City of Wodonga

Template:About Template:Use Australian English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox Australian place The City of Wodonga is a local government area in the Hume region of Victoria, Australia, located in the north-east part of the state. It covers an area of Template:Convert and in August 2021, had a population of 43,253.<ref name=ABSLGA/>

It is primarily urban with the vast majority of its population living in the Greater Wodonga urban area, while other significant settlements within the LGA include Bandiana and Bonegilla. Its floral and fauna emblems are pink heath and the Leadbeater's possum respectively—the same as those of the state of Victoria. It is one of only a few regional councils in Victoria to remain serving just one urban district after the amalgamation process of 1994, although through that process it did gained some portions of the former shires of Chiltern and Yackandandah.<ref name=Gazette />

The city is governed and administered by the Wodonga City Council; its seat of local government and administrative centre is located at the council headquarters in Wodonga. The city is named after the main urban settlement located in the north-east of the LGA, that is Wodonga, which is also the LGA's most populous urban centre with a population of 16,487.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It provides governance for the Victorian part of the Albury-Wodonga urban area.

History

Wodonga was first surveyed in 1852 and proclaimed the town of Belvoir in the same year. In 1876 the Victorian colonial government granted a request from the people of the area for their district to be severed from the Shire of Yackandandah to form a new municipality, and on 10 March 1876, the Shire of Wodonga was incorporated. On 12 April 1911 it annexed a further part of Yackandandah, and on 30 March 1973, Wodonga was proclaimed a Rural City by the Governor of Victoria, Sir Rohan Delacombe.<ref name=vmd>Template:Cite book Accessed at State Library Victoria, La Trobe Reading Room.</ref><ref name=wodhist/>

The municipality survived widespread local government amalgamations in 1994, gaining the Baranduda and Barnawartha North districts from neighbouring shires.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> However, the councillors were dismissed on 18 November 1994,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and replaced by commissioners Mel Read, a long-serving executive of the Albury-Wodonga Development Corporation, Des Kelly, a Shire of Tallangatta councillor from 1968 until 1994, and Mike Hansen, a retired army officer with management and logistics experience.<ref>Template:Cite news Provisionally available at [1].</ref> The commissioners decided in 1995 that, to give the city a fresh image, the term "rural" be dropped from use except when legally required.<ref name=wodhist>Template:Cite web</ref> It has since been officially renamed to the City of Wodonga. The elected council was reinstituted in 1997.

Council

Current composition

The current council is composed of seven councillors elected to represent an unsubdivided municipality.<ref name=Council>Template:Cite web</ref> The current councillors were elected on 23 October 2020, and were announced 6 November 2020.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On 23 November 2020, the councillors elected Kevin Poulton as Mayor for a one-year term, with a unanimous decision to have no Deputy Mayor.<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Cbignore</ref> In March 2022, Kat Bennett announced that she would be resigning from council, the vacancy was filled by a countback from the 2020 election, and Danny Lowe was elected to fill the position.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In October 2022, John Watson tendered his resignation after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A countback from the 2020 election was once again conducted, and Danny Chamberlain was elected.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In December 2022, mayoral elections took place and the council elected new mayor, Ron Mildren.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Ward	Party		Councillor	Notes
Unsubdivided	Template:Australian party style |	Independent	Kevin Poulton
	Template:Australian party style |	Independent	Danny Lowe	Elected in a 2022 countback
	Template:Australian party style|	Independent	Graeme Simpfendorfer
	Template:Australian party style|	Independent	Libby Hall	Deputy Mayor
	Template:Australian party style|	Independent	Ron Mildren	Mayor
	Template:Australian party style|	Liberal Democrats	Olga Quilty	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
	Template:Australian party style|	Independent Liberal	Danny Chamberlain	Elected in a 2022 countback

Former Wards and Structure

Prior to 1994, Wodonga was composed of four wards and twelve councillors, with three councillors per ward elected to represent each of the following wards:

• Baranduda Ward
• Belvoir Ward
• Bonegilla Ward
• Greenhill Ward

The council was replaced with three commissioners on 18 November 1994, and at the 1997 inaugural elections of the new council, five councillors were elected to an unsubdivided municipality. Following the enactment of the Local Government (Democratic Reform) Act 2003 (Vic.), which amended the Local Government Act 1989, an independent review of Wodonga's internal structure was commissioned and advertised on 13 May 2004 by the Victorian Government. The final report by the Victorian Electoral Commission, issued on 27 September 2004, recommended that the council be increased in size to seven elected members, noting that at the time of the report, Wodonga was the only city council with fewer than seven, and that the task of representing the diversity and issues of a growing regional city was complex. It recommended leaving the City unsubdivided as it had a single, dominant centre and a small area.<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Dead link</ref>

The council was restructured accordingly and elections held on 26 November 2005 returned seven councillors with Rodney Wangman as mayor and Brian Wicks as deputy mayor.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Elections in late November 2008 resulted in four of the sitting seven councillors losing their seats, and saw the City of Wodonga gain a new Mayor and Deputy-Mayor, Crs Mark Byatt and Angela Collins respectively.

Administration and governance

The council meets in the council chambers at the council headquarters in the Wodonga Municipal Offices, which is also the location of the council's administrative activities. It also provides customer services at its administrative centre in Wodonga.

Townships and localities

The 2021 census, the city had a population of 43,253 up from 39,351 in the 2016 census<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Population
Locality	2016	2021
Template:VICcity	615	855
Template:VICcity	2,370	3,041
Template:VICcity	169	188
Template:VICcity	693	610

Population
Locality	2016	2021
Template:VICcity	77	85
Template:VICcity	136	110
Template:VICcity	10	0

Population
Locality	2016	2021
Template:VICcity	135	320
Template:VICcity	8	9
Template:VICcity	846	1,317

Population
Locality	2016	2021
Template:VICcity^	293	368
Template:VICcity	14,576	14,794
Template:VICcity	18,948	20,259

Template:Columns-end ^ – Territory divided with another LGA

Population

Year	Population	Note(s)
1954	10,924
1958	12,520	*
1961	12,968
1966	11,867
1971	13,074
1976	15,733
1981	19,208
1986	22,693
1991	26,389
1996	29,158
2001	30,921
2006	33,010
Template:CensusAU	35,519	<ref name="Census2011">Template:Cite web</ref>
2012	36,947
2013	37,804
2014	38,759
2015	39,599 (approx)
2016	40,009 (approx)
2017	40,567 (approx)
2018	40,969 (approx)

* Estimate in 1958 Victorian Year Book.

See also

• List of localities in Victoria
• List of places on the Victorian Heritage Register in the City of Wodonga

External links

• Wodonga City Council official website
• Template:Victorian local government areas pre-1994 vs present map link