The Upper Hunter 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 ...

in the Upper

Hunter Region The Hunter Region, also commonly known as the Hunter Valley, is a region of New South Wales, Australia, extending from approximately to north of Sydney. It contains the Hunter River and its tributaries with highland areas to the north and so ...

of New South Wales, Australia. The Shire was formed in May 2004 from the Scone Shire and parts of Murrurundi and Merriwa shires. The Mayor of the Upper Hunter Shire Council is Cr. Maurice Collison, following the sudden resignation of Wayne Bedggood as Mayor and as a Councillor on 9 June 2020. No reason has been given for the sudden resignation. Council's General Manager is Greg McDonald

Towns

The towns of the Upper Hunter are Scone, Parkville, Aberdeen, Murrurundi, and Merriwa, as well as several villages, including Bunnan,

Gundy Gundy is a locality in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. The locality is in the Upper Hunter Shire local government area and on the Pages River, north of the state capital, Sydney. At the 2011 census, Gundy had a population of ...

Moonan Flat Moonan Flat is a village in the Upper Hunter Shire local government area, about north-east of Scone in the Upper Upper Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. It is about from Sydney, the state capital. The Village Moonan Flat the close ...

Ellerston Ellerston is a rural locality of the Upper Hunter Shire local government area, about north-east of Scone in the Upper Upper Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. It is about from Sydney, the state capital. Ellerston Pastoral Ellerston ...

, Wingen, Blandford and Cassilis. Of the towns, only Aberdeen on the Shire's southeastern border is situated on the Hunter River.

Heritage listings

The Upper Hunter Shire has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: * Ardglen, Main Northern railway: Ardglen Tunnel * Merriwa, Bow Street: Colonial Cottage Museum * Murrurundi, Main Northern railway: Murrurundi railway station * Murrurundi, Mount Street: Rosedale Cottage * Scone, 144 Kelly Street:

Scone Civic Theatre The Scone Civic Theatre is a heritage-listed cinema at 144 Kelly Street, Scone, Upper Hunter Shire, New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by Guy Crick and Bruce Furse and built from 1937 to 1938 by Mr A. F. Little. The property is pr ...

Scone, New South Wales * Scone, 41 Kingdon Road: Old Court Theatre * Scone, Main Northern railway: Scone railway station * Wingen, Raglan Street:

Mountain House, Wingen Mountain House is a heritage-listed former teachers residence and school room and now residence at Raglan Street, Wingen, Upper Hunter Shire, New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by William Kemp, the Department of Education architect. ...

Demographics

At the , there were people in the Upper Hunter Shire local government area, of these 49.9 percent were male and 50.1 percent were female. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 3.9 percent of the population, which was higher than the national and state averages of 2.5 percent. 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 Upper Hunter Shire was 39 years, which was marginally higher than the national median of 37 years. Children aged 0 – 14 years made up 21.2 percent of the population and people aged 65 years and over made up 16.4 percent of the population. Of people in the area aged 15 years and over, 51.6 per cent were married and 11.6 per cent were either divorced or separated. Population growth in the Upper Hunter Shire between the and the 2011 census was 6.00 percent. When compared with the total population growth of Australia for the same period, at 8.32 percent, population growth in the Upper Hunter Shire local government area was slightly lower than the national average. The median weekly income for residents within the Upper Hunter Shire was marginally lower than the national average. At the 2011 census, the proportion of residents in the Upper Hunter Shire 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 ...

as Australian or

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 85 percent of all residents (national average was 65.2 percent). In excess of 75% of all residents in the Upper Hunter Shire nominated a religious affiliation with Christianity at the 2011 census, which was considerably higher than the national average of 50.2 percent. Meanwhile, as at the census date, compared to the national average, households in the Upper Hunter Shire local government area had a significantly lower than average proportion (3.1 percent) where two or more languages are spoken (national average was 20.4 percent); and a significantly higher proportion (93.9 percent) where English only was spoken at home (national average was 76.8 percent).

Council

Current composition and election method

Upper Hunter Shire Council is composed of nine Councillors elected proportionally as a single ward. All 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 10 September 2016 and the makeup of the council is as follows: At the 2016 election, there were 10,094 people enrolled to vote in the local government area. The current Council, elected in 2016, in order of election, is:

Attractions

The Upper Hunter is the largest horse-rearing region in Australia. The Burning Mountain Nature Reserve, near Wingen, is the site of a subterranean coal seam fire that has been burning for several thousand years. The council also owns several FM rebroadcasters of

ABC Radio National Radio National, known on-air as RN, is an Australia-wide public service broadcasting radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). From 1947 until 1985, the network was known as ABC Radio 2. History 1937: Predecessors an ...

and SBS Radio, under the self-help schemes run by those broadcasters.

References

External links

* http://www.upperhunter.nsw.gov.au/ {{Authority control