The Municipality of Leichhardt 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 inner-west region of

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, New South Wales,

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 ...

. It is about west of the

Sydney central business district The Sydney central business district (CBD) is the historical and main Central business district, commercial centre of Sydney. The CBD is Sydney's city centre, or Sydney City, and the two terms are used interchangeably. Colloquially, the CBD or c ...

. On 12 May 2016, Leichhardt merged with Marrickville Council and the Municipality of Ashfield to form the

Inner West Council Inner West Council is a local government area located in the inner western region of Sydney in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The council makes up the eastern part of this wider region, and was formed on 12 May 2016 from the merger o ...

. The last mayor of the Leichhardt Municipal Council was Cr. Darcy Byrne, a member of Labor Party. In December 2021, a majority of voters in Inner West Council voted in favour of reversing the 2016 merger and separating the three pre-existing councils of Ashfield, Leichhardt and Marrickville.

Suburbs in the local government area

Suburbs in the Municipality of Leichhardt were:

Demographics

At the 2011 Census, there were people in the Leichhardt local government area, of these 47.4% were male and 52.6% were female. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 1.0% of the population. 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 Municipality of Leichhardt was 37 years. Children aged 0 – 14 years made up 16.8% of the population and people aged 65 years and over made up 10.3% of the population. Of people in the area aged 15 years and over, 40.9% were married and 12.6% were either divorced or separated. Population in the Municipality of Leichhardt between the 2001 Census and the 2006 Census decreased by 20.2%. This was due to an alteration of the boundary between Leichhardt and the

local government areas that took effect in 2003. The suburbs of Glebe, Forest Lodge and parts of Annandale were transferred from Leichhardt to the City of Sydney. In the subsequent five years from the 2006 Census to the 2011 Census, population growth was 7.02%. When compared with total population growth of Australia in the most recent Census, being 8.32%, population growth in the Leichhardt local government area was slightly lower than the national average. The median weekly income for residents within the Municipality of Leichhardt was significantly higher than the national average. As at the 2011 Census, the Municipality of Leichhardt had approximately double the national and state average of people who spoke Italian at home; and just under double the New South Wales average of people who claimed Italian ancestry.

Council

Leichhardt Municipal Council was composed of twelve Councillors elected proportionally as four separate

wards 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 priso ...

, each electing three councillors. All councillors were elected for a fixed four-year term of office, with the mayor elected annually by the councillors at the first meeting of the council. The last election was held on 8 September 2012, and the final makeup of the council was as follows:

History

The Municipality of Leichhardt operates over land that prehistorically belonged to the Gadigal and

Wangal The Wangal people ( Wanegal or Won-gal,) are a clan of the Dharug ( ?) Aboriginal people whose heirs are custodians of the lands and waters of what is now the Inner West of Sydney, New South Wales, centred around the Municipality of Strathfield, ...

people, of the

Eora The Eora (''Yura'') are an Aboriginal Australian people of New South Wales. Eora is the name given by the earliest European settlers to a group of Aboriginal people belonging to the clans along the coastal area of what is now known as the Sy ...

nation. It has a long cultural heritage that comes from its

Sydney Harbour Port Jackson, consisting of the waters of Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove and Parramatta Rivers, is the ria or natural harbour of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The harbour is an inlet of the Tasman Sea (p ...

location and its old suburb origins. Old couple having tea (ALP Municipal elections, Balmain)

Leichhardt is named after the Prussian explorer Ludwig Leichhardt, who in the 1840s was feted for his expedition in search of an overland route from southern Queensland to

Port Essington Port Essington is an inlet and historic site located on the Cobourg Peninsula in the Garig Gunak Barlu National Park in Australia's Northern Territory. It was the site of an early attempt at British settlement, but now exists only as a remote ...

, a British settlement on the far northern coast of Australia that is approximately to the north of the modern city of Darwin. He later famously vanished without trace on his attempt to cross the continent from the Darling Downs to the

Swan River Colony The Swan River Colony, also known as the Swan River Settlement, or just Swan River, was a British colony established in 1829 on the Swan River, in Western Australia. This initial settlement place on the Swan River was soon named Perth, and it ...

on the Western Australia coast. Leichhardt was proclaimed a municipality on 29 December 1871. In 1893, the East Ward of the Municipality separated and became the Borough of Annandale. In 1949, it was merged with the municipalities of Annandale and Balmain. In 1967, the municipal boundary was altered to include Glebe and parts of Camperdown. In 2003, the municipal boundary was again changed, to exclude the Annandale Foreshore (land between The Crescent and Rozelle Bay), Glebe and Forest Lodge, which are now part of the City of Sydney. Since the middle of the 20th century, Leichhardt has been a centre for Sydney's Italian community. Leichhardt is also home to the first non-government women's health centre to be established in Australia. On International Women's Day 1974, the Leichhardt Women's Community Health Centre opened as a result of grass-roots lobbying from women in the community and Sydney's Women's Liberation Movement. Initially funded through Federal Government funds, the centre is now funded mainly by the

NSW Health The New South Wales Ministry of Health, branded NSW Health, is a ministerial department of the New South Wales Government. NSW Health supports the executive and statutory roles of the Minister for Health, the Minister for Regional Health, an ...

and continues to run multi-disciplinary health care clinics and health education from its base in Leichhardt and in outreach locations throughout Sydney's inner west.

Amalgamation

A 2015 review of local government boundaries recommended that the Municipality of Leichhardt merge with the Municipality of Ashfield and the Marrickville Council to form a new council with an area of and support a population of approximately . On 12 May 2016 Leichhardt Council was dissolved and merged with neighbours Municipality of Ashfield and Marrickville Council to form the

Parks and recreation

Leichhardt Park, which includes the Leichhardt Park Aquatic Centre is in

Lilyfield Lilyfield is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Lilyfield is located 6 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Inner West Council. Lilyfield is ...

, as is Leichhardt Oval in Mary Street, the homeground of the Wests Tigers. Image:LPAcentre.jpg, Leichhardt Park Aquatic Centre Image:WTstadium.jpg, Leichhardt Oval (South Entrance), Mary Street The Bay Run around Iron Cove is a popular bicycling, walking and running track, passing along the foreshore of Lilyfield and Rozelle, and linking to paths along Hawthorne Canal on the western border of Leichhardt.

Callan Park Callan Park, with the heritage listed name Callan Park Conservation Area & Buildings, is a heritage listed site in Lilyfield, a suburb in the Inner West Council in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Callan Pa ...

in Lilyfield, bordering Iron Cove, offers open space for walking, cycling and passive recreation. Pioneer Memorial Park in Norton St, Leichhardt, has gardens and paths for passive recreation. It is built on the site of

Balmain Cemetery Balmain Cemetery was a cemetery in Leichhardt, New South Wales, Australia (the area is very close to the present day Sydney suburb of Balmain). The Pioneers Memorial Park now stands in its place. History When the estate of Balmain was laid out i ...

. Illoura, Ballast Point and Yarulbin Parks have superb Harbour locations in the Balmain Peninsular.

References

Footnotes

Census data for 2001 contains information for the suburbs of Glebe, Forest Lodge and parts of Annandale that were transferred from Leichhardt to the City of Sydney in 2003.

External links

Leichhardt Municipal Council website
{{NSW Local Government amalgamations 2016, state=collapsed Leichhardt Leichhardt Leichhardt Inner West