The Northern Beaches Council 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 Beaches The Northern Beaches is a region within Northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, near the Pacific coast. This area extends south to the entrance of Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour), west to Middle Harbour and north to the ...

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 Mounta ...

, 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 Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

. The council was formed on 12 May 2016 after the amalgamation of Manly,

Pittwater Pittwater is a semi-mature tide dominated drowned valley estuary, located about north of the Sydney central business district, New South Wales, Australia; being one of the bodies of water that separate greater Metropolitan Sydney from the C ...

and Warringah Councils. The Council comprises an area of and as at the had an estimated population of 263,554, making it the fourth most populous local government area in New South Wales. The inaugural Mayor of the Northern Beaches Council is Cr. Michael Regan, of the Your Northern Beaches Independent Team, who was first elected on 26 September 2017.

Suburbs and localities

The following suburbs are located within Northern Beaches Council: The following localities are located within Northern Beaches Council:

Demographics

At the , there were people in the Northern Beaches local government area; of these 48.9 per cent were male and 51.1 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 0.6 per cent of the population; the NSW and Australian averages are 3.4 and 3.2 per cent respectively. 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 f ...

age of people in Northern Beaches Council was 41 years; the national median is 38 years. Children aged 0 – 14 years made up 18.5 per cent of the population and people aged 65 years and over made up 18.2 per cent of the population. Of people in the area aged 15 years and over, 50.8 per cent were married and 37.6 per cent were not married. At the 2021 census, 31.1% of residents 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 w ...

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 A ...

. 51.1% nominated a

religious Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatur ...

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 popula ...

, 19.7% of households speak a non-English language at home; the national average is 24.8 per cent. 81% of households only speak

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 ...

at home; the national average is 72 per cent.

Council composition

The head of the Northern Beaches Council from the proclamation was

Administrator 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 ...

Dick Persson , who remained in office until the election of the new mayor on 26 September 2017. The first meeting of the Northern Beaches Council was held at Manly Town Hall on 19 May 2016 and from then until September 2017, the monthly council meetings cycled between the three former council chambers: Mona Vale Memorial Hall, Warringah Civic Centre in Dee Why and Manly Town Hall. Since September 2017, council meetings are held at the Civic Centre in Dee Why.

Officeholders

Current composition

The Northern Beaches Council comprises fifteen

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, with three Councillors elected in five wards. The Mayor is elected biennially by the councillors at the first meeting. The Deputy Mayor is elected annually. The most recent election was held on 4 December 2021 for a fixed three-year term of office, and the makeup of the council by order of election is as follows:

History

Early history

The traditional Aboriginal inhabitants of the land now known as the Northern Beaches were among the estimated two dozen clans around Sydney Harbour of the Dharug language group. These included the Kayamaygal and the Birrabirragal around what is now Manly to the Garigal further north and around Pittwater, peoples 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. Within a few years of European colonisation, between 60 to 90 percent of the Indigenous peoples around Port Jackson succumbed to the deadly smallpox contagion of 1789. Much evidence of their habitation remains especially their rock etchings in

Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park is a national park on the northern side of Sydney in New South Wales, Australia. The park is north of the Sydney central business district and generally comprises the land east of the M1 Pacific Motorway, sou ...

which borders northern beaches's north-western side. The northern beaches region was explored early on in the settlement of Sydney, only a few weeks after the arrival of the

First Fleet The First Fleet was a fleet of 11 ships that brought the first European and African settlers to Australia. It was made up of two Royal Navy vessels, three store ships and six convict transports. On 13 May 1787 the fleet under the command o ...

. However, it remained a rural area for most of the 19th and early 20th centuries, with only small settlements in the valleys between headlands. While it was geographically close to the city centre, to reach the area over land from Sydney via

Mona Vale Road The A3 is a major metropolitan arterial route in Sydney, formerly designated Metroad 3. The A3 runs from its intersection with the A8 at Mona Vale at the north end, to the southerly of its two intersections with the A1, Princes Highway, a ...

was a trip of more than .

Local government history

The Municipality of Manly was first incorporated on 6 January 1877, being the first local government authority on the Northern Beaches. On 7 March 1906, the Warringah Shire was proclaimed by the NSW Government Gazette, along with 132 other new Shires. It ran roughly from

Broken Bay Broken Bay, a semi-mature tide-dominated drowned valley estuary, is a large inlet of the Tasman Sea located about north of Sydney central business district on the coast of New South Wales, Australia; being one of the bodies of water that separ ...

in the north to Manly Lagoon to the south, and by Middle Harbour Creek and Cowan Creek in the west. It covered and had a population of around 2800, with 700 dwellings. From 1951 to 1980, the Mackellar County Council operated on the Northern Beaches as an electricity and gas supplier and retailer as a joint operation of Manly Municipal Council and Warringah Shire Council. Amalgamation of Manly and Warringah councils to form one council for the Northern Beaches was recommended in the final report of the 1945–46 Clancy Royal Commission on Local Government Boundaries, but was not proceeded with in the act passed in 1948. On 2 May 1992, The Governor of New South Wales proclaimed the establishment of the Municipality of Pittwater, the area of which roughly followed the area formerly known as 'A' Riding of the Warringah Shire. On 1 July 1993, with the enactment of a new Local Government Act 1993, the municipalities of Manly and Pittwater were renamed "Manly Council" and "Pittwater Council" and Warringah Shire Council became "Warringah Council".

Establishment of Northern Beaches Council

In 2015 a 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 Manly, Pittwater and Warringah merge to form one single council. The government eventually considered three proposals. The first proposed a merger of Manly and

Mosman Mosman is a suburb on the Lower North Shore region of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Mosman is located 8 kilometres north-east of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local governm ...

councils and parts of Warringah to form a new council with an area of and support a population of approximately 153,000. The second proposed a merger of

Pittwater Council Pittwater Council was a local government area on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It covered a region adjacent to the Tasman Sea about north of the Sydney central business district. The area is na ...

and parts of Warringah to form a new council with an area of and support a population of approximately 141,000. The third proposal, submitted by Warringah Council on 23 February 2016, was for an amalgamation of the Pittwater, Manly and Warringah councils. Of the 44,919 submissions lodged to the Boundaries Commission about all the local government proposals statewide, 29,189 were from Northern Beaches residents (18,977 were submitted for the third proposal); this meant that the Northern Beaches proposals made up 65% of all submissions. Former Warringah mayor, Michael Regan, noted to the ''Manly Daily'' that this was an indication of the level of interest in the Northern Beaches over the future of their local government: "given the choice of splitting the northern beaches or uniting it the community opted for unity", while former Manly mayor, Jean Hay, commented that this interest translated into the final result: "Everyone is passionate about the area and we came out and let the powers-that-be know, ..It must have made an impact because the minister and the premier looked at what the community told them and it was the majority decision to go with a single council." On 12 May 2016, with the release of the ''Local Government (Council Amalgamations) Proclamation 2016'', the Northern Beaches Council was formed from Manly, Pittwater and Warringah councils. The first meeting of the Northern Beaches Council was held at Manly Town Hall on 19 May 2016. Several advisory committees were established at the council's first meeting to advise the administrator and the council on implementation matters, composed of former councillors and mayors of the three councils. These included Manly Mayor Jean Hay as Chair of the Implementation Advisory Group and Chair of the Social Committee, Warringah Mayor Michael Regan as Chair of the Economic Committee and Pittwater Deputy Mayor Kylie Ferguson as Chair of the Environment Committee.

Heritage listings

The Northern Beaches Council has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: ;In Avalon * 32 Plateau Road:

Walter Burley Griffin Lodge The Walter Burley Griffin Lodge is a heritage-listed former residence, holiday house and weekender and now residence located at 32 Plateau Road, Avalon Beach (formerly known as Avalon until 2012), Northern Beaches Council, New South Wales, Aust ...

* 111 Whale Beach Road:

Loggan Rock Loggan Rock is a heritage-listed residential building located at 111 Whale Beach Road, Avalon Beach (formerly known as Avalon until 2012), Northern Beaches Council, New South Wales, Australia. It was designed in 1929 by Alexander Stewart Jolly ...

;In Balgowlah * 83 Griffiths Street:

Balgowlah Substation The Balgowlah Substation is a heritage-listed former electrical substation and now child care centre located at 83 Griffiths Street, Balgowlah, Northern Beaches Council, New South Wales, Australia. It was built in 1928. It is also known as #15 ...

;In Clareville * 62 Chisholm Road: Hy Brasil (house) ;In Currawong Beach * Currawong Workers' Holiday Camp ;In Killarney Heights * Bantry Bay Explosives Depot ;In Manly * 151 Darley Road:

St Patrick's Seminary St Patrick's Seminary, Manly is a heritage-listed former residence of the Archbishop of Sydney and Roman Catholic Church seminary at 151 Darley Road, Manly, Northern Beaches Council, New South Wales, Australia. The property was also known as ...

* North Head Scenic Drive:

North Head Quarantine Station The North Head Quarantine Station is a heritage-listed former quarantine station and associated buildings that is now a tourist attraction at North Head Scenic Drive, on the north side of Sydney Harbour at North Head, near Manly, in the Nort ...

* West Esplanade:

Manly Cove Pavilion The Manly Cove Pavilion is a heritage register, heritage-listed former changing room, dressing pavilion and public toilet, amenities block and now public toilet, public amenities and restaurant at West Esplanade, Manly, New South Wales, Manly, ...

* West Esplanade:

Manly Wharf Manly Wharf is a heritage-listed passenger terminal wharf and recreational area located at West Esplanade and serving Manly, a Sydney suburb in the Northern Beaches Council local government area of New South Wales, Australia. Since the 1850 ...

* 34a-36 Whistler Street:

Manly Substation The Manly Substation is a heritage-listed electrical substation located at 34a-36 Whistler Street, Manly, Northern Beaches Council, New South Wales, Australia. It was built in 1945. It is also known as #15009 Manly 33Kv Zone/Residential Unit. ...

;In Manly Vale * near King Street:

Manly Dam The Manly Dam is a heritage-listed dam near King Street, with a reservoir extending into Allambie Heights, both in the Northern Beaches Council local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It is often used as a place to have recreation ...

;In Palm Beach * Barrenjoey Headland:

Barrenjoey Head Lighthouse The Barrenjoey Head Lighthouse is a heritage-listed lighthouse at Barrenjoey Headland, Palm Beach, Northern Beaches Council, New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by James Barnet, the New South Wales Colonial Architect and built by Isaa ...

Council logo

In July 2017 the new council logo was unveiled by CEO Mark Ferguson at the cost of $320,000: "It was necessary to have something that was a reflection of the Northern Beaches Council looking to the future and having it based on a strong level of community participation." The logo was developed as a result of a consultation process with community groups and council staff to ascertain a representative image for the unified council. The logo takes the form of a stylised wave made up of various images including local flora and fauna such as a

humpback whale The humpback whale (''Megaptera novaeangliae'') is a species of baleen whale. It is a rorqual (a member of the family Balaenopteridae) and is the only species in the genus ''Megaptera''. Adults range in length from and weigh up to . The hu ...

, a

Norfolk pine ''Araucaria heterophylla'' (synonym ''A. excelsa'') is a species of conifer. As its vernacular name Norfolk Island pine (or Norfolk pine) implies, the tree is endemic to Norfolk Island, an external territory of Australia located in the Pacific ...

and

cabbage-tree palm ''Livistona australis'', the cabbage-tree palm, is an Australian plant species in the family Arecaceae. It is a tall, slender palm growing up to about 25 m in height and 0.35 m diameter.Boland ''et al.'', pp. 71–72. It is crowned ...

, a

pelican Pelicans (genus ''Pelecanus'') are a genus of large water birds that make up the family Pelecanidae. They are characterized by a long beak and a large throat pouch used for catching prey and draining water from the scooped-up contents before ...

and a

weedy seadragon The common seadragon or weedy seadragon (''Phyllopteryx taeniolatus'') is a marine fish related to the seahorses. Adult common seadragons are a reddish colour, with yellow and purple markings; they have small leaf-like appendages that resemble ...

Notes

References

External links

Northern Beaches Council website
{{NSW Local Government amalgamations 2016 , state = collapsed 2016 establishments in Australia Local government areas in Sydney