Blacktown City Council


Blacktown City Council is a local government area in Western Sydney, situated on the Cumberland Plain, approximately west of the Sydney central business district, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Established in 1906 as the Blacktown Shire and becoming the Municipality of Blacktown in 1961 before gaining city status in 1979, the City occupies an area of and has a population of 366,534, making it the second most populous local government area in Sydney.
The Mayor of the Blacktown City Council is Cr. Tony Bleasdale, OAM, a member of the Australian Labor Party, who was elected on 9 October 2019 following the resignation of Stephen Bali, MP.

History

The first road from Prospect to Richmond became known as the "Black Town Road" and in 1860 the Railway Department gave the name of "Black Town Road Station" to the railway station at the junction of the railway and the Black Town Road, with the name shortening to "Blacktown" by 1862. The Blacktown area was first incorporated on 6 March 1906 as the "Shire of Blacktown" alongside 132 other new shires across the state as a result of the passing of the Local Government Act, 1905. The first five-member temporary council was appointed on 15 May 1906 and first met on 20 June in the Rooty Hill School of Arts. The Blacktown Shire became the "Municipality of Blacktown" on 17 June 1961 and was granted city status on 9 March 1979, becoming the "City of Blacktown".

Heritage listings

The City of Blacktown has a number of heritage-listed sites, including those on the New South Wales State Heritage Register:
These are the suburbs and localities in the local government area:

Demographics

At the, there were people resident in the Blacktown local government area, of these 49.7 per cent were male and 50.3 per cent were female. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 2.8 per cent of the population, which was slightly higher than the NSW and Australian averages of 2.9 and 2.8 per cent respectively. The median age of people in the City of Blacktown was 33 years, which was significantly lower than the national median of 38 years. Children aged 0 – 14 years made up 22.8 per cent of the population and people aged 65 years and over made up 9.0%10.3 per cent of the population. Of people in the area aged 15 years and over, 52.3 per cent were married and 9.9 per cent were either divorced or separated.
Population growth in the City of Blacktown between the and the was 6.47 per cent; and in the subsequent five years to the, population growth was 10.82 per cent. At the 2016 census, the population in the local government area increased by 11.91 per cent. When compared with total population growth of Australia for the same period, being 8.8 per cent, population growth in Blacktown local government area was in excess of 35% more than the national average. The median weekly income for residents within the City of Blacktown was generally on par with the national average.
At the 2016 census, the proportion of residents in the Blacktown local government area who stated their ancestry as Filipino, was in excess of six times the national average. The proportion of residents who stated a religious affiliation with Hinduism was in excess of three times the national average; the proportion of Catholics was 33 per cent above the national average; and the proportion of residents with no religion about half the national average. Meanwhile, as at the census date, the area was linguistically diverse, with Tagalog, Hindi, Punjabi, or Filipino languages spoken in households, and ranged from five times to eight times the national averages. Pacific Island languages such as Samoan and Tongan were also noticeable in the area.

Council

Current composition and election method

Blacktown City Council is composed of fifteen Councillors elected proportionally as five separate wards, each electing three Councillors. All Councillors are elected for a fixed four-year term of office. The Mayor is elected by the Councillors at the first meeting of the Council and since 2016 has served a two-year term. The Mayor from 2014 to 2019, Stephen Bali was required to stand down from Council as a Mayor and Councillor by October 2019, due to the which requires state members of parliament to relinquish local government offices no more than two years after their election. With Bali's resignation on 9 October 2019, Cr Tony Bleasdale was elected Mayor.
The most recent election was held on 10 September 2016, and the makeup of the Council is as follows:
The current Council, elected in 2016, in order of election by ward, is:

Office-holders

Shire Presidents and Mayors

Shire/Town Clerks and General Managers

Coat of arms

After becoming a city in 1979, the Council resolved to investigate and if possible obtain a coat of arms, making a request to the Chester Herald of Arms, Hubert Chesshyre. With the design completed by March 1981, Council resolved to adopt the Coat of Arms at its meeting on 1 April 1981.

Sister cities

Blacktown City Council has sister city relations with the following cities: