115-596: Balranald / b æ l ˈ r æ n əl d / is a town within the local government area of Balranald Shire , in the Murray region of far south-western New South Wales , Australia. The town of Balranald is located where the Sturt Highway crosses the Murrumbidgee River in a remote, semi- desert area. Although it is part of New South Wales , Balranald receives Victorian television stations, with
230-588: A unitary authority , but the Australian Bureau of Statistics refers to the whole of the ACT as an unincorporated area. The ACT Government directorate Transport Canberra & City Services handles responsibilities that are under the purview of local government in other parts of Australia, such as local road maintenance, libraries and waste collection. Many Canberra districts have community organisations called "community councils", but these are not part of
345-589: A Chinese gong ; the equipment all together weighed as much as twenty tonnes. Committee member Captain Francis Cadell had offered to transport the equipment from Adelaide up the Murray River to the junction with the Darling River to be collected on the way. However, Burke declined his offer, possibly because Cadell had opposed Burke's appointment as leader of the expedition. Instead, all of
460-611: A Gospel Hall, a hospital, a branch of the Australian Joint Stock Bank , and a Masonic Hall. By 1888 a Presbyterian church had been built there. The first public telephone service in Balranald was installed in 1911. The Balranald Municipal Council underwent financial difficulties, and in 1912 the NSW Government appointed a Receiver to take charge of affairs. The difficulties seem to have been overcome by
575-728: A Mr Robertson. In 1849 the Crown Lands Commissioner MacDonald recommended to the Colonial Secretary that a township be established at the location. MacDonald was a Scotsman, born at Balranald on North Uist in the Outer Hebrides; he chose the name of his birthplace for the new settlement. He pointed out that the township's position, on the lower reaches of the Murrumbidgee River, was expected to be of strategic importance with
690-550: A deputy commander. Its objective was the crossing of Australia from Melbourne in the south to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north, a distance of around 3,250 kilometres (approximately 2,000 miles). At that time most of the inland of Australia had not been explored by non- Indigenous people and was largely unknown to European settlers. The expedition left Melbourne in winter. Very bad weather, poor roads and broken-down horse wagons meant they made slow progress at first. After dividing
805-591: A geographic or historical interpretation. The council board members are generally known as councillors , and the head councillor is called the mayor . As of August 2016, there were 547 local councils in Australia. Despite the single tier of local governance in Australia, there are a number of extensive regions with relatively low populations that are not a part of any established LGA. Powers of local governments in these unincorporated areas may be exercised by special-purpose governing bodies established outside of
920-545: A larger workload. The growth of the Regional Organisations of Councils has also been a factor in local government reform in Australia. In 1995, there were 50 such agreements across the country. A 2002 study identified 55 ROCs with the largest involving 18 councils. Local government powers are determined by state governments, and states have primary responsibility for funding and exclusive responsibility for supervision of local councils. Local government
1035-537: A leader for the Victorian Exploring Expedition . Only two members of the committee, Ferdinand von Mueller and Wilhelm Blandowski , had any experience in exploration. However, due to factionalism , both men were consistently outvoted. Several people were considered for the post of leader and the RSV held a range of meetings in early 1860. Robert O'Hara Burke was selected by committee ballot as
1150-410: A message on a tree to mark the spot. Brahe blazed two trees ( 27°37′26″S 141°04′33″E / 27.623902°S 141.075784°E / -27.623902; 141.075784 ) at Camp 65. Located on the banks of Cooper Creek, both are coolibahs ( Eucalyptus coolabah formerly Eucalyptus microtheca ) and both are estimated to be at least 250 years old. One tree has two blazes on it; one denoting
1265-495: A painting of this skirmish. On 29 April, Brahe's group arrived at the Bulloo River after abandoning Camp 65 eight days previously. They united with Wright's group and started to head back to Menindee to try and save their remaining men. However, Wright and Brahe decided to make one last quick excursion to Camp 65 to see if Burke had returned. When the two men arrived on 8 May, Burke had already left for Mount Hopeless , and
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#17327975631561380-473: A place called Yaenimemgi, his pistol loaded and capped in his hand. King stayed with his body for two days and then returned downstream to Breerily waterhole, where he found that Wills had died as well. The exact dates on which Burke and Wills died are unknown, and different dates are given on various memorials in Victoria. The Exploration Committee fixed 28 June 1861 as the date both explorers died. After
1495-520: A range of Sydney and Melbourne newspapers available. Balranald was featured heavily in 2010–2015 Australian tourism ads, displaying the natural flora of the region with over 30 subspecies of shrubs native to Balranald and its surrounds. Balranald is located in Mutthi Mutthi traditional country. The area has a long history before non-indigenous settlement and a strong indigenous culture continues to this day. In 1848 George James MacDonald ,
1610-403: A shift from 'services to property' towards 'services to people'. Community expectations of local government in Australia have risen in the 21st century partly as a result of wider participation in decision-making and transparent management practices. Recent years have seen some State governments devolving additional powers onto LGAs. In Queensland and Western Australia LGAs have been granted
1725-414: A stockade for protection. For the rest of April, Wright was stuck at the lagoon, unable to move due to his sick men. Eventually three of the men, Dr Ludwig Becker , Charles Stone and William Purcell, died. Toward the end of the month, a large group of Galali tried to take down the stockade, with Wright's group firing upon and dispersing them. A member of Wright's party, William Hodgkinson , later produced
1840-603: A week, Wills lived with them, sharing a gunyah with a man named Poko Tinnamira and learning some of their language. He became friends with another man called Pitchery, and was supplied with ample water and food. They even de-boned the fish for him before he ate it. By 5 June, Wills left this group to reunite with Burke and King. While Wills was away, Burke and King had also been well cared for by another group of Yandruwandha. However, when one of them took Burke's oilcloth after giving him some fish, Burke ran after him and shot over his head. King had also lined some Yandruwandha up outside
1955-403: Is generally run by a council , and its territory of public administration is referred to generically by the Australian Bureau of Statistics as the local government area or LGA , each of which encompasses multiple suburbs or localities (roughly equivalent to neighborhoods) often of different postcodes ; however, stylised terms such as "city", " borough ", " region " and " shire " also have
2070-531: Is mentioned in the annotated Australian constitution, as a department of the State Governments, and they are mentioned in the constitutions of each of the six states. Under the Constitution, the federal government cannot provide funding directly to local governments; a 1974 referendum sought to amend the Constitution to authorise the federal government to directly fund local governments, but it
2185-692: Is not mentioned in the Constitution of Australia , and two referendums in 1974 and 1988 to alter the Constitution relating to local government were unsuccessful. Every state/territory government recognises local government in its own respective constitution . Unlike the two-tier local government system in Canada or the United States , there is only one tier of local government in each Australian state/territory, with no distinction between counties and cities . The Australian local government
2300-464: Is now the town of Boulia ), Gray was caught stealing skilligolee (a type of watery porridge) and Burke beat him. By 8 April, Gray could not walk; he died on 17 April of dysentery at a place they called Polygonum Swamp. The location of his death is unknown, although it is generally believed to be Lake Massacre in South Australia . While the possibility that Burke killed Gray has been discounted,
2415-447: Is part of a local government area. Unincorporated areas are often in remote locations, cover vast areas, or have very small populations. Queensland and Tasmania are entirely partitioned into LGAs and have no unincorporated areas. The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) has no municipalities. The ACT government is responsible for both state-level and local-level matters. In some countries, such an arrangement would be referred to as
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#17327975631562530-504: Is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state/territory it belongs to. The functions and practices of local councils are mostly centered around managing public services and land uses at the community level, and are similar throughout Australia, but can vary to some degree between jurisdictions. State departments oversee the activities of local councils and may intervene in their affairs when needed, subject to relevant legislation. For more details in each state and territory, see
2645-640: Is the City of Brisbane , the most populous LGA in the country, which administers a significant part of the Brisbane metropolitan area . In most cases, when a city's population statistics are used, it is the statistical division population rather than the local government area. The following table provides a summary of local government areas by states and territories by local government area types as of December 2023: The Australian Classification of Local Governments (ACLG) categorises local governing authorities using
2760-466: The 2021 census , there were 1,063 people in Balranald. [REDACTED] Media related to Balranald at Wikimedia Commons Local government in Australia [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Local government is the third level of government in Australia , administered with limited autonomy under the states and territories , and in turn beneath the federal government . Local government
2875-720: The Caryapundy floodplains to the Bulloo River , which was also known as Wright's Creek. At the Bulloo, they encountered around 120 Aboriginal residents and at times used their pathways to make their way to Cooper Creek, which they arrived at on 11 November. In 1860, Cooper Creek was the outer limit of the land that had been explored by Europeans, the river having been visited by Captain Charles Sturt in 1845 and Augustus Charles Gregory in 1858. Burke's party arrived at
2990-743: The Gulf of Carpentaria . The camels and two of the wagons crossed on the Mayall Street punt on Saturday, 15 September 1860, and the remaining waggons were brought over the next day. Camp XX was set up on the outskirts of Balranald (their twentieth camp since leaving Melbourne). To lighten the loads on the wagons in preparation for crossing the mallee country between the Murrumbidgee and the Darling , Burke left 15 + 1 ⁄ 2 long cwt (790 kg) of sugar, some rice, all eight demi-johns of lime juice, four bags of camel's sugar,
3105-664: The Local Government Act does not mandate adopting a designation, some local government areas are legally known simply as "council", such as Port Macquarie-Hastings Council , Inner West Council and Federation Council . Some rural areas in South Australia are known as "district council", and all the LGAs in Tasmania that were previously municipalities have been renamed "council". Almost all local councils have
3220-568: The Outback Communities Authority . Victoria has a number of unincorporated areas which are not part of any LGA: Western Australia has two unincorporated areas: Burke and Wills expedition The Burke and Wills expedition was organised by the Royal Society of Victoria (RSV) in Australia in 1860–61. It initially consisted of nineteen men led by Robert O'Hara Burke , with William John Wills being
3335-671: The Pastoral Unincorporated Area in South Australia . Local governments are subdivisions of the six federated states as well as the Northern Territory . The Australian Capital Territory has no separate local government, and municipal functions in Canberra and the surrounding regions (normally performed by local governments in other states) are performed by the ACT territorial government. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), however, considers
3450-485: The Royal Society of Victoria for wrongful dismissal. On Monday, 17 September 1860 the expedition departed northwards for Paika Station. Balranald became a major crossing place for stock from South Australia. In 1866 Peter Young built the Royal Hotel at Balranald and began operating a second punt at the township. A toll-house was later erected on the north bank of the river near Young's punt. William Hall purchased
3565-543: The South Australian government offered a reward of £2,000 (about A$ 289,000 in 2011 dollars) for the first successful south–north crossing of the continent west of the 143rd line of longitude . The experienced explorer John McDouall Stuart had taken up the challenge. Burke was concerned Stuart might beat him to the north coast and he soon grew impatient with the expedition's slow progress, often averaging only 2 mi (3.2 km) an hour. Burke therefore split
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3680-805: The Top End region, the Northern Territory Rates Act Area and Darwin Waterfront Precinct within Darwin , Nhulunbuy on the Gove Peninsula , Alyangula on Groote Eylandt , and Yulara in Central Australia . In South Australia , 63% of the state's area is unincorporated. Residents in this area – less than 0.2% of the state's population – receive municipal services provided by a state agency,
3795-596: The ACA renumbering in the late 1990s, the numbers are now in the (03)5020-1000 to (03)5020–1999 range. There are two amateur radio repeaters installed near the town on the 2-metre and 70 cm. bands. The town has an Australian rules football team competing in the Central Murray Football League . Golfers play at the Balranald Golf and Sporting Club on O'Connor Street. According to
3910-575: The Balranald Inn and the Mayall Street punt from Denis Hanan in 1867. The Commercial Hotel was erected in 1869 and the first licensee was John Russell. In 1871 a new Post & Telegraph Office was erected at Balranald, the first brick building to be built in the township. The first church to be built at Balranald was of the Church of England denomination; services began on 6 April 1873 by the incumbent minister Rev. W. H. Yarrington. Two months later
4025-691: The Balranald Shire Council were opened in August 1964. They were erected at a cost of £40,000 and are located in Market Street beside the Police Station. Two large solar farms are being built south of Balranald. Both commenced construction in 2018. The Limondale Solar Farm developed by Innogy , rated at 349 Megawatts , will be Australia's largest solar generation facility when it opens about 16 km (9.9 mi) south of
4140-431: The Balranald district include sheep farming , woodcutting, charcoal production and some areas of irrigated crop-growing along the rivers. Balranald Shire is the location of Yanga National Park and World Heritage listed Mungo National Park . The first telephone to be used in Australia was installed at nearby "Yanga" station, to allow communications between the homestead and the shearers' quarters . The installation
4255-619: The Burke and Wills expedition to cross the continent in 1860. The Government of South Australia offered a reward of £2000 to encourage an expedition to find a route between South Australia and the north coast. In 1857 the Philosophical Institute formed an Exploration Committee with the aim of investigating the practicability of fitting out an expedition of the Australian interior. While interest in inland exploration
4370-545: The Commissioner for Crown Lands for the Lower Darling District, arrived at the site of the present-day township with a police escort. Commissioner MacDonald had chosen the site as his base, and he and his entourage set up their camp under canvas. In 1848 Leighton Robinson and Thomas Duggan established a general store at Balranald and during the same year a public-house, the Balranald Inn, was erected by
4485-498: The Cooper Creek depot deserted after Brahe's group had left earlier that day. They found the "Dig Tree" and dug up the cache of supplies together with Brahe's letter explaining that the party had given up waiting and left. Burke's party had missed them by only nine hours. The three men and two remaining camels were exhausted; they had no hope of catching up to Brahe's party. Burke's party rested at Camp 65 for two days, living off
4600-427: The Cooper Creek depot was again deserted. Burke and Wills were 35 miles (56 km) away by this point. As the mark and date on the tree were unaltered, Brahe and Wright assumed that Burke had not returned, and did not think to check whether the supplies were still buried. They left to rejoin the main party and return to Menindee. Burke, Wills and King arrived at Camp 65 in the evening of Sunday, 21 April 1861, finding
4715-468: The Cooper on 11 November and they formed a depot at Camp LXIII (Camp 63). While conducting a ninety-mile reconnaissance to the north of this camp, Wills lost three camels and had to walk back to the depot. A plague of rats forced the men to move camp, so they formed a second depot further downstream at a waterhole. This was Camp LXV (Camp 65), where they erected a stockade which they named Fort Wills. It
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4830-556: The Darling, Landells resigned from the expedition, followed by the expedition's surgeon , Dr Hermann Beckler . Third-in-command Wills was promoted to second-in-command. They reached Menindee on 12 October, having taken two months to travel 750 km (470 mi) from Melbourne—the regular mail coach did the journey in little more than a week. By this time two of the expedition's five officers had resigned, thirteen members had been fired and eight new men had been hired. In July 1859
4945-616: The Exploration Committee purchased an additional six from George Coppin's Cremorne Gardens . The camels were initially housed in the stables at Parliament House and later moved to Royal Park . Twenty-six camels were taken on the expedition, with six (two females with their two young calves and two males) being left in Royal Park. The Burke and Wills expedition set off from Royal Park at about 4pm on 20 August 1860, watched by around 15,000 spectators. The nineteen men of
5060-529: The Gulf with six camels, one horse and enough food for just three months. By now it was mid-summer and the daily temperature often reached 122 °F (50 °C) in the shade, and in the Strzelecki and Sturt Stony Deserts there was very little shade to be found. Brahe was ordered by Burke to wait for three months; however, the more conservative Wills had reviewed the maps and developed a more realistic view of
5175-599: The Honorary Secretary Dr John Macadam and in part advised: "The object of the Committee in directing you to Coopers Creek is that you should explore the country intervening between it and Ludwig Leichhardt 's track south of the Gulf of Carpentaria avoiding as far as practicable Sturt's route on the west and Gregory's down the Victoria on the east….. should you determine the impracticability of this route you are desired to turn westward into
5290-407: The anvil, bellows, some iron, the blacksmith's vice, a handsaw, five axes, two rifles, several revolvers and the camel litter at Messrs Sparkes, Cramsie & Co.'s store. He then took on hay and maize for the animals and flour for the men, for which he paid very high prices. Three of the men were dismissed at Balranald and returned to Melbourne, where one of the men, Charles Ferguson, successfully sued
5405-482: The cache under the marked tree in case a rescue party visited the area. Unfortunately, they did not change the mark on the tree or alter the date. On 23 April they set off, following Cooper Creek downstream and then heading out into the Strzelecki Desert towards Mount Hopeless. After leaving the "Dig Tree", Burke's party rarely travelled more than 5 mi (8.0 km) a day, mostly following paths used by
5520-443: The camp on the Cooper for thirteen weeks. The party had actually waited for eighteen weeks and was running low on supplies and starting to feel the effects of scurvy; they had come to believe that Burke would never return from the Gulf. After one of the men at the depot, Patton, had injured his leg from being thrown off a horse, Brahe decided to return to Menindee. Before leaving he buried some provisions in case Burke did return, carving
5635-603: The church was consecrated by the Bishop Mesac Thomas of the Diocese of Goulburn (of which Balranald was a part). A Roman Catholic church was completed in 1875. A newspaper, the Riverina Recorder , was commenced in 1877. In 1881 the population of Balranald was about 400 and it was reported that the town supported five stores and six hotels. Balranald was proclaimed a Municipality in 1882 and Herman Levy
5750-404: The cold. Wills' last entry in his journal was on 29 June, when King and Burke had decided to leave him to look for an Aboriginal camp. Wills had become too weak to continue. At his own insistence he was left behind at Breerily waterhole with some food, water and shelter. Burke and King continued upstream for another two days until Burke became too weak to continue. He died the following morning at
5865-530: The country recently discovered by Stuart and connect his furthest point north with Gregory's furthest southern exploration in 1856..... The Committee is fully aware of the difficulty of the Country you are called on to traverse and in giving you these instructions has placed these routes before you more as an indication of what it has been deemed desirable to have accomplished than as indicating an exact course for you to pursue. The Committee entrusts you with
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#17327975631565980-552: The date of arrival and the date of departure "DEC-6-60" carved over "APR-21-61" and the other showing the initial "B" (for Burke) carved over the Roman numerals for (camp) 65; "B" over "LXV". The date blaze has grown closed and only the camp number blaze remains visible today. On an adjacent smaller tree, Brahe carved the instruction to "DIG". The exact inscription is not known, but is variously recalled to be "DIG", "DIG under", "DIG 3 FT N.W.", "DIG 3FT N.E." or "DIG 21 APR 61". Initially
6095-411: The deaths of Burke and Wills, King found a two-week supply of nardoo flour at an abandoned Aboriginal camp. He then came across a group of Yandruwandha willing to give him food and shelter, and in return he shot birds to contribute to their supplies. He became more closely united with this clan after he attempted to heal a skin sore on a woman named Carrawaw, and lived with them for around a month until he
6210-455: The depot at Cooper Creek, they found it had been abandoned just hours earlier. Burke and Wills died on or about 30 June 1861. Several relief expeditions were sent out, all contributing new geographical findings. Altogether, seven men died, and only one man, the Irish soldier John King , crossed the continent with the expedition and returned alive to Melbourne. In 1851, gold was discovered in what
6325-489: The discovery of camel bones in 2005. To extend their food supply, Burke's party ate portulaca , a flowering plant. Gray also caught an 11 lb (5.0 kg) python (probably Aspidites melanocephalus , a black-headed python), which they ate. Both Burke and Gray immediately came down with dysentery . Gray was ill, but Burke thought he was "gammoning" (pretending). On 25 March on the Burke River (just south of what
6440-453: The entire ACT as an " unincorporated " local government area, even though it is technically a state-level administrative region . Although all essentially identical in functions and jurisdictions, Australian local governments have a variety of different titles. The term "local government area" (LGA) is used by the ABS to collectively refer to all local government administrative zones regardless of
6555-470: The expedition included six Irishmen, five Englishmen, three Germans, an American, and four camel drivers from South Asia . They took twenty-three horses, six wagons and twenty-six camels. The members of the expedition at the time of departure were: The expedition took a large amount of equipment, including enough food to last two years, a cedar-topped oak camp table with two chairs, pocket charcoal water filters, rifles , revolvers , rockets, flags and
6670-512: The explorers wouldn't get cold. However, by 10 May these Yandruwandha moved elsewhere, forcing the three men to fend for themselves. They were unable to locate other Aboriginal camps and had to make do for the next two weeks camping next to a nardoo patch, preparing this food themselves. At the end of May 1861, Burke ordered Wills to return to the "Dig Tree" to deposit some items for safekeeping. During this trip, Wills met with two more Yandruwandha clans who offered their hospitality to him. For about
6785-504: The first half of the 20th century was the provision of physical infrastructure such as roads, bridges and sewerage. From the 1970s the emphasis changed to community facilities such as libraries and parks, maintenance of local roads, town planning and development approvals, and local services such as waste disposal. Child care, tourism and urban renewal were also beginning to be part of local governments' role. These are financed by collection of local land taxes known as "rates", and grants from
6900-448: The first time. Significant reforms took place in the 1980s and 1990s in which state governments used metrics and efficiency analysis developed within the private sector in the local government arena. Each state conducted an inquiry into the benefits of council amalgamations during the 1990s. In the early 1990s, Victoria saw the number of local councils reduced from 210 to 78. South Australia, Tasmania and Queensland saw some reductions in
7015-502: The following days trying to find another Aboriginal camp, but unsurprisingly the Yandruwandha had cleared out from the area. Over the next few weeks, the three men subsisted on leftover camel meat and nardoo they prepared themselves. The weather became rainy and cold, and they had little to protect themselves from exposure to the elements. Wills recorded that the nardoo agreed with King more, while he and Burke were starving and feeling
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#17327975631567130-704: The following year. In March 1926 Balranald was connected to the Victorian Rail system via a line to Echuca . The Balranald railway line is now closed. In 1944 Norma Male was appointed Town Clerk at the Balranald Municipal Council, the first female town clerk in New South Wales. In 1956 the local government administrative body became the Shire of Balranald, with Shire presidents replacing Mayoral positions. New premises for
7245-415: The following: The Australian Capital Territory is not divided into local government areas, so it is regarded as a single "unincorporated" local government area during censusing . Unlike many other countries, Australia has only one level of local government immediately beneath state and territorial governments. Aside from very sparsely populated areas and a few other special cases, almost all of Australia
7360-501: The government (though they generally receive government funding). They do not have the power to change laws or policies, and their role is limited to advising government. They are effectively residents' associations . New South Wales has three unincorporated areas: In the Northern Territory , 1.47% of the total area and 3.0% of the population are in unincorporated areas. These include the Cox-Daly and Marrakai-Douglas Daly areas in
7475-443: The group, taking fifteen horses, sixteen camels and the seven fittest men; Wills, Brahe, Patton, McDonough, King, Gray and Dost Mahomet. He also reduced the amount of equipment, with plans to push on quickly to Cooper Creek (then known as Cooper's Creek) and then wait for the others left behind at Menindee to catch up. They departed Menindee on 19 October, guided by a Paakantyi man named Dick Barkinji , William Wright (the manager of
7590-548: The gunyah they were staying in and fired over their heads after he felt threatened by their approach. Burke then went up to another group who had arrived with nets full of fish. He knocked the nets out of their hands and ordered King to fire over them. They ran away and Burke collected the fish left behind. While cooking this fish, Burke accidentally set fire to the gunyah they were in, destroying most of their remaining belongings except for Burke's pistol and another firearm. On 6 June, Wills had returned to Burke and King. They spent
7705-715: The impending introduction of steam navigation on the Murray. During 1849 the surveyor Francis MacCabe laid out large reserves in the region of the Lower Murrumbidgee / Murray-Darling junction. Included in MacCabe's surveys was a site "for a Township at the North End of Caiera, otherwise Balranald Reserve". The decision to lay out Balranald township was made in November 1849. Commissioner MacDonald died in 1851 and he
7820-718: The largest discretion as regards the forming of depots, and your movements generally…. The Exploration Committee of the Royal Society of Victoria included: Camels had been used successfully in desert exploration in other parts of the world, but by 1859 only seven camels had been imported into Australia . The Victorian government appointed George James Landells to purchase twenty-four camels in India for use in desert exploration. The animals arrived in Melbourne in June 1860, and
7935-432: The leader, and William John Wills was recommended as surveyor, navigator and third-in-command. Burke made for an unusual choice as he had no experience in exploration; he was an Irish-born ex-officer with the colonial forces , and later became police superintendent with virtually no skills in bushcraft . Wills was more adept than Burke at living in the wilderness, but it was Burke's leadership skills (or lack thereof) that
8050-415: The licence of the Balranald Inn in April 1854. Graham held the licence until 1859 when he was murdered. The perpetrator was arrested and later hanged at Goulburn gaol. Denis Hanan then obtained the licence of the Balranald Inn, which he held until 1867. In 1859 Hanan purchased a punt from Captain Cadell and operated it at the southern end of Mayall Street. The Victorian gold-rushes, which began as Balranald
8165-415: The local Aboriginal residents. The region was well populated with Yandruwandha people and they were very courteous to the three explorers, giving them fish, beans called padlu and a type of damper made from the ground sporocarps of the ngardu (nardoo) plant ( Marsilea drummondii ) in exchange for sugar. One of the two remaining camels, Landa , was shot when he became bogged in Minkie waterhole and
8280-628: The local legislation, as with Victoria 's alpine resorts ; or directly administered by state/territory governments, such as the entirety of the Australian Capital Territory . The administrative area covered by local government councils in Australia ranges from as small as 1.5 km (0.58 sq mi) for the Shire of Peppermint Grove in the Perth metropolitan region , to as big as 624,339 km (241,059 sq mi) for
8395-558: The lowest recorded was −4.8 °C (23.4 °F) on 21 July 1982. The average annual rainfall is 324.1 millimetres (12.8 in). Being very far west in the state, Balranald is susceptible to cold fronts off the Great Australian Bight , even at the height of summer. In February 2005 a maximum of 12.5 °C (54.5 °F) was recorded; this is unusual given its very low elevation of 61 metres (200 ft) and latitude of 34.6 degrees south. Agricultural activities in
8510-488: The mayor is elected by the board of fellow councillors . The powers of mayors vary as well; for example, mayors in Queensland have broad executive functions, whereas mayors in New South Wales are essentially ceremonial figureheads who can only exercise power at the discretion of the council. Most of the capital city LGAs administer only the central business districts and nearby central suburbs . A notable exception
8625-631: The names of LGAs, and today the stylised titles of " town ", " borough ", " municipality ", " district ", " region ", "community government", " Aboriginal council/shire" and "island" are used in addition. The word "municipality" occurs in some states with differing meanings: in New South Wales it is typically used for older urban areas, and the word is used for some rural towns in South Australia . Larger towns and small metropolitan exurban centres in Queensland and Western Australia simply use
8740-470: The nearby Kinchega sheep station ) and another local Aboriginal man. Wright was appointed third-in-command and travel was relatively easy because recent rain made water abundant, and the unusually mild weather temperatures exceeded 90 °F (32 °C) only twice. Wright and Barkinji had also travelled the same way near to Cooper Creek a few months beforehand. Burke's party journeyed via waterholes at Bilpa, Langawirra, Mutawintiji and Wannaminta to
8855-649: The number of local governments while Western Australia and New South Wales rejected compulsory mergers. New South Wales eventually forced the merging of some councils. The main purpose of amalgamating councils was for greater efficiency and to improve operations, but forced amalgamation of councils is sometimes seen as a dilution of representative democracy . An increase in the range of services offered by councils, but only minor cost savings of less than 10% have been noted by academics as outcomes after mergers. The council mergers have resulted in widespread job losses and lingering resentment from some whose roles have experienced
8970-483: The other, Rajah , later collapsed on 7 May. Without pack animals, it became impossible for Burke, Wills and King to leave Cooper Creek and cross the Strzelecki Desert. Over the next few days, the party encountered several Yandruwandha communities who gave them a variety of cooked foods, including fish, nardoo, native rats and padlu. They were also given gunyahs to sleep in and the stimulant pituri to chew. Some Yandruwandha even stayed attentive to their fire at night so
9085-619: The part of local governments. There is no mention of local government in the Constitution of Australia , though it is mentioned several times in the Annotated Constitution of Australia. "Municipal institutions and local government" appears in Annotation 447, and "Power of the Parliament of a Colony" appears under "Residuary Legislative Powers" on pages 935 and 936. The first official local government in Australia
9200-419: The party at Menindee on the Darling River , Burke made good progress, reaching Cooper Creek at the beginning of summer. The expedition established a depot camp at Cooper Creek, and Burke, Wills and two other men pushed on to the north coast (although dense swampland stopped them from reaching the northern coastline). The return journey was plagued by delays and monsoon rains, and when Burke's party reached
9315-818: The population, the population density and the proportion of the population that is classified as being urban for the council. The classification, at the two-digit level, is: All local governments are approximately equal in their theoretical powers, although LGAs that encompass large cities such as Brisbane and the Gold Coast command more resources due to their larger population base. Unlike local governments in many other countries, services such as police, fire protection and schools are provided by respective state or territory governments rather than by local councils. However, local governments still maintain some responsibility for fire service functions within Queensland and Western Australia. The councils' chief responsibility in
9430-414: The power to independently enact their own local subsidiary legislation , in contrast to the previous system of by-laws . Councils also have organised their own representative structures such as Local Government Associations and Regional Organisations of Councils . Doctrines of New Public Management have shaped state government legislation towards increased freedoms aiming to allow greater flexibility on
9545-451: The provisions onto the camels for the first time, and to lessen the burden on the horses he ordered the men to walk. He also ordered that personal luggage be restricted to 30 lb (14 kg). At Bilbarka on the Darling, Burke and his second-in-command, Landells, argued after Burke decided to dump the 60 gallons (≈270 litres) of rum that Landells had brought to feed to the camels in the belief that it prevented scurvy . At Kinchega on
9660-538: The purpose of raising money to build roads in rural and outer-urban regions. Council representatives attended conventions before Federation , however local government was unquestionably regarded as outside the Constitutional realm. In the 1970s, the Whitlam government expanded the level of funding to local governments in Australia beyond grants for road construction. General purpose grants become available for
9775-433: The rest of the year and can be quite cloudy. Rainfall records have been kept for Balranald since 1879, while those of temperature since 1907. Temperature extremes are quite marked over the full year: summers are regularly over 40 °C (104 °F) while winters can see daytime temperatures below 10 °C (50 °F). The highest temperature recorded at Balranald was 47.7 °C (117.9 °F) on 18 January 1908, while
9890-408: The same administrative functions and similar political structures, regardless of their naming, and retain a particular designation ("shire", "borough", "town", "city") for historical reasons only. They will typically have an elected council and usually a mayor or shire president responsible for chairing meetings of the council. In some councils, the mayor is a directly elected figure, but in most cases
10005-420: The sea must be close, but with the ground being boggy, Burke and Wills decided to leave the camels behind with King and Gray at Camp 119 and set off through the swamps to the coast. They followed a path which led to an Aboriginal community with a yam-field and a very large hut. Some of the resident Kukatj men pointed them in the best direction. It is assumed that on 11 February 1861 they may have reached or viewed
10120-406: The severity of the beating Burke gave has been widely debated. The three surviving men stopped for a day to bury Gray, and to recover their strength – they were by this stage very weak from hunger and exhaustion. They finally reached Cooper Creek on 21 April, only to find that the depot in charge of Brahe had been abandoned several hours earlier. Burke had asked Brahe and the depot party to remain at
10235-448: The shores of the Gulf, but there is no documentary evidence of this. By this stage, they were desperately short of supplies. They had food left for twenty-seven days, but it had already taken them fifty-nine days to travel from Cooper Creek. Burke and Wills rejoined the others at Camp 119 and started the return journey on 13 February. On the way back, the wet season broke and the tropical monsoonal rains began. A camel named Golah Sing
10350-493: The state and Commonwealth governments. They are caricatured as being concerned only with the "three Rs": Rates, Roads and Rubbish. However, the roles of local government areas in Australia have recently expanded as higher levels of government have devolved activities to the third tier. Examples include the provision of community health services, regional airports and pollution control as well as community safety and accessible transport. The changes in services has been described as
10465-521: The supplies and men up to Camp 65 was having terrible problems. Wright's group had only departed Menindee at the end of January 1861 and made very slow progress due to hot weather and a lack of water availability. They arrived at the Bulloo River in early April with several men in poor health. Wright camped at a large lagoon populated with Galali people , who had made several 'ingeniously constructed fishing dams' nearby. The Galali made demonstrations for Wright's group to get off their campsite, and Wright built
10580-419: The supplies left in the cache. Wills and King wanted to follow their outward track back to Menindee, but Burke overruled them and decided to attempt to reach the furthest outpost of pastoral settlement in South Australia, a cattle station near Mount Hopeless. This would mean travelling southwest through the desert for 240 kilometres (150 mi). They wrote a letter explaining their intentions and reburied it in
10695-419: The supplies were loaded onto six wagons. One wagon broke down before it had even left Royal Park and by midnight of the first day the expedition had reached only Essendon , on the edge of Melbourne. There, two more wagons broke down. Heavy rains and bad roads made travelling through Victoria difficult and time-consuming. The party arrived at Lancefield on 23 August and set up their fourth camp. The first day off
10810-444: The swamp at Torowotto . At Torowotto, Wright, Barkinji and the other Aboriginal guide were sent back to Menindee to bring up the remainder of the men and supplies, while Burke's party continued on to Cooper Creek. Aborigines living at Torowotto told them they would meet with opposition from the inhabitants further north. Guided by another two Aboriginal men, Burke's party soon reached Lake Altiboulka (Altoka) and then travelled through
10925-617: The task ahead, and secretly instructed Brahe to wait for four months. The journey north to the Gulf of Carpentaria went smoothly, with recent rains making water easy to find and the Aborigines, contrary to expectations, being peaceful. Around 2 February 1861, the group formed Camp CXIX (Camp 119) on the banks of the Bynoe River , an arm of the Flinders River delta, which Wills had noticed to be salty and tidal. Knowing that
11040-565: The term "town", while in Victoria they are designated as "rural city". Historically, the word "borough" was common for small towns and suburban centers in Victoria, but nowadays only the Borough of Queenscliffe remains as the one and only borough in the entire country. New South Wales and Queensland have also introduced a new term "region" for outback LGAs formed by the amalgamation of smaller shires and rural cities. In New South Wales, where
11155-532: The town. The Sunraysia Solar Farm , rated at 255 Megawatts ( DC ), is being built about 18 km (11 mi) south of the town by the Australian-Chinese company Maoneng Group . Both will feed into the existing power grid at the same nearby TransGrid substation . Balranald has a cold semi-arid climate ( BSk ) with hot summers, cool winters and low rainfall throughout the year, typical of far south-western NSW. The winter has more rainy days than
11270-565: The township. (An earlier post office had opened in the area on 1 January 1850 but closed and was replaced by an unofficial service). From 1853 the mail contractor, John Bent, operated a service along the Murrumbidgee River between Wagga Wagga and Balranald. A second hotel, the Carriers' Arms, was erected at Balranald in about 1852 by the German, Philipp Comitti (but records show he didn't arrive in Australia until Mar 1854). William Graham acquired
11385-479: The tree with the Date and Camp Number blaze was known as "Brahe's Tree" or the "Depot Tree", and the tree under which Burke died attracted most attention and interest. However, the tree at Camp 65 became known as the "Dig Tree" from at least 1912. In 1899, John Dick carved a likeness of Burke's face in a nearby tree along with his initials, his wife's initials and the date. Meanwhile, the mission led by Wright to bring
11500-501: The varying designations, whilst the local governing legislature itself is generally known as a council . In general, an urban / suburban LGA is called a " city ", as in the City of Melbourne , City of Canada Bay and City of Bunbury ; while an exurban / rural LGA covering a larger agricultural / natural area is usually called a " shire ", as in Shire of Mornington Peninsula , Shire of Banana and Lachlan Shire . Sometimes designations other than "city" or "shire" are used in
11615-533: Was abandoned on 4 March when it was unable to continue. Three other camels were shot and eaten along the way and they shot their only horse, Billy , on 10 April on the Diamantina River , south of what is today the town of Birdsville . Equipment was abandoned at a number of locations as the number of pack animals was reduced. One of these locations, Return Camp 32, was relocated in 1994; the Burke and Wills Historical Society mounted an expedition to verify
11730-603: Was being established, had a profound impact on the Riverina region by stimulating the development of the fat-stock market. The development of the stock-route across the One-tree Plain to Lang's Crossing-place tended to direct attention away from Balranald to the region up-river of the Murrumbidgee-Lachlan junction. By the latter half of the 1850s, when the fat-stock market was at its peak, Balranald
11845-438: Was carried out by James Cromyn under directions forwarded from England by his uncle Alexander Graham Bell , an early developer of the telephone. The Balranald telephone exchange was converted from manual to automatic operation in 1988 to 1990. The manual exchange number prior to automation phone number was (050) 4841 to reach the exchange, then the numbers (050)201-000 to 201–999 were allocated for Balranald subscribers. Following
11960-539: Was defeated. A 1988 referendum sought to explicitly insert mention of local government in the federal constitution but this was comprehensively defeated. A further referendum was proposed in 2013 , but was cancelled due to the change in the election date . Federal government interaction with local councils happens regularly through the provision of federal grants to help fund local government managed projects. Local government in Australia has very limited legislative powers and no judicial powers , and executive -wise
12075-558: Was elected its first mayor. The first meetings of the Municipal Council were held in the old Court house at the corner of Market and River streets. A lift-span bridge was constructed over the Murrumbidgee River at Balranald, which opened in April 1883. In 1885 a new Court House was erected in the town. In 1887 Balranald was described as "a squarely built little town with few prominent buildings'. By that stage it had two churches and
12190-488: Was especially detrimental to the mission. Rather than take cattle to be slaughtered during the trip, the Exploration Committee decided to experiment with dried meat. The weight required three extra wagons and slowed the expedition down appreciably. The Exploration Committee gave Burke written instructions. These included suggestions for the expedition's route, but also gave Burke discretion depending on conditions and barriers he might encounter. The instructions were signed by
12305-489: Was exhibiting signs of stagnation. A correspondent from the area made these comments about the township in August 1858: "This obscure and miserable township, situated on the Lower Murrumbidgee, is here attracting a considerable share of attention, as being one of those rowdy places for which the Australian bush in the interior has become so famous". The Burke and Wills expedition crossed the Murrumbidgee River at Balranald on their journey to cross Australia from Melbourne to
12420-522: Was fierce competition between the colonies over the hypothetical route, with governments recognising the economic benefits that would result from becoming the centre of the telegraph network. A number of routes were considered including Ceylon to Albany in Western Australia , or Java to the north coast of Australia and then either onto east coast, or south through the centre of the continent to Adelaide . The Government of Victoria organised
12535-707: Was founded in 1855 and the State Library of Victoria in 1856. The Philosophical Institute of Victoria was founded in 1854 and became the Royal Society of Victoria (RSV) after receiving a Royal Charter in 1859. By 1855 there was speculation about possible routes for the Australian Overland Telegraph Line to connect Australia to the new telegraph cable in Java , then part of the Dutch East Indies , and then Europe. There
12650-506: Was strong in the neighbouring colonies of New South Wales and South Australia, in Victoria enthusiasm was limited. Even the anonymous donation of £1,000 (later discovered to be from Ambrose Kyte ) to the Fund Raising Committee of the RSV failed to generate much interest and it wasn't until 1860 that sufficient money was raised and the expedition was assembled. The Exploration Committee called for offers of interest for
12765-440: Was succeeded by Stephen Cole. Cole used Balranald as a base until 1853, when the office of Commissioner for Crown Lands for the Lower Darling District was transferred to Euston where a new house was erected for the Commissioner. The township of Balranald was gazetted on 4 April 1851 and the first land sale held on 14 January 1852, with thirty-five lots submitted to public auction . On 1 March 1852 an official post office opened in
12880-661: Was taken on Sunday 26 August at Camp VI in Mia Mia . The expedition reached Swan Hill on 6 September, where Charles Gray joined the expedition. They arrived in Balranald on 15 September. There, to lighten the load, the expedition left behind their sugar, lime juice and some of their guns and ammunition . Burke also dismissed several members of the expedition here, including the foreman Charles Ferguson, citing lack of funds. Ferguson later successfully sued for unfair dismissal. At Gambala on 24 September, Burke decided to load some of
12995-621: Was the Perth Town Trust , established in 1838, only three years after British settlement. The Adelaide Corporation followed, created by the province of South Australia in October 1840. The City of Melbourne and the Sydney Corporation followed, both in 1842. All of these early forms failed; it was not until the 1860s and 1870s that the various colonies established widespread stable forms of local government, mainly for
13110-730: Was then the Colony of Victoria . The subsequent gold rush led to a huge influx of migrants, with the local population increasing from 29,000 in 1851 to 139,916 in 1861 ( Sydney had 93,686 at the time). As a result, Melbourne rapidly grew to become Australia's largest city and the second largest city of the British Empire . The boom lasted forty years and ushered in the era known as " marvellous Melbourne ". The influx of educated gold seekers from England, Ireland and Germany led to rapid growth of schools, churches, learned societies, libraries and art galleries. The University of Melbourne
13225-414: Was thought that Burke would wait at Cooper Creek until autumn (March the next year) so that they would avoid having to travel during the hot Australian summer. However, Burke waited only until 16 December before deciding to make a dash for the Gulf of Carpentaria . He split the group again, leaving Brahe in charge of the depot, with Dost Mahomet, Patton and McDonough. Burke, Wills, King and Gray set off for
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