediate effect.

References

External links

Armidale Dumaresq Council Home PageLocal Government & Municipal Knowledge Base – Armidale Dumaresq Council Page
{{Authority control Former local government areas of New South Wales New England (New South Wales) Armidale 2016 disestablishments in Australia Armidale Regional Council