Surf Coast Shire

File:Aerial views of the Otways region of Victoria, Australia.webm

Aerial views of the Barwon South West region of Victoria, Australia.

The Surf Coast Shire 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. It had a population of 32,251 in June 2018.<ref name=ABSLGA/> It includes the coastal towns of Aireys Inlet, Anglesea, Lorne and Torquay and the inland towns of Moriac and Winchelsea.

The Shire is governed and administered by the Surf Coast Shire Council; its seat of local government and administrative centre is located at the council headquarters in Torquay. The Shire is named after its location on the popular surf coast of Victoria.

History

Formation

Before the 1990s local government reforms, the Surf Coast Shire's area was covered by three municipalities: the Shire of Winchelsea, the Shire of Barrabool, and the City of South Barwon. The Barrabool/South Barwon boundary was the Surf Coast Highway. This meant that Jan Juc and part of Torquay were in Barrabool, while the remainder of the Torquay district, including the traditional town centre, was in South Barwon.

When the City of Greater Geelong was created in May 1993, it initially took in the entire Torquay/Jan Juc area as far west as Ghazeepore Road. It also annexed areas on Geelong's fringe (Ceres, Wandana Heights, Waurn Ponds and Mount Duneed) which had previously belonged to Barrabool.<ref>Template:Cite Legislation AU</ref>

In March 1994, the Surf Coast Shire was formed from the amalgamation of the Torquay/Jan Juc area from Greater Geelong, the remainder of the Shire of Barrabool, and the Shire of Winchelsea (less the Birregurra and Barwon Downs districts, which were lost to the Shire of Colac).<ref name="Gazette" /> The Surf Coast Shire's modern boundaries were settled six months later when the Lake Murdeduke and Mount Gellibrand area, part of the territory lost to Colac, was brought back into the Shire.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

File:Victoria LGAs pre- vs post-amalgamation Surf Coast.png

The Surf Coast Shire's predecessor LGAs (green) as at the beginning of 1993. The administrative centres of the former LGAs are marked by green dots.

Representation and structure

Post-2008, following an electoral representation review, the decision was made to re-subdivide the municipality into four wards, the current wards are Torquay, Anglesea, Winchelsea and Lorne. Between 2004 and 2008, the Shire was an unsubdivided municipality and as a result, the entire municipality voted to elect nine councillors. Between 1996 and 2004, the municipality was subdivided into six wards, where three councillors per ward were elected from the Torquay and Anglesea wards, and one councillor per ward was elected from the Lorne, Winchelsea, Moriac and Aireys Inlet wards. A position of Deputy Mayor was created in 2004, but it was abolished for the 2005 mayoral election.

Council

Current composition

Template:Victoria LGA ward map The council is composed of three wards electing three councillors each.

Ward	Councillor		Affiliation	Notes
Otway Range Ward	Template:Australian party style|	Mike Bodsworth	Independent	Mayor
	Template:Australian party style|	Libby Stapleton	Independent	Deputy Mayor
	Template:Australian party style|	Leon Walker	Independent
Torquay	Template:Australian party style|	Paul Barker	Libertarian
	Template:Australian party style|	Liz Pattison	Independent
	Template:Australian party style|	Phoebe Crockett	Greens
Winchelsea	Template:Australian party style|	Joel Grist	Independent Libertarian
	Template:Australian party style |	Tony Phelps	Independent
	Template:Australian party style |	Adrian Schonfelder	Independent Labor

List of former and current mayors

• Cr Noel Bates (1995–1997)
• Cr Henry Love (1997–1998)
• Cr Julie Hansen (1998–2000)
• Cr Mike Barrow (2000–2001)
• Cr Beth Davidson (2001–2004)
• Cr Keith Grossman (2004–2005)
• Cr Libby Mears (2005–2006)
• Cr Rose Hodge (2006–2007)
• Cr Dean Webster (2007–2008)
• Cr Libby Mears (2008–2009)
• Cr Libby Coker (2009–2010)
• Cr Dean Webster (2010–2011)
• Cr Brian McKiterick (2011–2012)
• Cr Libby Coker (2012–2013)
• Cr Rose Hodge (2013–2014)
• Cr Margot Smith (2014–2015)
• Cr Rose Hodge (2015–2016)
• Cr Brian McKiterick (2016-2017)
• Cr David Bell (2017-2018)
• Cr Rose Hodge (2018–2020)
• Cr Libby Stapleton (2020–2022)
• Cr Liz Pattison (2022–2024)

Administration and Governance

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

Election results

2016

Template:Election box turnout

Surf Coast Shire: Anglesea Ward

Party			Candidate	Votes	%	±%
Template:Australian party style |	Labor		Libby Coker	2,504	48.50
Template:Australian party style |	Independent		Margot Ann Smith	1,393	27.00
Template:Australian party style |	Independent		Jenna Robinson	1,268	24.6
Template:Australian party style |	Labor hold			Swing
Template:Australian party style |	Independent hold			Swing

Template:Election box turnout

Surf Coast Shire: Torquay Ward

Party			Candidate	Votes	%	±%
Template:Australian party style |	Labor		Rose Hodge	2,866	27.20
Template:Australian party style |	Independent		David Bell	1,962	18.60
Template:Australian party style |	Liberal		Brian McKiterick	1,268	16.00
Template:Australian party style |	Greens		Marian Smedley	1,529	14.50
Template:Australian party style |	Independent		Martin Paul Duke	1,522	14.20
Template:Australian party style |	Independent		Joe Remenyi	993	9.40
Template:Australian party style |	Labor hold			Swing
Template:Australian party style |	Independent hold			Swing
Template:Australian party style |	Liberal hold			Swing
Template:Australian party style |	Independent gain from Greens			Swing

Townships and localities

According to the 2021 census, the shire had a population of 37,694, up from 29,397 in the 2016 census.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Population
Locality	2016	2021
Template:VICcity	802	979
Template:VICcity	2,545	3,208
Template:VICcity	101	115
Template:VICcity	235	247
Template:VICcity	865	1,346
Template:VICcity	130	151
Template:VICcity	5	9
Big Hill	261	281
Template:VICcity^	828	942

Population
Locality	2016	2021
Template:VICcity	21	18
Template:VICcity^	162	151
Template:VICcity	211	228
Template:VICcity^	788	953
Template:VICcity	269	368
Template:VICcity	35	47
Template:VICcity	296	390
Template:VICcity	414	454
Template:VICcity	370	391

Population
Locality	2016	2021
Template:VICcity	267	297
Template:VICcity^	1,474	1,746
Template:VICcity	3,683	4,151
Template:VICcity	1,114	1,327
Template:VICcity	276	277
Template:VICcity	89	120
Template:VICcity	782	852
Template:VICcity^	1,578	6,182
Template:VICcity	240	251

Population
Locality	2016	2021
Template:VICcity^	97	93
Template:VICcity	151	167
Template:VICcity^	86	110
Template:VICcity	13,258	18,534
Template:VICcity	107	95
Template:VICcity^	1,954	2,456
Template:VICcity	179	171
Template:VICcity	138	147

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

See also

• List of localities (Victoria)

External links

• Surf Coast Shire Council official website
• Great Ocean Road Journey, Victoria, Australia (replaces the Surf Coast Tourist website)
• Metlink local public transport map
• Link to Land Victoria interactive maps
• The Anglesea & District Historical Society Inc.
• Template:Victorian local government areas pre-1994 vs present map link