The bush body corporate

The procedure for proclaiming Waverley as a new council was more like the formation of a body corporate for a present-day block of units.

There was no local government election, as we know it.

The Governor-General, Sir William Thomas Denison (there was only one Governor-General for the five colonies), issued the proclamation that authorised Waverley’s formation: “Charles St Julian, Esquire of Paddington shall be the first Returning Officer of the said Municipality and the first meeting of the said Electors shall be held at noon … at Waverley … on Thursday, the fourteenth day of July for the purposes of the said Act.”

Earlier in his long proclamation, His Excellency declared that, “the electors … were a Body Corporate under such name and style”.  It was a close parallel to the procedure for a new block of units today.

This proclamation was dated 13th June 1859 – the day we will celebrate at Charing Cross on Sunday, June 14, 2009. It was gazetted on 16th June, 1859.

– BY PETER McCALLUM