Shire of Baw Baw

File:Thorpdale main street.JPG

Thorpdale, one of the towns administered by the Shire of Baw Baw

The Shire of Baw Baw (Template:IPAc-en) is a local government area in Victoria, Australia, in the eastern part of the state. It covers an area of Template:Convert and in 2021 had a population of 57,626.<ref name=ABS2021/> It includes the towns of Drouin, Longwarry, Neerim South, Trafalgar, Warragul and Yarragon.

The shire is governed and administered by the Baw Baw Shire Council; its seat of local government and administrative centre is located at the council headquarters in Drouin, and it has a service centre located in Warragul. The shire is named after the major geographical feature in the region, the Baw Baw Plateau; Mount Baw Baw is the second highest peak in the region. An unincorporated area, the Mount Baw Baw Alpine Resort, is enclaved within the shire.

History

The Shire was formed in 1994 from the amalgamation of the Shire of Buln Buln, Shire of Narracan, Rural City of Warragul, and the part of the Shire of Upper Yarra that lay in the Thomson River catchment.<ref name="Gazette" />

File:Victoria LGAs pre- vs post-amalgamation Baw Baw.png

Baw Baw Shire's predecessor LGAs (green) as they were in 1994. The administrative centres of the former LGAs are marked by green dots.
🞲 The Mount Baw Baw Alpine Resort was excised in 1997<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

Location and geography

The more densely populated southern half of the shire consists of low rolling hills given over primarily to dairy farming and other agriculture. The northern half lies in the Great Dividing Range and its foothills, where forestry remains an important industry. Tourism is also important in the region, aided by its proximity to and easy access from Melbourne. The shire is known for its rural scenery and natural environment, as well as gourmet foods and wines.Template:Fact The historic gold-mining town of Walhalla is located in the northeast of the shire is a major tourist drawcard. The major electricity-producing region of the Latrobe Valley lies immediately to the shire's east and south.

Many of the shire's larger towns are located along the Princes Highway and Gippsland railway line, which cross the southern part of the shire. From west to east these include: Longwarry, Drouin, Warragul, Darnum, Yarragon, and Trafalgar. North of Warragul are Buln Buln, Neerim South, and Noojee, while south of Trafalgar in the Strzelecki Ranges lies the town of Thorpdale. The towns of Rawson, Erica, and Parkers Corner are located near Walhalla amongst the foothills of the Baw Baw Plateau. Aberfeldy is located in the far north east of the shire above the Thomson Dam, which supplies 50% of Melbourne's water.

Council

Composition up to November 2016

The council was composed of four wards and nine councillors, with three councillors elected to represent the Warragul Ward and two councillors per remaining ward elected to represent each of the other wards.<ref name=Council>Template:Cite web</ref>

Ward	Party		Councillor	Notes
Drouin	Template:Australian party style|	Independent	Tricia Jones
	Template:Australian party style|	Independent	Terry Williamson
Mount Worth	Template:Australian party style|	Independent	Murray Cook	Mayor 2012/2013 and 2013/2014
	Template:Australian party style|	Independent	Peter Kostos
North	Template:Australian party style|	Independent	David Balfour
	Template:Australian party style|	Independent	Deborah Brown	Mayor 2014/2015
Warragul	Template:Australian party style|	Independent	Joe Gauci	Mayor 2015/2016
	Template:Australian party style|	Independent	Gerard Murphy
	Template:Australian party style|	Independent	Mikaela Power

Composition November 2016 to November 2020

The council was changed to a three-ward structure with three councillors per ward, with the new council sworn in on 2 November 2016. The new wards are West [660sq km] (primarily Drouin with some rural areas north/south), Central [66sq km] (Warragul town) and East [3,302sq km] making up the balance of the shire.

Ward	Party		Councillor	Notes
West	Template:Australian party style|	Independent	Tricia Jones
	Template:Australian party style|	Independent	Keith Cook
	Template:Australian party style|	Independent	Jessica O'Donnell
East	Template:Australian party style|	Independent	Michael Leaney
	Template:Australian party style|	Independent	Peter Kostos
	Template:Australian party style|	Independent	Darren Wallace
Central	Template:Australian party style|	Independent	Danny Goss	Mayor 2019/2020
	Template:Australian party style|	Independent	Mikaela Power	Mayor 2018/19
	Template:Australian party style|	Independent	Joe Gauci	Mayor 2016/2017 and 2017/18

Current composition

The council's three-ward structure continued with three councillors per ward, with the new council sworn in on 18 November 2020. The wards are West [660sq km] (primarily Drouin with some rural areas north/south), Central [66sq km] (based on Warragul) and East [3,302sq km] making up the balance of the shire.

Ward	Party		Councillor	Notes
West	Template:Australian party style|	Independent	Tricia Jones
	Template:Australian party style|	Independent	Ben Lucas	[resigned June 2021] replaced by Keith Cook
	Template:Australian party style|	Independent	Annemarie McCabe	Mayor 2022/2023, 2023/2024
East	Template:Australian party style|	Independent	Michael Leaney	Mayor 2021/2022
	Template:Australian party style|	Independent	Peter Kostos
	Template:Australian party style|	Independent	Darren Wallace
Central	Template:Australian party style|	Independent	Danny Goss	Mayor 2020/2021
	Template:Australian party style|	Independent	Jazmin Tauru
	Template:Australian party style|	Independent	Joe Gauci	[resigned May 2023] replaced by Farhat Firdous]

Administration and governance

The council meets monthly in the Fountain Room of the West Gippsland Arts Centre. The council's administrative activities are centred in Drouin in the former offices of the Buln Buln Shire. It also provides customer services at both Warragul and the council offices in Drouin. Service centres in Trafalgar and on Smith Street in Warragul were closed in 2015.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Townships and localities

In the 2021 census, the shire's population was 57,626, up from 48,479 in the 2016 census.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Population
Locality	2016	2021
Template:VICcity	0	7
Template:VICcity	0	0
Template:VICcity	19	24
Template:VICcity^	95	96
Template:VICcity	76	61
Template:VICcity	0	4
Template:VICcity	122	147
Template:VICcity	0	0
Template:VICcity	109	107
Template:VICcity	0	0
Template:VICcity	100	94
Template:VICcity	17	14
Template:VICcity	548	551
Template:VICcity	164	182
Template:VICcity	19	16
Template:VICcity	106	91
Template:VICcity	192	178
Template:VICcity	49	55
Template:VICcity	*	#
Template:VICcity	158	161
Template:VICcity	751	759
Template:VICcity^	32	37
Template:VICcity	12,349	15,287
Template:VICcity	182	177
Template:VICcity	335	343
Template:VICcity	330	361
Template:VICcity	236	229
Template:VICcity	191	184
Template:VICcity	37	48
Template:VICcity	11	11
Template:VICcity	67	65
Template:VICcity	45	61

Population
Locality	2016	2021
Template:VICcity	0	0
Template:VICcity	126	136
Template:VICcity^	161	189
Template:VICcity	166	171
Template:VICcity	11	28
Template:VICcity	23	28
Template:VICcity	0	0
Template:VICcity	491	584
Template:VICcity	356	386
Template:VICcity	117	110
Template:VICcity	86	94
Template:VICcity	0	0
Template:VICcity^	2,004	2,436
Template:VICcity	215	230
Template:VICcity^	148	169
Template:VICcity^	8,778	9,375
Template:VICcity^	541	529
Template:VICcity	46	49
Template:VICcity	90	85
Template:VICcity^	253	262
Template:VICcity	75	70
Template:VICcity	200	218
Template:VICcity	192	196
Template:VICcity	127	139
Template:VICcity	42	41
Template:VICcity	1,305	1,599
Template:VICcity	342	410
Template:VICcity	319	344
Template:VICcity	157	177
Template:VICcity^	1,527	1,644
Template:VICcity	46	52
Template:VICcity^	82	88

Population
Locality	2016	2021
Template:VICcity^	186	202
Template:VICcity	296	296
Template:VICcity	221	268
Template:VICcity	180	213
Template:VICcity	125	140
Template:VICcity	180	186
Template:VICcity^	89	107
Template:VICcity	0	0
Template:VICcity	14	7
Template:VICcity^	544	540
Template:VICcity	66	93
Template:VICcity	*	#
Template:VICcity	0	0
Template:VICcity	471	475
Template:VICcity^	30	27
Template:VICcity	0	0
Template:VICcity^	989	1,085
Template:VICcity^	0	0
Template:VICcity	50	49
Template:VICcity	3,912	4,349
Template:VICcity	426	401
Template:VICcity	276	305
Template:VICcity^	62	87
Template:VICcity	42	50
Template:VICcity^	20	35
Template:VICcity	15,757	19,856
Template:VICcity	253	280
Template:VICcity	19	33
Template:VICcity	157	163
Template:VICcity	590	654
Template:VICcity^	1,545	1,511
Template:VICcity	1,650	1,893
Template:VICcity	164	204

Template:Columns-end ^ - Territory divided with another LGA
* - Not noted in 2016 Census
# - Not noted in 2021 Census

See also

• List of localities (Victoria)
• List of reduplicated Australian place names
• Local government in Australia

External links

• Baw Baw Shire Council official website
• Visit Baw Baw official website
• Metlink local public transport map
• Link to Land Victoria interactive maps
• Template:Victorian local government areas pre-1994 vs present map link