Shire of Moyne

Template:Use Australian English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox Australian place The Shire of Moyne is a local government area in the Barwon South West region of Victoria, Australia, located in the south-western part of the state. It covers an area of Template:Convert and at the 2021 census had a population of 17,374.<ref name=ABSLGA/> It includes the towns of Port Fairy, Koroit, Mortlake, Macarthur, Peterborough, Caramut, Ellerslie, Framlingham, Garvoc, Hawkesdale, Kirkstall, Panmure, Mailors Flat, Purnim, Wangoom and Woolsthorpe. It also entirely surrounds the City of Warrnambool, a separate local government area.

The Shire is governed and administered by the Moyne Shire Council; its seat of local government and administrative centre is located at the council headquarters in Port Fairy. It also has a customer service centre in Mortlake, and works depots in Koroit, Mortlake and Macarthur. The Shire is named after the Moyne River, a major geographical feature that meanders through the LGA.

The industry base for the area includes: dairy, beef cattle, sheep, vegetable production, seafood, other food products, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, quarrying, and tourism.

Traditional ownership

The formally recognised traditional owners for the area in which the Shire of Moyne sits are the Eastern Maar peoples and Gunditjmara people,<ref name=AV>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> who are represented by the Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation (EMAC)<ref name=EMAC >{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and the Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation (GMTOAC).<ref name=GMTOAC >{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

History

The Shire of Moyne was formed in 1994 from the amalgamation of the Shire of Belfast, Shire of Minhamite, Borough of Port Fairy, the vast bulk of the Shire of Mortlake and Shire of Warrnambool, as well as parts of the Shire of Dundas, Shire of Mount Rouse and Shire of Hampden.<ref name="Gazette" />

The Local Government Board, tasked with drawing up new council boundaries in Victoria's south-west in 1994, observed that the Moyne sub-area was "the most difficult for [it] to consider", thanks in part to "seemingly irreconcilable tensions between urban and rural interests".<ref name=":02">Template:Cite book</ref> The Board first determined to amalgamate the largely agricultural Shires of Minhamite, Belfast, Mortlake and Warrnambool. Merger with the City of Warrnambool was rejected, as it was felt that the City's urban economic interests were sufficiently detached from those of its rural hinterland that the City was strong enough to stand alone. Numerous submissions requested the same treatment for Port Fairy; options explored by the Board included maintaining the Borough of Port Fairy (rejected out of hand), a "coastal strip" municipality stretching from Port Fairy across the intervening rural areas to Warrnambool, or amalgamating the City of Warrnambool and Borough of Port Fairy into a single, non-contiguous municipality. In the end, the Board considered that Port Fairy belonged in Moyne, because Port Fairy had strong links to its rural hinterland in its role as a service town; Port Fairy's tourism sector was heritage-focused, unlike Warrnambool's; and the special challenges of managing the coastal–farmland interface were best dealt with by a rural-focused shire.<ref name=":02" />

At public meetings held in the respective towns, Caramut and Macarthur residents strongly favoured being included in Moyne in preference to the proposed Shire of Southern Grampians. By contrast, Peterborough, located at the extreme south-eastern tip of the Shire of Warrnambool, was split on the issue of whether to shift to the Shire of Corangamite. In the absence of a strong argument either way, the Board declined to move the existing boundary.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref>

In January 1996, after a further Local Government Board review, about 370 km² of farmland in the Lake Bolac and Nerrin Nerrin districts was transferred from Moyne to the Rural City of Ararat, while Moyne gained about 40 km² near Chatsworth from the Shire of Southern Grampians.<ref>Template:Cite Gazette VIC</ref>

Moyne Shire's predecessor LGAs (green) as they were in 1994. The administrative centres of the former LGAs are marked by green dots.
🞲 Area gained from Southern Grampians Shire in 1996
# Area lost to the Rural City of Ararat in 1996

Council

Current composition

The council is composed of seven councillors elected to represent an unsubdivided municipality.<ref name=Council>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Councillor
Karen Foster	Mayor
Jordan Lockett	Deputy Mayor
Jim Doukas
Lisa Ryan
Susan Taylor
Lloyd Ross
Myra Murrihy

Administration and governance

The council meets in the council chambers at the Mortlake Municipal Office. Administrative activities are conducted at both the Port Fairy and Mortlake offices, which also provide customer services centres.

Townships and localities

The 2021 census recorded the shire population at 17,374, up from 16,495 in the 2016 census.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Population
Locality	2016	2021
Template:VICcity^	1,521	1,410
Template:VICcity^	44	39
Template:VICcity	64	71
Template:VICcity^	98	113
Template:VICcity^	50	39
Template:VICcity	92	75
Template:VICcity^	116	127
Template:VICcity^	571	596
Template:VICcity^	123	129
Template:VICcity^	246	256
Template:VICcity^	44	49
Template:VICcity	52	37
Template:VICcity	*	#
Template:VICcity	215	235
Template:VICcity	238	311
Template:VICcity^	124	125
Template:VICcity^	107	84
Template:VICcity^	1,907	1,994
Template:VICcity	46	52
Template:VICcity^	188	222
Template:VICcity	147	157
Template:VICcity	158	169
Template:VICcity	21	25

Population
Locality	2016	2021
Template:VICcity^	243	248
Template:VICcity^	43	42
Template:VICcity	33	31
Template:VICcity^	56	63
Template:VICcity	402	385
Template:VICcity	322	311
Template:VICcity	143	130
Template:VICcity^	304	304
Template:VICcity	205	195
Template:VICcity	366	406
Template:VICcity	9	22
Template:VICcity^	142	188
Template:VICcity	2,055	2,184
Template:VICcity	100	115
Template:VICcity^	6	9
Template:VICcity	522	469
Template:VICcity	425	490
Template:VICcity	47	36
Template:VICcity	67	73
Template:VICcity	76	83
Template:VICcity	113	106
Template:VICcity	58	65
Template:VICcity	1,372	1,477

Population
Locality	2016	2021
Template:VICcity^	36	48
Template:VICcity	120	124
Template:VICcity	93	96
Template:VICcity^	38	48
Template:VICcity	56	50
Template:VICcity^	14	12
Template:VICcity	76	90
Template:VICcity^	333	318
Template:VICcity	267	233
Template:VICcity	61	46
Template:VICcity	105	115
Template:VICcity	424	442
Template:VICcity^	622	677
Template:VICcity^	247	322
Template:VICcity	3,340	3,742
Template:VICcity^	37	47
Template:VICcity^	14	21
Template:VICcity	270	292
Template:VICcity	37	50
Template:VICcity	132	128
Template:VICcity	117	128
Template:VICcity	47	34

Population
Locality	2016	2021
Template:VICcity^	22	25
Template:VICcity	64	69
Template:VICcity^	2,288	2,254
Template:VICcity	10	18
Template:VICcity	141	110
Template:VICcity	91	88
Template:VICcity	81	83
Template:VICcity^	212	198
Template:VICcity	27	19
Template:VICcity^	113	94
Template:VICcity	226	237
Template:VICcity	34	42
Template:VICcity^	29,661	31,308
Template:VICcity	72	77
Template:VICcity	55	53
Template:VICcity	368	436
Template:VICcity^	361	436
Template:VICcity	422	364
Template:VICcity^	169	160
Template:VICcity	267	284
Template:VICcity^	111	113
Template:VICcity	77	63

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

See also

• List of localities in Victoria

External links

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