How Waverley and Randwick became Sydney’s pioneer councils
BY PETER McCALLUM
Waverley Council celebrates its 150th anniversary in June this year, with Randwick following in February.
Since local governments are everyone’s favourite whipping boys, some wicked wags are questioning whether these events should be celebrated at all!
The odd thing is that, at least in Waverley, there was little demand for a council – the move was sparked by an event happening over 100 miles west!
The discovery of gold at Turon Valley, near Bathurst, in 1851 turned the colony of New South Wales into a hotbed of activity overnight. Ships carrying optimistic diggers soon arrived. The population climbed quickly and the administration, having a monopoly on the buying and selling of gold, suddenly went from having empty coffers to revelling in revenues beyond their wildest dreams.
Meanwhile, the Colonial Office back in London took a more sombre view of all this. High on its agenda was the convict system which the colonists had long regarded with acute disdain. It was obvious that transportation to Botany Bay was no longer a punishment!
The loss of those 13 colonies in North America over such proclaimed issues of ‘taxation without representation’ still remained firmly in the imperial memory. Already gold prospectors were rebelling against the cost of licences to dig for gold. Previously dismissed calls for elected chambers to take charge of governance in the Australian colonies, especially the expenditure of government funds, suddenly found favour with London.
By 1855, it was agreed that a second chamber, an elected Legislative Assembly would be formed. It would hold the purse strings rather than the nominated Legislative Council which had simply advised the Governor.
But now, local issues in the growing rash of communities beyond the city were becoming an unwanted distraction for the hard pressed organs of government. The sentiment now was that locals should sort out their own problems with landowners paying rates and electing people to decide the use of their funds and employment of staff.
Randwick and Wollongong (apart from the much earlier Council for the City of Sydney) were the first to be proclaimed as municipalities in February, 1859. Well established coastal and inland towns followed in June; then the village of Charing Cross became the second area close to Sydney to be proclaimed a municipality, though it used the district name Waverley.
These communities seem to have been selected as the most likely to succeed with this new level of government. Waverley’s was proclaimed on June 13, 1859.
What happened next will be revealed to Waverley’s assembled historians by the council’s Local Studies Librarian, Kimberly O’Sullivan Steward, on the 1st floor of Club Bondi Junction (the RSL) on Monday, February 9. Admission is free.
