City of Brimbank

The City of Brimbank is a local government area located within the metropolitan area of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is located 10 kilometres west of the Melbourne city centre and is the gateway to Melbourne’s western suburbs.

City of Brimbank Victoria
Map of Melbourne showing City of Brimbank
Population	196,046 (2023)[1] (25th)
• Density	1,594/km2 (4,128/sq mi)
Established	1994
Area	123 km2 (47.5 sq mi)[1]
Mayor	Ranka Rasic (Labor)
Council seat	Sunshine
Region	Greater Melbourne
State electorate(s)	Kororoit Laverton Niddrie St Albans Sunbury Sydenham
Federal division(s)	Fraser Gorton Hawke Maribyrnong
Website	City of Brimbank
LGAs around City of Brimbank: Hume Hume Merri-bek Melton City of Brimbank Moonee Valley, Maribyrnong Wyndham Wyndham Hobsons Bay

The city has an area of 123 km² and in 2021, Brimbank had a population of 194,618. It is the second largest municipality in metropolitan Melbourne.

With more than half of its residents born overseas and more than 160 languages spoken, Brimbank is one of Australia’s most multiculturally diverse municipalities.

History

The Wurundjeri people have been the custodians of the land in the Port Phillip Bay region, including the current City of Brimbank, for over 40,000 years before European settlement. Brimbank lies within the area occupied by the Kurung-Jang-Balluk and Marin-Balluk clans of the Wurundjeri people (also known as the Woiwurung language group) who form part of the larger Kulin Nation. Other groups who occupied land in the area include the Yalukit-Willam and Marpeang-Bulluk clans.

Brimbank was founded on 15 December 1994 during the amalgamations of local councils by the state government. It was formed after the merger of the former Cities of Keilor and Sunshine. It was named after Brimbank Park in Keilor, which itself was named for the practice of local farmers driving livestock "around the brim of the bank" of the Maribyrnong River.^[2]

The municipality has thirteen places listed on the Victorian Heritage Register.^[3]

Misconduct investigations and dismissal

In 2008 and 2009, the Brimbank City Council was the subject of several investigations into alleged misconduct by councillors.

On 30 July 2008, the state MP for Keilor, George Seitz, invoked parliamentary privilege in the Legislative Assembly to accuse former Brimbank mayor Cr Natalie Suleyman of branch stacking, describing her as the "Robert Mugabe of Brimbank". Seitz alleged that Suleyman had 'retaliated' by directing Council to block funding for capital works projects after she was defeated in Labor Party preselection for the 2008 Kororoit state by-election.^[4][5] Following disclosures made under the Whistleblowers Protection Act 2001, the Victorian Ombudsman, George Brouwer, commenced an investigation into the Council in September.^[6]

Brouwer's report was presented to Parliament on 7 May 2009, and found councillors were "generally dysfunctional",^[7] "lacked awareness of their role",^[8] and were "influenced" by unelected third parties.^[9] The report asserted that between 2005 and 2008, decisions were reached by a majority (or 'ruling') faction of councillors who would vote on decisions as a bloc.^[7] Of the 6 members of the 'ruling faction', only two were re-elected to council in 2008.

The report concluded that:

• External parties, including state MPs George Seitz and Theo Theophanous, and former federal MP Andrew Theophanous, had unduly influenced council business,^[10]
• The 'ruling faction' "did not exercise reasonable care" in directing Brimbank CEO Marilyn Duncan to remove funding for the Keilor Lodge Reserve project,^[11]
• The 'ruling faction' intended to "worry" Seitz by calling for expressions of interest on the Keilor Lodge Reserve site,^[12]
• Cr Suleyman acted "with inappropriate partiality" in prioritising works at Cairnlea Park in the Council's 2008–09 budget,^[13]
• Cr Eriksson contravened the Council's Code of Governance by releasing confidential information to the Sunshine Advocate, Brimbank Leader and Brimbank Star newspapers,^[14]
• The Labor Party had appeared to breach the Electoral Act by distributing prohibited material to Cr Capar,^[15]
• Councillors had misused council-owned laptops and BlackBerry devices,^[16][17]
• Council had failed to handle the severance package of outgoing CEO Marilyn Duncan "in an open and transparent manner",^[18]
• The 'ruling faction' had determined the election of mayor until 2013,^[19] and
• Local Government Victoria had failed to adequately deal with complaints from residents about Council decision-making.^[19]

In response to the Brouwer report, the Minister for Local Government, Richard Wynne, appointed William Scales to closely monitor the council over a three-month period.^[20] In his second report Scales found that, despite being closely monitored, there remained widespread misconduct amongst councillors, and recommended that councillors should be suspended or dismissed from their positions.^[21] David Walker, a former police detective, was also appointed to investigate possible breaches of the Local Government Act.^[22]

On 15 September, Wynne announced that Council would be dismissed, with administrators appointed until November 2012.^[23] On 17 November, the Victorian Government appointed Peter Lewinsky, Joanne Anderson and Meredith Sussex as administrators for a three-year period.^[24] Investigations into the conduct of Seitz, along with councillors Suleyman, Kathryn Eriksson and Troy Atanasovski, concluded in December with the Local Government Inspectorate informing those involved that it would take no further action.^[25]

In May 2012, the Victorian Government announced it would extend the tenure of administrators for a further three years,^[26] with Lewinsky reappointed alongside John Watson and former Brimbank commissioner Jane Nathan.^[27]

In October 2016, council elections were held in Brimbank for the first time in eight years. Two former councillors were re-elected: Sam David and Margaret Giudice, the latter having rescinded her Labor Party membership in 2014.^[28]

Wards and councillors

City of Brimbank Council
Leadership
Mayor	Bruce Lancashire
Structure
Council political groups	Ind. Labor (5)   Independent (4)   Greens (1)   Ind. Liberal (1)
Meeting place
Sunshine, Victoria, Australia

Party		Councillors
	Independent Labor	5
	Independent	4
	Greens	1
	Independent Liberal	1
Total		11

The councillors following the October 2024 local elections are:

Ward	Party		Councillor	Notes
Albanvale		Independent	Victoria Borg	Deputy Mayor[29]
Cherry Creek		Independent Labor	Kim Thien Truong
Copernicus		Independent Liberal	Maria Kerr
Delahey		Independent Labor	Katharine Nikolic
Grasslands		Independent Labor	Thuy Dang	Mayor[29]
Harvester		Independent Labor	Daniel Kruk
Horseshoe Bend		Independent	Virginia Tachos
Kororoit Creek		Greens	Lucy Nguyen
Mount Derrimut		Independent	Joh Bauch
Organ Pipes		Independent Labor	Ranka Rasic
St Albans East		Independent	Duyen Anh Pham

Mayors

Mayors (1998– 2009)

No.	Mayor	Party		Term
1	Ciro Lombardi		Labor	1998
2	Sam David JP		Labor	1998–1999
3	Brooke Gujinovic		Labor	1999–2000
4	Charlie Apap		Labor	2000–2001
5	Natalie Suleyman		Labor	2001–2002
6	Andres Puig		Labor	2002–2003
(2)	Sam David JP		Labor	2003–2004
(5)	Natalie Suleyman		Labor	2004–2006
7	Margaret Giudice		Labor	2006–2007
(2)	Sam David JP		Labor	2007–2008
8	Troy Atanasovski JP		Labor	2008–2009

Administrators (2009–2016)

Administrators	Term
Peter Lewinsky (chair) Joanne Anderson Meredith Sussex AM	2009–2012
John Watson (chair) Peter Lewinsky Jane Nathan	2012–2014
John Watson (chair) Jane Nathan John Tanner	2014–2016

Mayors (2016–present)

No.	Mayor	Party		Term
9	John Hedditch		Independent	2016–2017
(7)	Margaret Giudice		Independent	2017–2018
10	Lucinda Congreve		Independent	2018–2019
11	Georgina Papafotiou		Independent	2019–2020
12	Ranka Rasic		Labor	2020–2021
13	Jasmine Nguyen		Labor	2021-2022
14	Bruce Lancashire		Independent	2022-2023
(12)	Ranka Rasic		Labor	2023-2024
15	Thuy Dang		Labor	2024-2025

Demographics

Selected historical census data for City of Brimbank local government area
Census year			2001[30]	2006[31]	2011[32]	2016[33]	2021[34]
Population		Estimated residents on census night	162,931	168,215	182,735	194,319	194,618
		LGA rank in terms of size within Victoria		3rd	3rd	6th	5th
		% of Victoria population	3.53%	3.41%	3.41%	3.28%	2.99%
		% of Australian population	0.87%	0.85%	0.85%	0.83%	0.77%
Cultural and language diversity
Ancestry, top responses		Vietnamese	9.1%	10.7%	12.8%	16.0%	16.9%
		Australian	15.1%	15.1%	12.9%	12.4%	12.6%
		English	12.0%	11.8%	11.8%	11.7%	11.6%
		Chinese	4.5%	5.1%	5.9%	6.5%	6.8%
		Italian	8.3%	7.8%	7.0%	6.5%	6.2%
		Maltese	9.4%	8.1%	6.7%	5.7%	5.2%
Language, top responses (other than English)		Vietnamese	10.4%	12.6%	14.2%	16.2%	18.5%
		Tagalog/Filipino			2.7%	2.7%	2.5%
		Greek	4.2%	3.7%	3.2%	2.7%	2.4%
		Punjabi			2.3%	2.9%	2.2%
		Arabic			2.3%	2.2%	2.2%
		Macedonian	4.1%	3.5%	2.9%	2.4%	2.2%
		Maltese	5.2%	4.0%	3.3%	2.7%	2.1%
		Italian	4.6%	3.8%	3.2%	2.5%	2.0%
Religious affiliation
Religious affiliation, top responses		Catholic	42.9%	40.1%	36.1%	31.3%	29.6%
		No religion	7.9%	9.3%	11.0%	16.8%	21.0%
		Buddhism	9.1%	10.8%	11.8%	10.8%	11.1%
		Islam			5.6%	5.8%	6.7%
		Orthodox	11.6%	10.5%	9.2%	6.4%	6.0%
		Anglican	5.9%	5.3%	4.5%	3.1%	2.4%
Median weekly incomes
Personal income		Median weekly personal income		A$358	A$429	A$487
		% of Australian median income		76.8%	74.4%	73.6%
Family income		Median weekly family income		A$1029	A$1195	A$1358
		% of Australian median income		87.8%	80.7%	78.3%
Household income		Median weekly household income		A$921	A$1106	A$1263
		% of Australian median income		98.2%	89.6%	87.8%
Dwelling structure
Dwelling type		Separate house	88.7%	82.4%	76.9%	73.2%
		Semi-detached, terrace or townhouse	4.0%	10.3%	5.0%	13.1%
		Flat or apartment	6.3%	7.0%	7.5%	4.5%

Townships and localities

The 2021 census, the city had a population of 194,618 up from 194,319 in the 2016 census^[35]

Population
Locality	2016	2021
Albanvale	5,491	5,641
Albion	4,731	4,334
Ardeer	3,103	3,170
Brooklyn^	8	10
Cairnlea	9,657	10,038
Calder Park	0	0
Deer Park	18,126	18,145
Delahey	8,339	8,077
Derrimut	8,269	8,651
Hillside^	1,174	1,156
Kealba	3,194	3,226
Keilor^	5,853	5,906
Keilor Downs	9,995	9,857
Keilor East^	0	0
Keilor Lodge	1,752	1,668
Keilor North	67	67
Keilor Park	2,719	2,684
Kings Park	8,198	8,203
St Albans	37,309	38,042
Sunshine	9,768	9,445
Sunshine North	11,700	12,047
Sunshine West	18,580	18,552
Sydenham	10,838	10,578
Taylors Lakes	15,519	15,174
Tullamarine^	11	9

^ - Territory divided with another LGA

Environmental issues

In 2021, Brimbank was recognised as Melbourne's smelliest local government area with more than 640 complaints from residents mainly due to the large amount of industries in the area.^[36] This includes the Kealba Sunshine Landfill which produced a smell described as "rotting carcasses" for three years. EPA Victoria suspended and then cancelled the license to operate the landfill by Barro Group.^[37]