Tweed Shire is 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 ...

located in the

Northern Rivers Northern Rivers is the most north-easterly region of the Australian state of New South Wales, located between north of the state capital, Sydney, and encompasses the catchments and fertile valleys of the Clarence, Richmond, and Tweed rivers. ...

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 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 adjacent to the border with

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

, where that meets the

Tasman Sea The Tasman Sea (Māori: ''Te Tai-o-Rēhua'', ) is a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean, situated between Australia and New Zealand. It measures about across and about from north to south. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer Abe ...

. Administered from the town of

Murwillumbah Murwillumbah ( ) is a town in far north-eastern New South Wales, Australia, in the Tweed Shire, on the Tweed River. Sitting on the south eastern foothills of the McPherson Range in the Tweed Volcano valley, Murwillumbah is 848 km north-eas ...

, Tweed Shire covers an area of , and has existed as a local government entity since 1947. It was named for the Tweed River. The current

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 Tweed Shire Council is Cr. Chris Cherry.

History

The European history of the Tweed Shire began in 1823 when the Tweed River was explored by

John Oxley John Joseph William Molesworth Oxley (1784 – 25 May 1828) was an explorer and surveyor of Australia in the early period of British colonisation. He served as Surveyor General of New South Wales and is perhaps best known for his two exp ...

. After sheltering on Cook Island (4 km from the river's mouth), Oxely travelled up river. In 1828, Captain H. J. Rous explored up the river. Settlers began to arrive in 1828, the first of which were the cedar getters, who came to harvest Great Red Cedars and send them back to England. During the height of the cedar logging industry, the Tweed Valley was one of the wealthiest districts in Australia. The Municipality of Murwillumbah was created on 25 May 1902, and held its first meeting on 22 August 1902, at which Peter Street was elected its first mayor. The Shire of Tweed, with its primary centre of population at

Tumbulgum Tumbulgum ( ) is a village in northern New South Wales, Australia. It is in the Tweed Shire local government area, at the confluence of the Rous and Tweed Rivers, north east of the state capital, Sydney and south east of Brisbane. At the , ...

on the Tweed River, came into being in the surrounding area on 7 March 1906 with the enactment of the . On 1 January 1947, the two amalgamated to form Tweed Shire.

Heritage listings

The Tweed Shire has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: * Murwillumbah, Casino-Murwillumbah railway:

Murwillumbah railway station The Murwillumbah railway station is a heritage-listed former terminus railway station located on the Murwillumbah line in South Murwillumbah, in the Tweed Shire local government area of New South Wales, Australia. The former railway station is ...

High Conservation Value Old Growth forest The High Conservation Value Old Growth forest is a heritage-listed forest located across twelve local government areas in the Northern Rivers, Mid North Coast, and New England regions of New South Wales, Australia. The conservation area is als ...

Towns and localities

; Tweed Heads *

Tweed Heads Tweed Heads is a town in New South Wales. It is located on the Tweed River in north-eastern New South Wales, Australia, in Tweed Shire, next to the border with Queensland and adjacent to its "twin town" of Coolangatta, which is a suburb of the ...

Banora Point Banora Point is a suburb located in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia in Tweed Shire Tweed Shire is a local government area located in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia. It is adjacent to th ...

* Bilambil * Bilambil Heights * Chinderah * Fingal Head *

Kingscliff Kingscliff is a coastal town just south of Tweed Heads in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia, and is a beach community offering a variety of holiday accommodations. Together with the villages of Chinderah and Fingal, it i ...

Piggabeen Piggabeen is a town located in north-eastern New South Wales, Australia, in the Tweed Shire. Piggabeen adjoins Cobaki Lakes that is situated to the northeast, Cobaki to the South East and Currumbin Valley that is situated approximately to th ...

* Terranora * Tweed Heads South *

Tweed Heads West Tweed Heads West is a suburb of Tweed Heads, New South Wales, Tweed Heads, located on the Tweed River (New South Wales), Tweed River in north-eastern New South Wales, Australia, in Tweed Shire along the Queensland and New South Wales border. ...

; Tweed Coast * Bogangar * Cabarita Beach *

Casuarina ''Casuarina'' is a genus of 17 tree species in the family Casuarinaceae, native to Australia, the Indian subcontinent, southeast Asia, islands of the western Pacific Ocean, and eastern Africa. It was once treated as the sole genus in the fami ...

Cudgen Cudgen () is a town located in north-eastern New South Wales, Australia, in the Tweed Shire. It is built on the former land of the Coodjingburra clan of the Minyungbal. There is a primary school on Collier Street, the Cudgen Public School. De ...

* Duranbah * Hastings Point *

* Pottsville * Round Mountain *

Tanglewood Tanglewood is a music venue in the towns of Lenox and Stockbridge in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. It has been the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1937. Tanglewood is also home to three music schools: the T ...

* Wooyung ; Murwillumbah *

* Bray Park * Byangum * Fernvale *

South Murwillumbah South Murwillumbah is a locality located in north-eastern New South Wales, Australia, in the Tweed Shire Tweed Shire is a local government area located in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia. It is adjacent to the ...

; Villages * Burringbar * Chillingham *

Condong ( ban, ᬘᭀᬦ᭄ᬤᭀᬂ) is a Balinese dance which is often performed as a preface to legong and accompanied by the Gamelan semar pegulingan, semar pangulingan style of gamelan. The term also refers to a stock character, a quintessential ...

* Kunghur * Tomewin *

* Tyalgum *

Uki Uki or UKI may refer to: *Uki Goñi, writer, journalist and musician *Uki, New South Wales, an Australian town *Uki, Kumamoto, a Japanese city *Uki Island in Solomon Islands * ''Uki'' (TV series), a pre-school animated television programme from Bel ...

; Other localities * Brays Creek * Bungalora * Cedar Creek * Carool * Clothiers Creek * Cobaki * Cobaki Lakes * Crystal Creek * Cudgera Creek * Doon Doon *

Dum Dum Dum Dum is a city and a municipality of Kolkata district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is a part of Kolkata urban area and also a part of the area covered by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA). Etymology During the 19th ...

* Dunbible * Dungay * Duroby * Eungella * Glengarrie * Kielvale * Kings Forest * Kynnumboon * Limpinwood * Midginbil * Mooball * Mount Burrell *

Mount Warning Mount Warning ( Bundjalung: ''Wollumbin''), a mountain in the Tweed Range in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia, was formed from a volcanic plug of the now-gone Tweed Volcano. The mountain is located west-south-west of Mu ...

* Nobbys Creek *

North Arm North Arm is a settlement in Lafonia, the southern part of East Falkland, in the Falkland Islands, It is on the south coast, on the shore of the Bay of Harbours, and overlooks Sea Lion Island in the distance. In 2007, the population was 25 p ...

* Numinbah * Pumpenbil * Reserve Creek * Stokers Siding * Stotts Creek * Terragon * Tygalgah * Upper Burringbar * Upper Crystal Creek * Upper Duroby * Urliup ; Queensland *

Gold Coast Airport Gold Coast Airport (formerly known as Coolangatta Airport) is an international Australian airport located at the southern end of the Gold Coast and approximately south of centre of Brisbane, within South East Queensland agglomeration. The ...

(Tweed Heads part)

Demographics

At the 2011 census, there were people in the Tweed local government area, of these 48.2 per cent were male and 51.8 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 3.5 per cent of the population, which was significantly 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 Tweed Shire area was 45 years, which was significantly higher than the national median of 37 years. Children aged 0 to 14 years made up 17.8 per cent of the population and people aged 65 years and over made up 22.9 per cent of the population. Of people in the area aged 15 years and over, 47.5 per cent were married and 15.3 per cent were either divorced or separated. Population growth in the Tweed Shire area between the and the was 7.45 per cent; and in the subsequent five years to the 2011 census, population growth was 7.29 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 Tweed local government area was marginally higher than the national average. The median weekly income for residents within the Tweed Shire area was significantly lower than the national average. At the 2011 census, the proportion of residents in the Tweed 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-Celtic Anglo-Celtic people are descended primarily from British and Irish people. The concept is mainly relevant outside of Great Britain and Ireland, particularly in Australia, but is also used in Canada, the United States, New Zealand and South Africa, ...

exceeded 80 per cent of all residents (national average was 65.2 per cent). In excess of 59 per cent of all residents in the Tweed Shire 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 slightly higher than the national average of 50.2 per cent. Meanwhile, as at the census date, compared to the national average, households in the Tweed local government area had a significantly lower than average proportion (5.5 per cent) where two or more languages are spoken (national average was 20.4 per cent); and a significantly higher proportion (91.6 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).

Population

Council

In May 2005, the

Governor of New South Wales The governor of New South Wales is the viceregal representative of the Australian monarch, King Charles III, in the state of New South Wales. In an analogous way to the governor-general of Australia at the national level, the governors of the ...

dismissed the

Tweed Shire Council Tweed Shire is a local government area located in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia. It is adjacent to the border with Queensland, where that meets the Tasman Sea. Administered from the town of Murwillumbah, Tweed Shi ...

of Mayor Warren Polglase, following a public inquiry which found that the council was improperly influenced by developers involved in a property boom in the area. The inquiry was commissioned by the Minister for Local Government, Tony Kelly, following community concern about the way planning decisions were made. The Minister appointed the director-general of the Department of Local Government, Garry Payne, former Sydney Lord Mayor

Lucy Turnbull Lucinda Mary Turnbull Officer of the Order of Australia, AO (née Hughes; born 30 March 1958) is an Australian businesswoman, philanthropist, and former Local government in Australia, local government politician. She served on the Sydney City ...

and former Tweed Shire councillor, Max Boyd as

Administrators Administrator or admin may refer to: Job roles Computing and internet * Database administrator, a person who is responsible for the environmental aspects of a database * Forum administrator, one who oversees discussions on an Internet forum * N ...

for the ensuing three years.

Current composition and election method

Tweed Shire Council is composed of seven

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 one entire

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 ...

. The councillors are elected for a fixed four-year term of office. The mayor is elected by the councillors at the first meeting of the council. The most recent election was held on 29 October 2016, and the makeup of the council is as follows: Australia Tweed Shire 2016

The current Council, elected in 2016, in order of election, is:

Shire Presidents and Mayors

References

{{Authority control Local government areas of New South Wales Northern Rivers Tweed Heads, New South Wales