Ku-ring-gai Council is a local government area in

Northern Sydney Northern Sydney is a large metropolitan area in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia on the north shore of Sydney Harbour and Parramatta River. The region embraces suburbs in Sydney’s north-east, north and inner north west. Northern Sydney is ...

( Upper North Shore), in the state 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 named after the Guringai Aboriginal people who were thought to be the traditional owners of the area. More contemporary research suggests that this was not the case. Major transport routes through the area include the Pacific Highway and

North Shore railway line The North Shore Line is a railway line serving the North Shore in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The North Shore Line extends from Sydney Central station through the western limb of the City Circle, across the Sydney Harbour Bridge an ...

. Because of its good soils and elevated position as part of the Hornsby Plateau, Ku-ring-gai was originally covered by a large area of dry

sclerophyll Sclerophyll is a type of vegetation that is adapted to long periods of dryness and heat. The plants feature hard leaves, short internodes (the distance between leaves along the stem) and leaf orientation which is parallel or oblique to direct ...

forest, parts of which still remain and form a component of the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. There are also many domestic gardens in the residential parts of Ku-ring-gai. The

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 ...

of Ku-ring-gai Council is Cr. Jeff Pettett, an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

politician, elected on 11 January 2022. Ku-ring-gai is the most advantaged area in Australia to live in, at the top of the Index of Relative Socio-economic Advantage and Disadvantage (IRSAD).

Suburbs and localities in the local government area

Suburbs and localities serviced by Ku-ring-gai Council are:

Demographics

At the , there were 124,076 people in the Ku-ring-gai Council 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 0.2 per cent of the population, significantly below the national average of 3.2 per cent. The median age of people in the Ku-ring-gai Council area was 42 years; slightly above the national average of 38 years. Children aged 0 – 14 years made up 19.5 per cent of the population and people aged 65 years and over made up 19.3 per cent of the population. Of people in the area aged 15 years and over, 60.7 per cent were married and 7.2 per cent were either divorced or separated; a rate that is more than half the national average. Population growth in the Ku-ring-gai Council area between the and the was 0.93 per cent and in the subsequent five years to the , population growth was 8.13 per cent. At the 2021 census, the population in the Ku-ring-gai Council area increased by 5.1 per cent. When compared with total population growth of Australia for the same period, being 8.6 per cent, population growth in the Ku-ring-gai local government area is slower than the national average. The median weekly income for residents within the Ku-ring-gai Council area was significantly higher than the national average. At the 2021 census, the area was linguistically diverse, with

Asian languages A wide variety of languages are spoken throughout Asia, comprising different language families and some unrelated isolates. The major language families include Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Caucasian, Dravidian, Indo-European, Afroasiatic, Tur ...

spoken in more than 20 per cent of households; more than four times the national average.

Council

Current composition and election method

Ku-ring-gai Council is composed of ten

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 five separate wards, each electing two Councillors. All Councillors are elected for a fixed four-year term of office, but due to delays as a result of amalgamation processes, the current term will only run for three years. The

is elected bi-annually by the Councillors at the first meeting of the Council, while the Deputy Mayor is elected annually. The most recent full Council election was held on 4 December 2021, and the makeup of the Council is as follows: The current Council, elected in 2021, in order of election by ward, is:

Council history

Ku-ring-gai was first incorporated on 6 March 1906 as the "Shire of Ku-ring-gai" and the first Shire Council was elected on 24 November 1906. The first leader of the council was elected at the first meeting on 8 December 1906, when Councillor William Cowan was elected as Shire President. There would not be a Deputy President until the council election on 1 March 1920. On 22 September 1928, the Shire of Ku-ring-gai was proclaimed as the "Municipality of Ku-ring-gai" and the titles of 'Shire President' and 'Councillor' were retitled to be 'Mayor' and 'Alderman' respectively. In 1993, with the passing of a new Local Government Act, council was retitled as simply "Ku-ring-gai Council" and Aldermen were retitled as Councillors. 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 that Ku-ring-gai Council and parts of the

Hornsby Shire Hornsby Shire is a local government area situated in Northern Sydney ( Upper North Shore), as well as parts of the Hills District, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The shire stretches from the M2 Hills Motorway in the south to the ...

north of the M2 merge to form a new council with an area of and support a population of approximately 270,000. The Ku-ring-gai Council took the NSW Government to court and, on appeal, the

NSW Court of Appeal The New South Wales Court of Appeal, part of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, is the highest court for civil matters and has appellate jurisdiction in the Australian state of New South Wales. Jurisdiction The Court of Appeal operates pursu ...

found that the Council had been denied procedural fairness. The proposed merger was stood aside indefinitely. In July 2017, the Berejiklian government decided to abandon the forced merger of the Hornsby and Ku-ring-gai local government areas, along with several other proposed forced mergers.

Planning and development

During the term of former Planning Minister, Frank Sartor, planning law reforms were passed that gave development approval to a panel and away from local government. These new laws were controversially implemented in Ku-ring-gai, with immense opposition from the local population who claim that their suburbs, with nationally recognised heritage values in both housing and original native forest, are being trashed by slab-sided apartment developments with no effective protection provided by either the Ku-ring-gai Council or the State Government. This has been termed "The Rape of Ku-ring-gai". The laws are intended to take development approval power away from local councils and to the Planning NSW, via the development panels. Planning panels are about to be introduced across New South Wales under recently passed planning reforms. In 2005-06, Ku-ring-gai had the second highest reported total development value in the state - A$1.7 billion, more than

Parramatta Parramatta () is a suburb and major Central business district, commercial centre in Greater Western Sydney, located in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district on the ban ...

, second only to the

City of Sydney The City of Sydney is the local government area covering the Sydney central business district and surrounding inner city suburbs of the greater metropolitan area of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Established by Act of Parliament in 1842, th ...

Shire Clerks, Town Clerks and General Managers

Heritage listings

Ku-ring-gai Council has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: * Gordon, 17 McIntosh Street: ''Eryldene'', Gordon * Gordon, Middlemiss Street:

Gordon railway station, Sydney Gordon railway station is a heritage-listed railway station located on the North Shore line, serving the Sydney suburb of Gordon. It is served by Sydney Trains T1 North Shore line and T9 Northern line services. Situated at St Johns Avenue, G ...

* Gordon, 691 Pacific Highway: ''Iolanthe'', Gordon * Gordon, 707 Pacific Highway: '' Tulkiyan'' * Gordon, 799 Pacific Highway: Gordon Public School (former) * Killara, 13 Kalang Avenue: Harry and Penelope Seidler House * Killara, 1 Werona Avenue: ''Woodlands'', Killara * Lindfield, 33 Tryon Road: Tryon Road Uniting Church * Pymble, Pacific Highway: Pymble Reservoirs No. 1 and No. 2 * Pymble, 982-984 Pacific Highway: Pymble Substation * Pymble, 29 Telegraph Road: Eric Pratten House * Turramurra, 17 Boomerang Street: '' Ingleholme'' * Turramurra, 43 Ku-Ring-Gai Avenue: ''Cossington'' (Turramurra) * Wahroonga, 62 Boundary Road: ''Jack House'', Wahroonga * Wahroonga, 69-71 Clissold Road: Rose Seidler House * Wahroonga, 61-65 Coonanbarra Road: St John's Uniting Church, Wahroonga * Wahroonga, 16 Fox Valley Road: ''Purulia'', Wahroonga * Wahroonga, 69 Junction Road: Evatt House * Wahroonga, North Shore railway: Wahroonga railway station * Wahroonga, 1526 Pacific Highway: ''Mahratta'', Wahroonga * Wahroonga, 1678 Pacific Highway and Woonona Avenue: Wahroonga Reservoir * Wahroonga, 23 Roland Avenue:

Simpson-Lee House I Simpson-Lee House I is a heritage-listed residence located at 23 Roland Avenue, in the Sydney suburb of Wahroonga in the Ku-ring-gai Council local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by Arthur Baldwinson and built fr ...

* Wahroonga, 14 Woonona Avenue: ''The Briars'', Wahroonga

References

External links

Ku-Ring-Gai CouncilKu-Ring-Gai Art Centre and Gallery Artabase page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ku-Ring-Gai Council Local government areas in Sydney 1906 establishments in Australia