City of Hawkesbury

This article is about the city in Australia. For other places, see Hawkesbury (disambiguation). Local government area in New South Wales, AustraliaLocal government area in New South Wales, AustraliaCity of HawkesburyLocal government areaLocation in Outer Metropolitan Sydney Coordinates: 33°36′41.42″S 150°48′53.68″E / 33.6115056°S 150.8149111°E / -33.6115056; 150.8149111CountryAustraliaStateNew South WalesRegionHawkesburyBlue MountainsGreater Western SydneyEstablished1 January 1981Council seatWindsorGovernment • MayorLes Sheather (Independent) • State electoratesHawkesburyLondonderryRiverstoneUpper Hunter • Federal divisionsMacquarieGreenwayHunterArea • Total2,776 km2 (1,072 sq mi)Population • Total67,207 (LGA 2021)WebsiteCity of Hawkesbury LGAs around City of Hawkesbury Mid-Western Singleton Central Coast & Cessnock Lithgow City of Hawkesbury The Hills Blue Mountains Penrith Blacktown The City of Hawkesbury is a local government area that is located on the far northwest fringe of the Greater Sydney area in New South Wales, Australia. The local government area is located in the Hawkesbury and Blue Mountains regions. Hawkesbury City is named after the Hawkesbury River. Major towns in the City of Hawkesbury are Windsor and Richmond. It is a member council of the Hawkesbury River County Council. The mayor of the City of Hawkesbury is Cr. Les Sheather, an independent.

[edit] Suburbs and localities in the City of Hawkesbury are: Agnes Banks (shared with City of Penrith) Berambing Bilpin Blaxlands Ridge Bligh Park Bowen Mountain Bucketty (shared with Cessnock City Council) Cattai (shared with The Hills Shire) Central Colo Central Macdonald Clarendon Colo Colo Heights Cornwallis Cumberland Reach East Kurrajong Ebenezer Fernances Freemans Reach Glossodia Grose Vale Grose Wold Higher Macdonald Hobartville Kurmond Kurrajong Kurrajong Heights Kurrajong Hills Leets Vale (shared with The Hills Shire) Lower Macdonald Lower Portland (shared with The Hills Shire) Maraylya (shared with The Hills Shire) Mcgraths Hill Mellong Mogo Creek Mountain Lagoon Mulgrave North Richmond Oakville Perrys Crossing Pitt Town Pitt Town Bottoms Putty Richmond Richmond Lowlands Sackville Scheyville South Windsor St Albans Ten Mile Hollow (shared with Central Coast Council) Tennyson The Devils Wilderness The Lowlands The Slopes Upper Colo Upper Macdonald Vineyard (shared with City of Blacktown) Webbs Creek Wheeny Creek Wilberforce Windsor Windsor Downs Wisemans Ferry (shared with Central Coast Council, The Hills Shire and Hornsby Shire) Womerah Wrights Creek Yarramundi

[edit] The original inhabitants of the Hawkesbury district were the Darug tribe of Aboriginals, also spelt as Dharug or Daruk. The river, which they called Derrubbin, was a focal point as a source of food and transport. The Darug people used the river to farm for fish, eels, water birds, and mussels. They also used the river as a mode of transport in bark canoes. It was first settled by Europeans in 1794 in a bid to acquire arable land to feed the increasing population of the penal colony at Sydney. In April 1794, Lieutenant Governor Francis Grose submitted plans for the first 22 farms on the Hawkesbury River in the present Pitt Town Bottoms area. In June 1795, Lieutenant Governor William Paterson deployed troops to engage with Aboriginals inhabiting land along the Hawkesbury River.[editorializing] By 1811 Governor Lachlan Macquarie established the five Macquarie Towns in the area. They are Windsor, Richmond, Castlereagh, Wilberforce and Pitt Town, all located on and around the Hawkesbury River. Many of the early 19th century buildings still survive today. Ebenezer has the oldest surviving church and school building in Australia. Windsor District Council was formed in 1843 and disbanded in 1846. In 1871 the Borough Council of Windsor was founded and the Richmond Borough Council followed in 1872. The two councils amalgamated in 1949 to become the Municipality of Windsor. Colo Shire Council was established in 1906 and joined Windsor Municipal Council from 1 January 1981 to become Hawkesbury Shire Council. On 1 July 1989, Hawkesbury became a City. On its creation in 1981, Hawkesbury was largely rural, but urban expansion within Sydney has since transformed the southern part of the area into dormitory suburbs. The northern part of the local government area still contains some farmlands and national parkland.

[edit] At the 2021 Census, there were 67,207 people in the Hawkesbury local government area. Of these, 49.8% were male and 50.2% were female. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 4.8% of the population, which was 1.6% above the national average. The median age of people in the City of Hawkesbury was 39 years. Children aged 0 – 14 years made up 19.1% of the population and people aged 65 years and over made up 16.6% of the population. Of people in the area aged 15 years and over, 49.3% were married and 12.4% were either divorced or separated. Population in the City of Hawkesbury between the 2001 Census and the 2006 Census decreased by 0.54%; and in the subsequent five years to the 2011 Census, population growth was 2.96%. Between the 2011 and 2016 Census, population increased by a further 1.04%. When compared with total population growth of Australia for the same periods, population growth in Hawkesbury local government area was significantly lower than the national average. The median weekly income for residents within the City of Hawkesbury has been consistently marginally higher than the national average. At the 2021 Census, the proportion of residents in the Hawkesbury local government area who stated their ancestry as Australian or English amounted to 80.8%, representing an increase from 62% in 2011. Many people from the Hawkesbury identified as having a Catholic (26.0%) or Anglican (19.3%) religious affiliation in 2021. Selected historical census data for Hawkesbury local government area Census year 2001 2006 2011 2016 2021 Population Estimated residents on census night 60,887  60,561  62,353  64,592  67,207 LGA rank in terms of size within New South Wales 34th align="right" align="right"| % of New South Wales population 0.90%  1.66%  0.83% % of Australian population 0.32%  0.31%  0.29%  0.27%  0.26% Cultural and language diversity Ancestry,top responses Australian 32.6%  30.4%  41.1% English 29.5%  29.5%  39.7% Irish 7.6%  8.3%  10.6% Scottish 6.3%  6.8% 9.5% Maltese 3.1%  3.5%  5.8% Language,top responses(other than English) Maltese 0.8%  0.7%  0.8%  0.9%  0.9% Italian 0.6%  0.6%  0.5%  0.4%  0.4% Cantonese – – – 0.3%  0.3% German 0.3%  0.3%  0.3%  0.3% – Arabic 0.3%  0.3%  0.3%  0.3%  0.4% Punjabi – – – – 0.5% Religious affiliation Religious affiliation,top responses Catholic 26.6%  27.3%  28.2%  27.5%  26.0% Anglican 30.9%  29.9%  29.4%  24.6%  19.3% No Religion 12.2%  14.8%  16.7%  23.9%  33.7% Not stated – – – 8.3%  5.5% Uniting Church 5.7%  5.0%  4.4%  3.3%  2.6% Presbyterian and Reformed 3.0%  5.7%  2.8% – – Median weekly incomes Personal income Median weekly personal income – $527  $622  $728  $860 % of Australian median income – 113.1%  107.8%  110.0%  106.8% Family income Median weekly family income – $1,146  $1,598  $1,916  $2,272 % of Australian median income – 111.6%  107.9%  110.5%  107.1% Household income Median weekly household income – $1,290  $1,385  $1,668  $1,980 % of Australian median income – 110.2%  112.2%  116.0%  113.4%

[edit] Current composition and election method[edit] Hawkesbury City Council is composed of twelve councillors elected proportionally as one entire ward. All councillors are elected for a fixed four-year term of office. The mayor is elected by the councillors at the first meeting of the council. The most recent election was held on 14 September 2024, and the makeup of the council is as follows: Party Councillors Liberal Party 4 Independents and Unaligned 4 Labor Party 1 Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party 1 The Greens 1 The Small Business Party 1 Total 12 The current Council, elected in 2024, is: Councillor Party Notes Nathan Zamprogno Independent Sarah McMahon Liberal Deputy Mayor 2024–date Mary Lyons-Buckett Independent Mike Creed Liberal Tom Aczel Independent Paul Veigel Liberal Jill Reardon Liberal Danielle Wheeler Greens Les Sheather Independent Mayor 2024-date Eddie Dogramaci The Small Business Party Amanda Kotlash Labor Shane Djuric Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party

[edit] 2024[edit] This section is an excerpt from 2024 Hawkesbury City Council election § Results summary.[edit] 2024 Hawkesbury City Council election: Results summary Party Votes % Swing Seats Change   Liberal 10,997 27.3 −7.1 4   Independents 7,417 18.4 2   People Not Parties 4,879 12.1 +2.4 2 1   Shooters, Fishers, Farmers 4,529 11.2 +4.1 1   Labor 4,337 10.7 −1.4 1 1   Greens 3,930 9.7 +2.6 1   Small Business 3,474 8.6 +4.0 1   Hawkesbury's Future 785 2.0 +2.0 0  Formal votes 40,348 93.5  Informal votes 2,808 6.5  Total 43,156 100.0 12  Registered voters / turnout 50,010 86.3 2021[edit] This section is an excerpt from Results of the 2021 New South Wales local elections in Outer Sydney § Hawkesbury.[edit] Elected councillor Party   Sarah McMahon Liberal   Patrick Conolly Liberal   Paul Veigel Liberal   Jill Reardon Liberal   Barry Calvert Labor   Amanda Kotlash Labor   Mary Lyons-Buckett People Not Parties   Nathan Zamprogno Ind. Liberal   Les Sheather Les and The Doc   Shane Djuric SFF   Danielle Wheeler Greens   Eddie Dogramaci Small Business 2021 New South Wales local elections: Hawkesbury Party Candidate Votes % ±% Liberal 13,577 34.3 +6.0 Labor 4,783 12.1 −4.3 People Not Parties 3,846 9.7 Independent Liberal 3,357 8.5 Les and The Doc 2,916 7.4 Shooters, Fishers, Farmers 2,821 7.1 +7.1 Greens 2,795 7.1 −0.8 Small Business 1,899 4.8 +4.8 Andrew Cadman Group 1,070 2.7 Independent 947 2.4 Hawkesbury Alliance 944 2.4 The Locals 448 1.1 Independent John Ross 85 0.2 Total formal votes 39,488 94.9 Informal votes 2,135 5.1 Turnout 41,623 86.1

[edit] Mayor Party Term Notes 1981 – 27 September 1994 Dr Rex Stubbs Independent 27 September 1994 – 30 September 1997 30 September 1997 – 29 September 1999 Dr Rex Stubbs OAM Independent 29 September 1999 – 27 September 2004 Bart Bassett Liberal 27 September 2004 – 18 September 2006 Dr Rex Stubbs OAM Independent 18 September 2006 – 18 September 2007 Bart Bassett Liberal 18 September 2007 – 20 September 2011 Kim Ford 20 September 2011 – 10 September 2016 Mary Lyons-Buckett Independent 27 September 2016 – 18 September 2018 Barry Calvert Labor 18 September 2018 – 22 September 2020 Patrick Conolly Liberal 22 September 2020 – 23 August 2022 Sarah McMahon Liberal 23 August 2022 – date