Great Lakes Council 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 ...

in the

Mid North Coast The Mid North Coast is a country region in the north-east of the state of New South Wales, Australia. The region covers the mid northern coast of the state, beginning from Port Stephens north of Sydney, and extending as far north as Woolgoolg ...

region 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. The area is situated adjacent to the shores of Port Stephens,

Myall Lakes Myalls are any of a group of closely related and very similar species of '' Acacia'': * ''Acacia binervia ''Acacia binervia'', commonly known as the coast myall, is a wattle native to New South Wales and Victoria. It can grow as a shrub or as a ...

and

Wallis Lake Wallis Lake, an open and trained wave dominated barrier estuary, is located within the Mid-Coast Council local government area in the Mid North Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. Wallis Lake is located adjacent to the towns of Forster ...

and the Pacific Highway and the

Lakes Way A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...

. On 12 May 2016 the council was dissolved and the area included in the Mid-Coast Council, along with the

City of Greater Taree The Greater Taree City Council (GTCC) was a local government area on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia, until 12 May 2016 when it was amalgamated to form part of the Mid-Coast Council. It was originally formed in 1981 from the M ...

and

Gloucester Shire Gloucester Shire ( ) was a local government area in the Mid North Coast and Upper Hunter regions of New South Wales, Australia. The Shire was situated adjacent to the Bucketts Way and the North Coast railway line. The last mayor of the Glou ...

. The Great Lakes area is home to the globally significant,

Ramsar Convention The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of Ramsar sites (wetlands). It is also known as the Convention on Wetlands. It i ...

listed

wetlands. These wetlands are an important foundation for the economies of the former suburbs of the Great Lakes Council local government area, particularly the recreational fisheries and tourism sectors.

Amalgamation

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 the merger of a number of adjoining councils. In the initial proposal, the Great Lakes Council was not included in any amalgamation proposals. However,

Council submitted an alternate proposal to amalgamate the Gloucester, Great Lakes and Greater Taree councils. The outcome of an independent review was completed by May 2016, when the council was dissolved.

Towns and localities

The former Great Lakes Council included the following towns and localities: * Allworth * Blueys Beach * Bombah Point * Boolambayte * Boomerang Beach * Booral * Booti Booti *

Bulahdelah Bulahdelah is a town and locality in the Hunter/Mid North Coast region of New South Wales, Australia in the Mid-Coast Council local government area. At the 2016 census, the locality had a population of 1,424. The main population centre, where ...

* Bundabah * Bungwahl * Bunyah * Carrington * Charlotte Bay * Coolongolook * Coomba Bay * Coomba Park * Crawford River * Darawank * Elizabeth Beach *

Failford Failford ( sco, Failfuird) is a hamlet in South Ayrshire, Scotland. It is west of Mauchline, where the Water of Fail flows into the River Ayr. History A minor ford would have been located where the Water of Fail has its confluence with the River ...

* Forster *

Girvan Girvan ( gd, Inbhir Gharbhain, "mouth of the River Girvan") is a burgh and harbour town in Carrick, South Ayrshire, Scotland. Girvan is situated on the east coast of the Firth of Clyde, with a population of about 6,450. It lies south of Ayr, ...

* Green Point *

Hawks Nest Hawk's Nest or Hawks Nest may refer to: *Hawks Nest, New South Wales, a small coastal village in Australia *Hawk's Nest, New York The Hawk's Nest is a scenic location outside Port Jervis, New York high above the Delaware River on New York S ...

* Limeburners Creek * Markwell * Mayers Flat * Minimbah *

Monkerai Monkerai is a large rural area in the hills in the land between Dungog, New South Wales, Dungog and Gloucester, New South Wales, Gloucester in Mid-Coast Council, in the Hunter Region, New South Wales, Australia. Monkerai was traditionally timber ...

* Mungo Brush * Myall Lake * Nerong * Nooroo * North Arm Cove * Pindimar *

Sandbar In oceanography, geomorphology, and Earth science, geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank (geography), bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material and rises from the bed of a body o ...

* Seal Rocks * Shallow Bay * Smiths Lake * Stroud Road *

Stroud Stroud is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is the main town in Stroud District. The town's population was 13,500 in 2021. Below the western escarpment of the Cotswold Hills, at the meeting point of the Five ...

Tahlee Tahlee is a heritage-listed former pastoral property of in the suburb of Tahlee situated on the north side of Port Stephens near Karuah in New South Wales, Australia. It is the original site of the Australian Agricultural Company and more re ...

* Tarbuck Bay *

Tea Gardens Tea Gardens is a locality in the Mid-Coast Council local government area, located near the southern extremity of the Mid North Coast and the northern extremity of the Hunter Region in New South Wales, Australia. At the Tea Gardens had a popu ...

* Terreel * The Branch * Tiona * Topi Topi *

Tuncurry Tuncurry is a coastal town in the Mid North Coast region of New South Wales, Australia, in the Mid-Coast Council LGA, about north north east of Sydney. It is immediately adjacent to its twin town of Forster, which is the larger of the two t ...

* Upper Karuah River * Upper Myall *

Violet Hill "Violet Hill" is a song by British rock band Coldplay. It was written by all members of the band for their fourth album, ''Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends'' (2008). Built around a repeating guitar sound, it utilises a marching tempo ...

* Wallingat *

* Wards River * Warranulla * Washpool * Weismantels * Whoota * Willina * Wootton * Yagon

Demographics

At the , there were 34,430 people in the Great Lakes Council local government area, of these 49.0 per cent were male and 51.0 per cent 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 3.8 per cent of the population, which was higher than the national and state averages of 2.5 per cent. 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 Great Lakes Council area was 52 years, significantly higher than the national median of 37 years; and the highest median of any local government area in New South Wales. Children aged 0 – 14 years made up 15.4 per cent of the population; and people aged 65 years and over made up 30.6 per cent of the population, with the latter significantly influencing the median age. Of people in the area aged 15 years and over, 52.4 per cent were married and 15.0 per cent were either divorced or separated.

Population growth Population growth is the increase in the number of people in a population or dispersed group. Actual global human population growth amounts to around 83 million annually, or 1.1% per year. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to ...

in the Great Lakes Council between the 2001 census and the 2006 census was 4.00 per cent; and in the subsequent five years to the 2011 census, population growth was 5.08 per cent. When compared with total population growth of Australia for the same periods, being 5.78 per cent and 8.32 per cent respectively, population growth in the Great Lakes Council local government area was significantly lower than the national average. The median weekly income for residents within the Great Lakes Council area was nearly half the national average. At the 2011 census, the proportion of residents in the Great Lakes Council 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 ...

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...

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 82 per cent of all residents (national average was 65.2 per cent). In excess of 66% of all residents in the Great Lakes Council area nominated a

religious Religion is usually defined as a social system, social-cultural system of designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morality, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sacred site, sanctified places, prophecy, prophecie ...

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 significantly higher than the national average of 50.2 per cent. Meanwhile, as at the census date, compared to the national average, households in the Great Lakes Council local government area had a significantly lower than average proportion (3.6 per cent) where two or more languages are spoken (national average was 20.4 per cent); and a significantly higher proportion (92.6 per cent) 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 per cent).

Council

Former composition and election method

At the time of its dissolution, the Great Lakes 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 Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

. 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 was as follows: The last Council, elected in 2012 and dissolved in 2016, in order of election, was:

References

External links

* {{Authority control Former local government areas of New South Wales 2016 disestablishments in Australia