The Auburn City Council (formally City of Auburn) was a local government area in the Greater Western Sydney region of

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, Australia. Prior to its 2016 merger, the council area was located about west of the Sydney central business district and had a culturally diverse population. Notable features in the area included the Gallipoli Mosque, located in the suburb of Auburn. The suburb of Sydney Olympic Park, the site of the main venues of the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 ( Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from ...

, was located in the council area. On 10 February 2016 the Auburn City Council was suspended by the Minister for Local Government, and an administrator appointed. A public enquiry was held into allegations of "councillors misusing their positions." Prior to the suspension, the

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 ...

of Auburn City Council was

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 ...

Le Lam. On 12 May 2016, as part of a NSW State Government program of local government reform, Auburn City Council was abolished. Parts of Auburn City Council, Parramatta City Council, and Holroyd City Council merged to form the

Cumberland Council Cumberland Council is the local authority for Cumberland in England. It is a unitary authority, the structural change order names the new Cumberland Council as only a district council. It will operate as a shadow authority until taking up its pow ...

as a new local government area. The remainder of the Auburn City Council area was merged into the

City of Parramatta Council The City of Parramatta, also known as Parramatta Council, is a local government area located west of central Sydney in the Greater Western Sydney region. Parramatta Council is situated between the City of Ryde and Cumberland, where the Cum ...

History

Prior to European settlement, the Wangal

Aboriginal people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

lived around the Auburn area. European settlement began in the 1790s. The Auburn area was a farming area, known as "Liberty Plains", which became the name of the local parish. The Borough of Auburn was proclaimed on 19 February 1892 and became the Municipality of Auburn in 1906. On 20 June 1906, the hitherto unincorporated area around Silverwater and Newington was combined into the Municipality of Auburn, becoming the "Newington Ward" returning three aldermen. The Secretary of the Newington Progress Association who led local efforts to join Auburn, future NSW Premier Jack Lang, was elected to first position in the new ward in 1907, and served as Mayor of Auburn in 1909–1911. To the east, the Borough of Rookwood was proclaimed on 8 December 1891. In 1913 Rookwood was renamed "Lidcombe", a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsnecropolis. On 1 January 1949, with the passing of the '' Local Government (Areas) Act 1948'', the Municipalities of Auburn and Lidcombe were amalgamated to form the new "Municipality of Auburn". In 1993, a change in the law meant that "municipality" ceased to be a legal category of local government area and Auburn Municipal Council became "Auburn Council".Auburn City Council (2011
Publication Guide
p.4 (pdf)

Auburn council seats

The first meeting of the council was held in Lee's Temperance Hotel at the corner of Mary Street and Park Road, Auburn, in 1892, and the foundation stone of the first Auburn Town Hall, incorporating a post office, on Auburn Road was laid in 1896 by the Postmaster-General, Joseph Cook. Designed by E. A. Henry and built by Wilkins & Fewster of Granville, the town hall was also officially opened by Cook on 29 June 1898. This building was short-lived however, and was replaced in 1926–1927 on the same site by the second Town Hall which was designed by the mayor, Albert Thomas "Benny" Briggs, and built by H. M. Crouch. The former Auburn mayor and then state Premier, Jack Lang, laid the foundation stone on 6 November 1926 and officially opened the building on 12 July 1927. On the official opening, Lang declared: "When the old Town Hall in Auburn, which is being demolished, was opened in 1898, the population did not exceed 2000; while to-day the town has grown so rapidly that, to say the population exceeds 20,000, is a conservative estimate, and Auburn has outgrown its Town Hall." Following amalgamation in 1949, council meetings were initially divided between the Lidcombe Town Hall and the Auburn Town Hall on Auburn Road, but eventually all functions were moved to the Auburn Town Hall. This continued until the completion of the Auburn Administrative Building, which was officially opened by the Mayor, Stanley Hedges, on 10 July 1965. It was situated at the rear of the existing Town Hall on a block fronting Susan and Queen Street, Auburn and was completed at a final cost of AU£198,000. This remained the council seat until council commissioned in 2000 Michael Davies Architecture to create a new Civic Centre on the same site, incorporating council offices, chambers, city library and police station. Council first met in the new Civic Centre on 26 September 2000. The Civic Centre project won the Local Government Property Award at the 2001 Australian Property Institute Excellence in Property Awards.

Auburn Botanic Gardens

The Auburn Botanic Gardens originated from the

County of Cumberland planning scheme The County of Cumberland planning scheme, commonly known as the Cumberland Plan, was a land use and transport strategy developed by the Cumberland County Council in Sydney in 1948 and adopted by the Government of New South Wales in 1951. The plan ...

(1946–1951) which set aside the area along the banks of the Duck River for recreation. Both before and after the scheme, Auburn council dumped rubbish and sewage along the banks and in brick and tile clay-pits for many years. In July 1968, Eric Black, the chief engineer of Auburn Municipal Council from 1949 to 1979, presented a detailed report to the council on proposing a mixture of sporting grounds and intensive cultivation of the Duck River parklands. Black envisaged a series of gardens representing national styles from around the world. This vision was later reduced, though some elements survived, including the

Japanese garden are traditional gardens whose designs are accompanied by Japanese aesthetics and philosophical ideas, avoid artificial ornamentation, and highlight the natural landscape. Plants and worn, aged materials are generally used by Japanese garden desi ...

s and lake, the formal gardens and reflection pool, and the different Australian habitats. Construction work on the Botanic Gardens site began in 1969 and involved the excavation of the Japanese Gardens Lake. In 1973, hundreds of trees were planted in the ''Avenue of Remembrance, Garden of Trees'' and ''Woodland'' area. The gardens were opened by New South Wales governor Sir

Roden Cutler Sir Arthur Roden Cutler, (24 May 1916 – 21 February 2002) was an Australian diplomat, the longest serving Governor of New South Wales and a List of Australian Victoria Cross recipients, recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for ...

on 11 September 1977.

City status

A project by Auburn Council to seek

city status City status is a symbolic and legal designation given by a national or subnational government. A municipality may receive city status because it already has the qualities of a city, or because it has some special purpose. Historically, city status ...

began in April 2006. A special poll held on 13 September 2008 found a large proportion (72.4%) of the electorate supported the project. On 24 June 2009 Governor of New South Wales

Marie Bashir Dame Marie Roslyn Bashir (born 1 December 1930) is the former and second longest-serving Governor of New South Wales. Born in Narrandera, New South Wales, Bashir graduated from the University of Sydney in 1956 and held various medical positio ...

issued a proclamation granting Auburn city status, which was gazetted on 17 July 2009 as "Auburn City Council".

Council dysfunction and suspension

In March 2013, Auburn council voted to dismiss the General Manager since 2005, John Burgess, in a decision derided as entirely political and resulting from the General Manager's release of information relating to the corrupt activities of former Councillor and deputy mayor, Jack Au, to the ICAC, who was subsequently suspended by the Minister for Local Government. On his departure, the general manager noted "I think that there needs to be a high-level policy review to ensure that similar circumstances are not allowed to exist in other councils, ..All general managers should be objectively assessed based on performance." In 2015–16, council came under increasing scrutiny when the Deputy Mayor, Salim Mehajer was charged with threatening the father of one of the victims in the

2014 Sydney hostage crisis The Lindt Cafe siege was a terrorist attack that occurred on 15–16 December 2014 when a lone gunman, Man Haron Monis, held hostage ten customers and eight employees of a Lindt chocolate café in the APA Building in Martin Place, Sydney, ...

and was investigated over a conflict of interest when he voted on Council matters regarding rezoning despite it being alleged that he had pecuniary interests in those matters. As a result, Mehajer was given a four-month suspension from Council on 29 January 2016. On 10 February 2016, the Council was suspended while a public enquiry into allegations of "councillors misusing their positions" was conducted. An administrator, former

Mosman Council Mosman Council is a local government area on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The Mayor of Mosman Council is Cr. Carolyn Corrigan, a representative of the Serving Mosman independent political group since 9 Septembe ...

General Manager Viv May, was appointed to manage the affairs of the Council in the interim. On 18 February the administrator reversed decisions for two major developments that were set to benefit Mehajer. The former Liberal mayor, Ronney Oueik, later appeared before the state government public inquiry conducted by Commissioner Richard Beasley SC, and denied suggestions that he had shown favouritism in several planning decisions, as well as opposing developments of political opponents. Oueik later sued NSW opposition leader (and Member for Auburn),

Luke Foley Luke Aquinas Foley (born 27 July 1970) is a former Australian Labor Party politician who served as the Leader of the Opposition in the Parliament of New South Wales from 2015 to 2018. Foley was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Counci ...

, whom he had stood against as the Liberal candidate at the 2015 election, for defamation following Foley's comments to media that he had represented "self-interest, not community interest" during his time as mayor. This defamation suit was thrown out of court in October 2017. In April 2018, Mehajer was convicted on multiple counts of electoral fraud relating to his election at the 2012 Auburn Council election. He was sentenced on 22 June 2018 to 21 months in prison with a non-parole period of 11 months.

2016 amalgamations

A 2015 review of local government boundaries by the

NSW Government The Government of New South Wales, also known as the NSW Government, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of New South Wales. It is currently held by a coalition of the Liberal Party and the National Party. The Governmen ...

Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal recommended that the City of Auburn merge with adjoining councils. The government considered two proposals. The first proposed a merger of parts of Auburn, Holroyd and

Parramatta Parramatta () is a suburb and major Central business district, commercial centre in Greater Western Sydney, located in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district on the ban ...

to form a new council with an area of and support a population of approximately 219,000. The second proposed a merger of parts of Parramatta, Auburn, The Hills, Hornsby, and Holroyd to form a new council with an area of and support a population of approximately 215,725. On 12 May 2016, Auburn City Council was abolished by the NSW Government. Parts of Auburn City Council (south of the

M4 Western Motorway The M4 Motorway is a dual carriageway partially tolled motorway in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia that is designated as the M4 route. The M4 designation is part of the wider A4 and M4 route designation, the M4 runs parallel/below grou ...

) and Parramatta City Council (Woodville Ward), and Holroyd City Council merged to form the

as a new local government area. The remainder of the Auburn City Council area north of the M4 Western Motorway (including parts of the Sydney Olympic Park) was merged into the

. At the last meeting of the Cumberland Council to be held at the Auburn Civic Centre on 21 December 2016, with the council chambers being taken over by the Auburn Library, the Administrator, Viv May, noted:

Suburbs in the local government area

Suburbs within the Auburn City boundaries immediately prior to its abolition were: * Auburn * Berala *

Lidcombe Lidcombe is a suburb in western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Lidcombe is located west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Cumberland Council, with a small industrial part in the north ...

* Newington *

Regents Park Regent's Park (officially The Regent's Park) is one of the Royal Parks of London. It occupies of high ground in north-west Inner London, administratively split between the City of Westminster and the Borough of Camden (and historically betwe ...

(With parts within the City of Canterbury-Bankstown) * Rookwood * Silverwater * Sydney Olympic Park *

Wentworth Point Wentworth Point is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located 13 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, on the eastern edge of the local government area of City of Parramatta. It is on t ...

* Granville (Parts within City of Parramatta and City of Holroyd) Homebush Bay had previously been a suburb but was subsequently divided between Sydney Olympic Park, Wentworth Point and Lidcombe.

Demographics

At the 2011 Census, there were people in the Auburn local government area, of these 51.8% were male and 48.2% were female.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

made up 0.6% of the population. The median age of people in the Auburn area was 31 years, which is significantly lower than the national median of 37 years. Children aged 0 – 14 years made up 19.7% of the population and people aged 65 years and over made up 8.5% of the population. Of people in the area aged 15 years and over, 53.2% were married and 8.9% were either divorced or separated. Population growth in the Auburn area between the 2001 Census and the 2006 Census was 16.31%; and in the subsequent five years to the 2011 Census, population growth was 13.51%. When compared with total population growth of Australia for the same periods, being 5.78% and 8.32% respectively, population growth in Auburn local government area was double the national average. The median weekly income for residents within the Auburn area was lower than the national average, being one of the factors that place the City in an area of social disadvantage. At the 2011 Census, the proportion of residents in the Auburn local government area who stated their ancestry as

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

, or as Lebanese, was in excess of six times the national average. The proportion of residents who stated an affiliation with Islam was in excess of eleven times the national average. Meanwhile, as at the Census date, the area was linguistically diverse, with

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding ar ...

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

, Turkish, and

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

languages spoken in households, and ranged from five times to 22 times the national averages.

Council

Following the dismissal of the Councillors on 10 February 2016 and until the Council's abolition on 12 May 2016, it was managed by a government-appointed Administrator, Viv May , a former General Manager of

, who reported directly to the Minister for Local Government.

Final composition and election method

Auburn Council was composed of ten Councillors elected proportionally as two separate wards, each electing five Councillors. All Councillors are elected for a fixed four-year term of office. The Mayor and Deputy Mayor were elected by the Councillors at the first meeting of the Council, typically in September. The last election was held on 8 September 2012 and the council was suspended on 10 February 2016. The final makeup of the Council, prior to suspension, was as follows:

Mayors

Town Clerk/General Manager

The ''Local Government Act, 1993'' removed the requirement that the administrative head of a council be a " Town or Shire Clerk" and specified that the head was to be known as the "General Manager". Auburn Council had previously recognised the changing nature of role in appointing the last Town Clerk as a "Town Clerk and General Manager", which lasted from 1992 to 1993.

Coat of arms and logo

Logo

The council logo used until amalgamation in 2016 was based on the local Eastern Swamphen.

References

External links

Auburn City Council website (Archived)

Auburn City Council Public Inquiry website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Auburn Former local government areas in Sydney 1892 establishments in Australia 2016 disestablishments in Australia Auburn