The District Council of Highercombe was a

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 ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

from 1853 to 1935. It was proclaimed on 14 July 1853 in the eastern portion of the

Hundred of Yatala The Hundred of Yatala is a cadastral unit of hundred in South Australia covering much of the Adelaide metropolitan area north of the River Torrens. It is one of the eleven hundreds of the County of Adelaide stretching from the Torrens in the sout ...

, and was the original council in the area. It was bordered on the west by the eastern boundary of the

District Council of Yatala The District Council of Yatala was a local government area of South Australia established in 1853 and abolished in 1868. The council was named after the Hundred of Yatala which was proclaimed in 1846 in the County of Adelaide, Yatala likely der ...

and on the south by the

River Torrens The River Torrens , (Karrawirra Parri / Karrawirraparri) is the most significant river of the Adelaide Plains. It was one of the main reasons for the siting of the city of Adelaide, capital of South Australia. It flows from its source in the ...

. The five initial councillors appointed by the Governor were Joseph Ind, of Little Paradise, Robert Milne of Dry Creek, George McEwin from the Glen Ewin Estate, John Gollop from Highercombe (now Paracombe) and Henry Klapper from Hope Valley. The new council variously met at five local hotels before building its own council chamber in Haines Road, Teatree Gully in 1855. It was the first purpose-built district council chambers in South Australia; the building survives today and is listed on the

South Australian Heritage Register The South Australian Heritage Register, also known as the SA Heritage Register, is a statutory register of historic places in South Australia. It extends legal protection regarding demolition and development under the ''Heritage Places Act 1993'' ...

. By 1858, disputes had arisen about the effectiveness of the original boundaries, in particular between residents of the north and south of the district. A petition campaigning for the south to secede argued that "the interest of the north and south portions being in no way identical", there was "an apparent impossibility of amicable working of the district...as at present constituted". It was not a unanimous view, being met with a counter-petition stating that its signatories were "astonished" by the separation proposals, arguing that the district was working satisfactorily and that separate councils would be unnecessarily expensive. Those arguing for separation won the debate, and on 8 October 1858, the District Council of Teatree Gully, consisting of the northern portion of the Highercombe council, was declared as a separate council, while the southern portion of Highercombe council remained under that name. In 1906, the council was described as including the towns of Hope Valley,

Highbury Highbury is a district in North London and part of the London Borough of Islington in Greater London that was owned by Ranulf brother of Ilger and included all the areas north and east of Canonbury and Holloway Roads. The manor house was situ ...

Houghton Houghton may refer to: Places Australia * Houghton, South Australia, a town near Adelaide * Houghton Highway, the longest bridge in Australia, between Redcliffe and Brisbane in Queensland * Houghton Island (Queensland) Canada * Houghton Townshi ...

and part of Inglewood. The original council chambers had fallen inside the Tea Tree Gully council boundaries, so the Highercombe council returned to holding meetings at local hotels, alternating between the Highbury Hotel, the Bremer Hotel at Hope Valley and the Travellers' Rest at Houghton, the latter two being hotels it had used in 1883–1885 prior to the building of the original chambers. It subsequently settled in the Hope Valley Institute when that building was opened in 1921. The abolishment of the council was promulgated on 21 March 1935, following a Local Government Commission report that advocated cutting the number of municipalities in South Australia from 196 to 142, merging into the

District Council of Tea Tree Gully The City of Tea Tree Gully is a local council in the Australian state of South Australia, in the outer north-eastern suburbs of Adelaide. The major business district in the city is at Modbury, where Westfield Tea Tree Plaza, the Civic Centre a ...

and re-establishing the original council boundaries under the Tea Tree Gully name. Highercombe had been named in that process as one of 53 councils in the state with an annual revenue of less than £2,000, and so had been considered to be unviable as a separate municipality. The council ceased to exist on 1 May 1935.

Chairmen

* Robert Milne (1853) * J. Gollop (1874) * H. Pitman (1886) * W. H. Ind (1890) * Charles Hill (1903–1907) * N. Packer (1907–1909) * J. W. Newman (1909) * T. H. Possingham (1911)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Highercombe, District Council of Former local government areas of South Australia 1853 establishments in Australia 1935 disestablishments in Australia