Municipality of Ashfield

This article is about the local government area. For the suburb, see Ashfield, New South Wales.

Municipality of Ashfield New South Wales
Location in Metropolitan Sydney, 1871–2016
Coordinates	33°53′S 151°08′E
Population	41,214 (2011 census)
• Density	4,971.5/km2 (12,876/sq mi)
Established	28 December 1871
Abolished	12 May 2016 (2016-05-12)
Area	8 km2 (3.1 sq mi)
Council seat	Civic Centre, Ashfield
Region	Inner West
LGAs around Municipality of Ashfield: Canada Bay Iron Cove Leichhardt Burwood Municipality of Ashfield Leichhardt Canterbury Canterbury Petersham/ Marrickville

The Municipality of Ashfield was a local government area in the Inner West of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) west of the Sydney central business district. The municipality was proclaimed on 28 December 1871 as the "Borough of Ashfield", which changed to the "Municipality of Ashfield" in 1906. On 12 May 2016, Ashfield merged with Marrickville Council and the Municipality of Leichhardt to form the Inner West Council.

The last mayor of the municipality was councillor Lucille McKenna, a member of the Australian Labor Party.

In December 2021, a majority of voters in Inner West Council voted in favour of reversing the 2016 merger and separating the three pre-existing councils of Ashfield, Leichhardt and Marrickville.

Suburbs

The municipality comprised the following suburbs and localities:

• Ashfield
• Dobroyd Point
• Haberfield
• Summer Hill

It also included parts of:

• Ashbury (shared with City of Canterbury)
• Croydon (shared with Municipality of Burwood)
• Hurlstone Park (shared with City of Canterbury)
• Croydon Park (shared with City of Canterbury and the Municipality of Burwood)

Council history

Ashfield Town Hall in 1938. The original Victorian building was extensively remodelled in the Art Deco style in the 1920s. This building was demolished in the 1970s to make way for Ashfield Mall and the current Civic Centre.

The "Borough of Ashfield" was proclaimed in the New South Wales Government Gazette on 28 December 1871 and was originally divided into two wards, North Ward and South Ward.

Local issues in the area, before the forced merge into Inner West Council, included the redevelopment of Ashfield Mall and concerns about overdevelopment in general; construction of the M4 East tunnel because it might lead to increased traffic and pollution; and the general state of the commercial area, which one councillor labelled 'Trashfield'. Also contentious was Ashfield Council itself. In 2003, it was described by the Daily Telegraph as one of the worst councils in Sydney after one councillor took out a restraining order against another. By 2008, another councillor was sacked for not being a bona fide resident of the municipality while other councillors had made outspoken comments on issues such as the Iraq War, bird flu, the Monarchy and 30 km/h speed limits within residential areas. In 2009, Councillor Nick Adams was given a six-month suspension from the Liberal Party of Australia for conduct deemed likely to "embarrass or cause damage to" the Party during an altercation with a journalist.

A 2015 review of local government boundaries recommended that the Municipality of Ashfield merge with the Municipality of Leichhardt and the Marrickville Council to form a new council with an area of 35 square kilometres (14 sq mi) and support a population of approximately 186,000. On 12 May 2016, Ashfield merged with Marrickville Council and the Municipality of Leichhardt to form the Inner West Council.

Demographics

At the 2011 Census, there were 41,214 people in the Ashfield local government area, of these 48.6% were male and 51.4% were female. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 0.6% of the population. The median age of people in the Municipality of Ashfield was 37 years. Children aged 0 – 14 years made up 15.1% of the population and people aged 65 years and over made up 14.4% of the population. Of people in the area aged 15 years and over, 45.1% were married and 10.0% were either divorced or separated.

Population growth in The Municipality of Ashfield between the 2001 Census and the 2006 Census was 1.76%; while in the subsequent five years to the 2011 Census, population growth was 3.90%. When compared with total population growth of Australia for the same periods, being 5.78% and 8.32% respectively, population growth in Ashfield local government area was significantly less than the national average. The median weekly income for residents within the Municipality of Ashfield of was generally on par with the national average.

At the 2011 Census, the proportion of residents in Ashfield local government area who stated their ancestry as Chinese was in excess of four times the state and national averages; and the proportion of households where an Asian language was spoken at home was about six times higher than the national average.

Historical census data for Ashfield local government area
Population			2001	2006	2011
Population		Estimated residents on Census night	38,981	39,667	41,214
		LGA rank in terms of size within New South Wales		54
		% of New South Wales population		0.6%	0.60%
		% of Australian population	0.21%	0.20%	0.19%
Cultural and language diversity
Ancestry, top responses		English			14.9%
		Australian			14.8%
		Chinese			13.3%
		Italian			8.5%
		Irish			6.9%
Language, top responses (other than English)		Mandarin	6.1%	8.8%	9.1%
		Italian	9.2%	7.7%	6.8%
		Cantonese	4.9%	4.9%	4.5%
		Nepali	n/c	n/c	2.7%
		Greek	2.6%	2.4%	2.3%
Religious affiliation
Religious affiliation, top responses		Catholic	36.6%	33.7%	30.6%
		No religion	16.9%	20.9%	25.8%
		Anglican	10.5%	8.8%	7.8%
		Hinduism	n/c	n/c	5.8%
		Buddhism	4.2%	4.7%	5.3%
Median weekly incomes
Personal income		Median weekly personal income		A$514	A$628
		% of Australian median income			108.8%
Family income		Median weekly family income		A$1,101	A$1,689
		% of Australian median income		107.2%	114.0%
Household income		Median weekly household income		A$1,304	A$1,413
		% of Australian median income		111.4%	114.5%

Council

New Ashfield Civic Centre

The Municipality of Ashfield became a "no war zone" following a 2004 motion.

The Council Chamber within the original Ashfield Town Hall in 1938.

Final composition and election method

Ashfield Council building

The former Ashfield Municipal Council was generally considered a safe Labor area. As the attached table shows, Labor outpolled all other parties in the area at the final federal, state and council elections before the merge. However, the Liberals and Greens had strong voices in the area with the Council electing a member of the Greens Party as mayor and the northern part of Ashfield was represented by a Liberal Party member in the NSW Parliament. Prior to the 1970s, the area was more conservative, generally returning members who were Free Trade, Nationalist, UAP or Liberal although it wasn't unheard of for Labor members to get elected during this period.

The final council was composed of four Labor councillors, four independents and four Liberals. The last mayor was Lucille McKenna, the Council's first woman mayor.

Ashfield Municipal Council was composed of twelve councillors elected proportionally as four separate wards, each electing three Councillors. All Councillors were elected for a fixed four-year term of office. The mayor and deputy mayor were elected for a one-year term by the councillors at the first meeting of the council in September. The last election was held on 13 September 2012, and the makeup of the council for the term 2012–16, in order of election by ward, was as follows:

Ward	Councillor		Party	Notes
East Ward		Julie Passas	Liberal
		Alex Lofts	Labor	Deputy Mayor
		Caroline Stott	Independent
North East Ward		Ted Cassidy PSM	Independent
		Vittoria Raciti	Liberals
		Lucille McKenna	Labor	Mayor 2013–2016
North Ward		Adriano Raiola	Liberal
		Monica Wangmann	Independent
		Mei Wang	Labor
South Ward		Mark Drury	Labor
		Max Raiola	Liberal
		Morris Mansour	Independent	Mayor 2012–2013

Mayors

This section is an excerpt from List of mayors of Ashfield.[edit]

#	Mayor	Party		Term start	Term end	Notes
1	John Pope			1872	1873
2	Daniel Holborow			1874	1880
3	Thomas Nicholson			1881	1881
4	Mark Hammond			1882	1884
5	John Watkin			1884	1884
1 (2nd term)	John Pope			1885	1885
6	Joseph Mortley			1886	1887
7	Joseph Watkin			1888	1888
8	Thomas Dean			1888	1888
9	Robert Dougan			1889	1890
10	Albert Brown			1891	1892
11	Richard Stanton			1893	7 March 1895
12	Ninian Melville		Protectionist	8 March 1895	23 February 1896
13	John Upward			24 February 1896	1897
14	Francis Josephson			1898	1898
15	William Robson		Free Trade	1899	1899
16	John Mills			1900	1900
17	Ernest Broughton		Liberal Reform	1901	1902
18	Arthur Miller		Liberal Reform	1903	1905
11 (2nd term)	Richard Stanton			1906	1906
19	Charles Webdale			1907	1907
20	George Brown			1908	1908
21	Herbert Pratten		Liberal Reform	1909	1911
22	Alfred Crane		Liberal Reform	1911	1912
23	Charles Algie			1913	1914
24	John Hammond			1915	1917
25	John Yeo			1917	1919
26	Frank Hedger		Nationalist	1919	1920
27	George Watson		Nationalist	1920	1922
24 (2nd term)	John Hammond			1922	1923
28	D McDonald		Nationalist	1923	1925
26 (2nd term)	Frank Hedger		Nationalist	1925	1929
29	Henry Gough		Nationalist	1929	1932
30	John Lapish		United Australia	1932	1933
31	William Grainger		United Australia	1933	1935
32	Thomas Cavill		United Australia	1935	1938
33	Edward Allman		United Australia	1938	1943
34	J Lindsay			1943	1944
32 (2nd term)	Thomas Cavill		Liberal	1944	1946
35	Ralph Tetley		Liberal	1946	1948
36	Thomas Marshall		Independent	1948	1950
37	Richard Murden		Liberal	1950	1952
38	Herbert Bailey		Liberal	1952	1954
39	James Blackwood			1954	1957
40	Charles Bullivant			1957	1959
41	Darrell Jackson			1959	1962
42	William Peters		Labor	1962	1964
43	Bede Spillane		Labor	1964	1965
44	Allan Crawford			1965	1967
37 (2nd term)	Richard Murden		Liberal	December 1967	September 1972
45	Paul Whelan		Labor	September 1972	September 1976
46	Lew Herman		Labor	September 1976	September 1991
47	Dr John Ward		Independent	September 1991	September 1995
46 (2nd term)	Lew Herman		Labor	September 1995	September 1996
48	Vincent Sicari		No Aircraft Noise	September 1996	September 1997
49	Mark Bonanno		Labor	September 1997	March 2004
50	Rae Desmond Jones		Labor	March 2004	September 2006
51	Ted Cassidy		Independent	September 2006	September 2011
52	Lyall Kennedy		Greens	September 2011	September 2012
53	Morris Mansour		Independent	September 2012	September 2013
54	Lucille McKenna		Labor	September 2013	12 May 2016

Coat of arms and logo

Coat of arms of Municipality of Ashfield

Notes The arms of the Municipality of Ashfield were granted by the Lord Lyon King of Arms, College of Arms, in 1983 and resulted from a visit for Scottish week in 1982 by Sir Crispin Agnew of Lochnaw (Chief of the Clan Agnew), who suggested that the council pursue the granting of a Coat of Arms based on its early associations with Robert Campbell, an early landowner who named his estates "Ashfield Park", which gave the council its name. He was subsequently commissioned to design the arms, which were granted in 1983. Crest Above the Shield is placed a coronet appropriate to the Municipality (videlicet:- a mural coronet Proper masoned Sable), and on a Wreath of the Liveried is set for Crest a sun rising Or. Escutcheon Azure, five mullets (arranged to represent the constellation of the Southern Cross). Argent a chief gyronny of eight Or and Sable within a cordure azure charged of eight annulets Or, the chief with a fillet Argent in the lower part. Motto AGITE PRO VIRIBUS ("Act according to your strength") Symbolism The arms are based on arms of Robert Campbell, who registered his arms with Lord Lyon.

Logo

Ashfield Council launched a new logo and branding in August 2008, described as an "urban map" of various images representing various buildings and forms in the local area. This branding remained in use (with the arms retained for the most formal uses) until the council's amalgamation.

External links

• Ashfield Municipal Council