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                    Council, mayor and lord mayor history

                    old image of the council chambers in melbourne town hall
                    Melbourne City Council began as a Town Council in 1842. Since then many changes have been made to the council’s structure and the electoral arrangements for mayor, aldermen and councillors.

                    ​1842: Creation of a Town Council

                    In 1842, the Act incorporating the Town of Melbourne provided for the creation of a Town Council to administer the affairs of the town, as well as for the election of town councillors and aldermen.

                    To enable an election for Town Council to take place, the Act provided that every male person of the full age of 21 years (who was not an alien, had not received public relief, had no children in a charitable institution and who had occupied premises in the town or within seven miles of it for one year) should, on being enrolled, be a burgess, (a citizen) and a member of the body corporate of the mayor, aldermen, councillors and burgesses of the town.

                    30 August: Temporary officers appointed

                    Before the machinery for the creation of the Town Council could be set in motion, there was a need for an interim mayor, aldermen, assessors, collectors and a town clerk to be appointed, to compile and revise the first Burgess (citizens) roll and conduct the first election.

                    On 30 August 1842 Superintendent La Trobe appointed a number of people to carry out those duties temporarily until officers were officially elected. With the exception of the collectors, these people were all officers of the government.

                    Annual elections

                    The Act provided for three citizens from each ward to be elected as councillors for the new town.

                    The term of office was to be three years, with one councillor from each ward retiring every year. If still qualified, a retiring councillor was also eligible for re-election.

                    There were four wards in Melbourne at the time: Bourke Ward (north-west), Gipps Ward (north-east), La Trobe Ward (south-east) and Lonsdale Ward (south-west).

                    The municipal year was from 9 November one year to 8 November the following year and annual elections were to be held on the first day of November on each succeeding year. The financial year was from 1 January to 31 December.

                    The Act also prescribed that after the first election of councillors, the councillors elected were to elect four aldermen (one to represent each ward) to be either from within their own membership or from those qualified to be councillors. Of the four people elected, two were to continue in office for six years and the other two for three years only. Thereafter, on 9 November in every succeeding third year, one half of the whole number of aldermen were to retire (if still qualified, however, a retiring alderman was eligible for re-election).

                    1 December: First election

                    Although the Act incorporating the town provided for the first election of councillors to take place on the first day of November following the passing of the Act, the first election was not until 1 December 1842.

                    According to the newspapers of the day, the election was a wildly exciting and keenly contested one. The licensed hotel trade had prominence due to the absence of sufficient public halls for polling booths and committee rooms.

                    The four wards with their polling booths were:

                    • Bourke Ward, The Crown on Queen Street
                    • Gipps Ward, The Caledonia on Lonsdale Street
                    • La Trobe Ward, The Eagle Inn (afterwards The Bull and Mouth) on Bourke Street
                    • Lonsdale Ward, The Royal.

                    Those elected were:

                    • John Thomas Smith, John Patterson, William Kerr (Bourke Ward)
                    • Henry Condell, John Dickson, George Beaver (Gipps Ward)
                    • Andrew Russell, Daniel Stoodhart Campbell, George James (La Trobe Ward)
                    • John Orr, Henry William Mortimer, John Pascoe Fawkner (Lonsdale Ward).

                    On 3 December, the 12 councillors met at the Royal Hotel in Collins Street, took the oath of allegiance to Queen Victoria and made declarations of their acceptance of office.

                    9 December: First mayor elected

                    On 9 December, the councillors met again at the hotel to elect a mayor and aldermen.

                    In a close election, Henry Condell was elected the first Mayor of Melbourne. He and Andrew Russell were elected the first aldermen for a six-year term, with William Kerr and Henry William Mortimer elected the first aldermen for a three-year term.


                    15 December: First meeting of the Town Council

                    The first meeting of the Town Council for the transaction of business was held at the Royal Hotel on 15 December 1842.

                    The proceedings were made open to the public. Allowances and salaries to the mayor, the town clerk and town surveyor were fixed. Charles King was appointed as town clerk and took over from the interim Town Clerk, H F Gurner. William Weston Howe was appointed town surveyor.

                    ​1844 to 1863: Town Council structural changes

                    In 1842 the Council comprised 12 people: an alderman and two councillors for each ward, with the Mayor and the aldermen being elected from within this membership of 12.

                    However, on 19 December 1844, Act 8 Victoria No.12 to amend the original incorporating Act was passed and section 10 of that Act provided that if a councillor was elected to be an alderman, then his seat as an elected councillor became vacant. This increased the composition of the Council to 16 members. In 1853, an Act to regulate the tenure of office by the Aldermen of additional wards of the City of Melbourne (Act 17 Victoria No. 3) was passed.

                    That Act was then repealed in 1863 by Act 27 Victoria No.178, which provided in Sections 28 and 29 for aldermen to hold office for periods of four years each and to retire on the ninth day of November (but to be eligible for re-election if still qualified). Section 31 of the Act provided that: '... nothing therein contained shall be held to deprive any alderman of the right to continue as a member of the Council for one year after the expiry of his term of office as alderman’.

                    1863: Mayoral election changes

                    Act 27 Victoria No.178 also resulted in a change to the date for the election of the mayor, to be on 9 October every year. On this day, a special meeting of the Council was to be held, with the successful candidate assuming office soon after noon on the 9 November next, once he had taken the oath of allegiance and subscribed the declaration of office.

                    The Act also provided that: ’nothing herein contained shall prevent the council from electing the mayor as Mayor elect and in the event of any member of the council whose term of office in such council would expire by effluxion of time on or before the ninth day of November being elected as Mayor elect he shall continue to be a member of the said council until the expiry of the period of one year after the termination of his office as Mayor.’

                    The method of electing the Mayor (and the Lord Mayor) continued in force until the election held on 10 October 1938 (a Monday, 9 October having been a Sunday). Councillor AW Coles was then elected Lord Mayor for the ensuing municipal year and, as Lord Mayor elect, subscribed a declaration of his intention to accept the office of Lord Mayor. He assumed office on 9 November 1938. Mayors and Lord Mayors, until 1996, were elected for one year and the option existed for a previous occupant of the position to be re-elected for up to three consecutive terms.

                    1902: Mayor becomes Lord Mayor

                    From 1842 to 1902, the office of Mayor of Melbourne was held by 42 members. The office was held on seven separate occasions, not in succession, by John Thomas Smith between 1851 and 1863. This is the greatest number of terms of Mayor held by any member of the Council.

                    By Royal warrant dated 18 December 1902, His Majesty King Edward VII graciously conferred the title ‘Lord Mayor’ on the Mayor of the City of Melbourne. This warrant is now displayed on the east wall of the Lord Mayor’s Room at the Town Hall. The first recipient of the honour was Sir Samuel Gillot, who was then in his third term as Mayor of the City, having been Mayor of Melbourne in 1900–1901 and 1901–1902.

                    1939: Alderman office abolished

                    In the absence of a mayor (or the Lord Mayor after 1902) at any meeting of the Council, an alderman was chosen as chairman (Section 93 of Act 6 Victoria No. 7). In 1939, the office of alderman was abolished with the coming into operation of the Melbourne and Geelong Corporations Act 1938.

                    The last alderman elected to the Council was the Honourable A A Calwell, who was elected as alderman for Hopetoun Ward on 12 April 1939. He is believed to have been the only person elected an alderman without having been previously elected as a councillor.

                    1981 to 1993: Appointment of Commissioners at the City of Melbourne

                    Under the provision of the Local Government (City of Melbourne) Act 1981 (No. 9525), the lord mayor and councillors went out of office on 6 May 1981. Three commissioners were appointed: Peter Thorley (Chairman), Neil Smith and Richard Allston.

                    These commissioners were replaced by elected councillors in 1982. In a reflection of the turbulent times afflicting local government in Victoria during the 1990s, the City of Melbourne once again came under the reign of Commissioner under the provisions of the City of Melbourne Act (1993).

                    The four commissioners were appointed in November 1993 as part of Victorian Government reforms to local government in Victoria. The appointed commissioners were: Kevan Gosper AO (Chief Commissioner); Professor John Rose (Deputy Chief Commissioner); Catherine Walter, and Kevin Courtney.

                    1996: New electoral arrangements for local government

                    The Victorian Government’s reforms to local government resulted in some new electoral arrangements.

                    In March 1996, the four commissioners were replaced by elected councillors. The new council comprised nine elected councillors and the lord mayor. Four councillors were elected from the four wards and the other five were elected from the entire City of Melbourne. Ivan Deveson AO became the first lord mayor to be elected for three years.

                    2001: Direct election of lord mayor

                    In 2000 the Victorian Government began a review of the electoral structure of the City of Melbourne.
                    A new electoral structure was introduced in 2001 which included direct elections for the lord mayor and deputy mayor (rather than being elected by council), and changes to the way councillors are elected. The changes and also brought forward the council elections from their scheduled date of March 2002 to 20 July 2001.

                    John So became the city’s first directly elected mayor.

                    Lord Mayor's Chain of Office

                    According to an extract from Jewitt & Hope’s Corporation Insignia 1895, it was tradition amongst many important social figures to wear a chain. While the wearing of chains in the eighteenth century ceased to be socially fashionable, the practice continued amongst certain high ranking officials and community leaders, including many mayors.

                    The Lord Mayor’s Chain is also referred to as the collar and is worn by the Lord Mayor at official functions when official regalia is required. The chain is made up of 72 oval medallions, six connecting spaces joined with plain oval links all 18 carat gold, with an approximate total weight of 3500 grams.
                    Each medallion bears the coat of arms of the City of Melbourne and is engraved with the name and the date of one of the mayors or lord mayors.

                    The detachable Fitz-Gibbon oval pendant medallion is also 18 carat yellow gold and bears the Coat of Arms of the City of Melbourne in polychrome enamels on a white ground. The following inscription appears on the pendant medallion: ‘Presented 9 October, 1884, by Edmund Gerald Fitz-Gibbon, Barrister at Law, Clerk of Committees from 6/3/1854 to 30/6/1856, Thenceforth the Town Clerk.’

                    No new medallions have been added to the chain since 1982.

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