Municipality of Redfern

The Municipality of Redfern was a local government area of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The small municipality was proclaimed in 1859 as one of the first municipalities proclaimed under the new provisions of the Municipalities Act, 1858, and was centred on the suburbs of Redfern, Eveleigh, Darlington and Surry Hills. The council was amalgamated, along with most of its neighbours, with the City of Sydney to the north with the passing of the Local Government (Areas) Act 1948. From 1968 to 1982 and from 1989 to 2004, the area was part of the South Sydney councils.

Municipality of Redfern New South Wales
Redfern Town Hall, c. 1871, Mayor George Renwick is pictured at right on the balcony.
Population	18,637 (1947 census)[1]
• Density	11,000/km2 (28,400/sq mi)
Established	11 August 1859
Abolished	31 December 1948
Area	1.7 km2 (0.7 sq mi)
Council seat	Redfern Town Hall
Parish	Alexandria
LGAs around Municipality of Redfern: Darlington Sydney Sydney Newtown Municipality of Redfern Sydney Erskineville Alexandria Waterloo

Council history

When Redfern Municipality was proclaimed in August 1859, the area initially included the areas of Waterloo and Alexandria. However the Municipality of Waterloo was proclaimed in May 1860 and the Municipality of Alexandria separated from Waterloo in August 1868.^[2][3] Upon incorporation in 1859, the municipality was divided into three wards: Redfern, Waterloo and Surry Hills, each electing three Aldermen. With the secession of Waterloo a few months later the wards were rearranged to be Redfern, Belmore and Surry Hills and in 1880 Golden Grove Ward was added to that number.^[4] Under the enactment of The Municipalities Act of 1867, the title of 'Chairman' for the council was changed to be 'Mayor'. With this Act, the council also became known as the Borough of Redfern (From 28 December 1906, with the passing of the Local Government Act, 1906, the council was again renamed as the "Municipality of Redfern"). The Mayor had a set of official robes to wear as part of the office, but they were often boycotted by Labor mayors who affirmed they were against their 'democratic principles'.^[5]

Redfern was notable for being the first suburb in Sydney to have electricity and electric street lighting, which occurred when the Council voted unanimously in 1891 to build its own power station, in Turner Street, to power the suburb. From the late 1910s and 1920s the Redfern area became increasingly populated by the unemployed and working class, employed by industry and the nearby Eveleigh Railway Workshops, resulting in the increasing domination of the Labor Party and left-wing groups in the area.^[6] In 1947 the Communist Party of Australia succeeded in getting their first alderman, Patrick Levelle, elected to the council.^[7][8] As a consequence the council, traditionally held by the merchant and middle classes, frequently found itself divided on simple matters, including the election of the mayor, which required the Minister for Local Government and the Governor to instead appoint the mayor several times.^{[9][10][11][12][13]} This was a situation occurring within many of the inner-city councils as demographics of the area changed dramatically, but Redfern was considered the worst example of a council paralysed by party politics.^[14]

With the Redfern area's close involvement with the labor movement and the Labor Party, the wartime conscription debate affected Redfern Council most particularly. In October 1916 Redfern Council passed a motion "without a dissentient that conscription was not in the best interests in Australia", in direct opposition to the views of ALP Prime Minister Billy Hughes and the Member for Redfern James McGowen. McGowen lost his preselection in Redfern and in response the Redfern ALP Branch president, Alderman John Leitch (Mayor, 1908–1910, 1914–1915) resigned to join the pro-conscriptionists with his friend McGowen.^[15]

By the end of World War II, the Government of New South Wales realised that its ideas of infrastructure expansion could not be effected by the present system of the patchwork of small municipal councils across Sydney and the Minister for Local Government, Joseph Cahill, following the recommendations of the 1945–46 Clancy Royal Commission on Local Government Boundaries, passed a bill in 1948 that abolished a significant number of those councils.^[16] Under the Local Government (Areas) Act 1948, Redfern Municipal Council became the Redfern Ward of the City of Sydney, returning two aldermen.^[17]

Mayors

Francis Augustus Wright
Mayor 1882–1884

Thomas Clarke (1846–1922), Mayor (1890–1891, 1898–1900) and Member of Parliament for Darlington (1898–1901).

John Beveridge (1848–1916), Alderman for Belmore Ward (1886–1891) and Mayor (1891).

Patrick Mooney (1880–1942), Mayor (1925) and Senator for New South Wales (1931–1932).

#	Office	Mayor	Party		Term start	Term end	Time in office	Notes
1	Chairman	Thomas Hayes			14 September 1859	1 June 1861	1 year, 260 days	[18][19]
2		Michael Williamson			1 June 1861	5 February 1862	249 days	[20][21]
3		George Renwick			5 February 1862	5 February 1864	2 years, 0 days	[22][23]
4		Thomas Jones			5 February 1864	10 February 1865	1 year, 5 days	[24]
5		Thomas Wild			10 February 1865	9 February 1866	364 days	[25]
6		William Williamson			9 February 1866	7 February 1867	363 days	[26]
(3)		George Renwick			7 February 1867	13 February 1868	1 year, 6 days	[27]
	Mayor				13 February 1868	16 February 1872	4 years, 3 days	[28]
7		Henry Hudson			16 February 1872	11 February 1874	1 year, 360 days	[29][30]
–		William Williamson			11 February 1874	8 February 1876	1 year, 362 days	[31][32]
8		Patrick Stanley			8 February 1876	11 February 1880	4 years, 3 days	[33][34]
–		Henry Hudson			11 February 1880	9 February 1881	364 days	[29][35]
–		Patrick Stanley			9 February 1881	10 February 1882	1 year, 1 day	[36][37]
9		Francis Augustus Wright			10 February 1882	16 February 1885	3 years, 6 days	[38][39]
10		George Lander			16 February 1885	3 February 1887	1 year, 352 days	[40][41]
11		Edwin Berry			3 February 1887	10 February 1888	1 year, 7 days	[42][43]
12		Thomas Williamson			10 February 1888	14 February 1889	1 year, 4 days	[44][45]
13		John Crowe			14 February 1889	13 February 1890	364 days	[46]
14		Thomas Clarke			13 February 1890	12 February 1891	364 days	[47]
15		John Beveridge			12 February 1891	29 May 1891	106 days	[48][49]
16		George William Howe			2 June 1891	17 February 1893	1 year, 260 days	[50][51]
17		Cornelius Gorton			17 February 1893	15 February 1894	363 days	[52][53]
18		William Davis			15 February 1894	15 February 1895	1 year, 0 days	[54][55]
19		William Poole			15 February 1895	13 February 1896	363 days	[56]
20		George Richard Parkes			13 February 1896	11 February 1897	364 days	[57][58]
21		Joseph Medcalf			11 February 1897	8 February 1898	362 days	[59][60]
–		Edwin Berry			8 February 1898	13 October 1898	247 days	[61][62]
–		Thomas Clarke			13 October 1898	7 February 1900	1 year, 117 days	[63][64]
22		Henry Vernon			7 February 1900	14 February 1901	1 year, 7 days	[65]
23		James Jackson			14 February 1901	12 February 1902	363 days	[66]
24		Thomas Fanning			12 February 1902	12 February 1903	1 year, 0 days	[67]
–		George Richard Parkes			12 February 1903	13 February 1904	1 year, 0 days	[68]
–		Joseph Medcalf			13 February 1904	17 February 1905	1 year, 5 days	[69][70]
–		Cornelius Gorton			17 February 1905	16 February 1906	364 days	[71][72]
25		James Owen Batchelor			16 February 1906	15 February 1907	364 days	[73]
26		George Todd			15 February 1907	7 February 1908	357 days	[74]
27		John Leitch		Labor	7 February 1908	2 February 1911	2 years, 360 days	[9][75][76]
28		Tom Holden			2 February 1911	11 February 1914	3 years, 9 days	[77][78]
–		John Leitch			11 February 1914	4 February 1915	358 days	[79][80]
–		Tom Holden			4 February 1915	12 July 1917	2 years, 158 days	[77][81]
29		Albert Clarke Isaacs			12 July 1917	5 February 1920	2 years, 208 days	[82][83][84]
30		Patrick Roberts		Labor	5 February 1920	6 December 1922	2 years, 304 days	[85][86][87]
31		John Joseph Castle			6 December 1922	20 December 1923	1 year, 14 days	[88]
32		George Boyd			20 December 1923	16 December 1924	362 days	[89][90]
33		Patrick Mooney			16 December 1924	23 December 1926	2 years, 7 days	[91][92][93]
–		Tom Holden			23 December 1926	23 December 1927	1 year, 0 days	[77][94]
34		Francis James Gilmore			23 December 1927	12 December 1928	355 days	[95][96][97]
35		John Hanafin			12 December 1928	19 December 1929	1 year, 7 days	[98]
36		George Waite		Labor	19 December 1929	18 December 1930	364 days	[99]
37		Kenneth John Alexander MacRae			18 December 1930	7 January 1932	1 year, 20 days	[100]
38		George Wheatley			7 January 1932	15 December 1932	343 days	[101]
–		John Joseph Castle			15 December 1932	31 December 1934	2 years, 16 days	[102]
39		Harry Gardiner			31 December 1934	10 January 1936	1 year, 10 days	[11][103]
40		Joseph Malachi Gilmore			10 January 1936	8 January 1937	364 days	[104]
41		Alexis Howarth			8 January 1937	23 December 1937	349 days	[12][105][106]
–		Francis James Gilmore			23 December 1937	21 December 1939	1 year, 363 days	[107]
42		James Francis Edward Gilmore			21 December 1939	11 December 1941	1 year, 355 days	[108][109][110]
43		John Stephen O’Brien			11 December 1941	23 December 1943	2 years, 12 days	[111][112]
44		Thomas Ormond Powell			23 December 1943	13 December 1944	356 days	[113]
45		Edward Robert Elvy			13 December 1944	10 January 1946	1 year, 28 days	[114][115]
46		Joseph Warburton			10 January 1946	18 December 1946	342 days	[13][116]
–		Alexis Howarth			18 December 1946	31 December 1948	2 years, 13 days	[117][118][119]

Town Clerks

R. W. Grierson, Town Clerk of Redfern for 49 years (1885–1934).

#	Town Clerk	Term start	Term end	Time in office	Notes
1	George Philben	14 September 1859	31 December 1861	2 years, 108 days	[120]
2	Edward Richard Jones	1 January 1862	1 February 1863	1 year, 31 days	[121]
3	Thomas Fraser	1 February 1863	1 February 1869	6 years, 0 days	[122][123]
4	William Steele Wardrop	1 February 1869	21 January 1881	11 years, 355 days	[124][125][126]
5	William Neale Parker	21 January 1881	11 June 1885	4 years, 141 days	[127]
6	Robert William Grierson	11 June 1885	30 November 1934	49 years, 172 days	[128][129][130][131]
7	Frank W. Wright	30 November 1934	31 December 1948	14 years, 31 days	[132]

See also

• The Hon. Jim Cope CMG, Redfern Alderman (1947–1948), Member of the Australian House of Representatives (MHR) (1955–1975), Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives (1973–1975).
• Phillip Sullivan, Redfern Alderman (1900), ALP Member of the NSW Legislative Assembly for Darlington and Phillip (1901–1907).