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52-487: The Toowoomba Region is a local government area (LGA) located within the larger Darling Downs region of Queensland , Australia. Established in 2008, the LGA was preceded by several other local government authorities with histories extending back to the early 1900s and beyond. In 2018–2019, it had a A$ 491 million budget, of which A$ 316 million is for service delivery and A$ 175.13 million capital (infrastructure) budget. In

104-588: 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

156-647: A Homebound Library Service for those who are temporarily or permanently home bound. 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 is not mentioned in the Constitution of Australia , and two referendums in 1974 and 1988 to alter

208-534: 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

260-545: 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

312-558: A new organisation would have political advocacy capabilities on behalf of the region. Two other key factors were that Toowoomba 's suburbs had expanded well beyond the City of Toowoomba and a new entity would be able to manage the entire area under one plan. Additionally, environmental and natural resource challenges could, in the Commission's view, be better met by an organisation with "a scale and capacity to undertake... management across

364-403: 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

416-588: A town council on 31 March 1903. On 29 October 1904, Toowoomba was proclaimed a City. The Toowoomba Region also encompassed four of Queensland's 74 divisions created under the Divisional Boards Act 1879 on 11 November 1879: Clifton, Highfields, Jondaryan and Rosalie. On 31 March 1903, these became Shires. Between 1913 and 1917, a number of changes occurred: the Millmerran and Pittsworth areas voted to split from Jondaryan on 24 April 1913, whilst in

468-403: 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

520-531: 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

572-447: 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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624-480: Is some slight conventional natural gas potential. Jurassic coal seams have been worked and explored in the Queensland portions of the basin. The basin has a number of mines such as Wilkie Creek Mine where Peabody Energy Australia mines and then exports coal. The basin has a number of coal seam gas (CSG) fields - also known as coalbed methane - developing in the region. These fields presently supply both

676-504: 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

728-590: 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

780-616: The 2021 census , the Toowoomba Region had a population of 173,204 people. Prior to the 2008 amalgamation, the Toowoomba Region existed as eight distinct local government areas: the City of Toowoomba and the Shires of Cambooya , Clifton , Crows Nest , Jondaryan , Millmerran , Pittsworth , and Rosalie . The City had its beginning in the Toowoomba Municipality which was proclaimed on 24 November 1860 under

832-617: The Gunnedah Basin in central New South Wales. Palaeozoic basement highs mark the western and eastern boundaries of the Surat Basin. The Nebine Ridge delineates the boundary between the Surat Basin and the Eromanga Basin to the west. The Nebine Ridge is well developed in Queensland and gravity data indicate that the southern extension of the ridge into northern New South Wales is terminated by cross faulting. In Queensland

884-664: 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

936-542: The Municipalities Act 1858 , a piece of New South Wales legislation inherited by Queensland when it became a separate colony in 1859. William Henry Groom , sometimes described as the "father of Toowoomba", was elected its first mayor. It achieved a measure of autonomy in 1878 with the enactment of the Local Government Act . With the passage of the Local Authorities Act 1902 , Toowoomba became

988-567: The Outback Communities Authority . Victoria has a number of unincorporated areas which are not part of any LGA: Western Australia has two unincorporated areas: Surat Basin The Surat Basin is an intracratonic basin that covers a sizeable section of New South Wales and southern Queensland . It was formed by fluvial sedimentation of an intracratonic area which underwent sediment sag-loading in

1040-735: 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

1092-805: 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,

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1144-527: 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

1196-591: The Griman Creek Formation. Later sediments have been removed by erosion since Cretaceous times. Since the early 2000s the Coal Seam Gas has been produced from multiple fields. More than conventional 100 hydrocarbon accumulations have been found in the basin however only half are producing. The Surat Basin is not very important a target for oil as the source rocks have not generally been subjected to suitable conditions to evolve oil. There

1248-724: The Jurassic to Cretaceous. The western central parts of the Surat Basin unconformably overlies the Palaeozoic igneous , metamorphic and sedimentary rocks of the Lachlan Fold Belt . In the east and northern parts of Queensland it unconformably overlies the sedimentary basin rocks of the Hunter-Bowen Orogen. The Surat Basin overlies parts of the Bowen Basin in southern Queensland, and overlies

1300-769: The Kumbarilla Ridge divides the Surat Basin from the Clarence-Moreton Basin to the east. The mostly flat-lying basin has a maximum thickness of about 2,500 m in Queensland, with up to 1,800 m preserved in New South Wales. Deposition in the Surat Basin commenced in the Early Jurassic with the Precipice Sandstone, a quartzose blocky sandstone unit interpreted as being deposited in a Braided Stream environment.

1352-700: The Precipice Sandstone is overlain by the finer grained and lower energy Evergreen formation. The Evergreen also contains local sand unit known as the Boxvale Sandstone. The Evergreen is conformably overlain by the Hutton Sandstone, which in turn is overlain by the Walloon Coal Measures. After a brief (although debated) hiatus, the Springbok Sandstone was deposited. It is unclear whether the thickness changes in

1404-576: The Walloon Coal Measures indicate a major erosional event (unconformity), or if the contact is only locally scoured. The Springbok Sandstone grades upward into the Westbourne Formation. This contact is poorly defined, and still subject to debate. The westbourne is then overlain progressively by the Gubbermunda Sandstone, Oralo Formation, Mooga Sandstone, Bungil Formation, Wallumbilla Formation, Surat Siltstone, and finally

1456-453: 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

1508-504: 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

1560-448: 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

1612-429: The following settlements: - split with the former Shire of Crows Nest - split with the former Shire of Jondaryan - split with the former Shire of Cambooya > - split with Lockyer Valley Region > Cambooya area: Clifton area: Crows Nest area: Jondaryan area: Millmerran area: Pittsworth area: Rosalie area: Mixed-area localities: Economic growth potential in

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1664-415: 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

1716-435: The foundation of the Toowoomba Region combines the population of its component entities prior to their amalgamation in 2008. Its population was officially recorded for the first time in the 2011 Census . The Toowoomba Regional Council operates the following libraries: The Toowoomba Regional Libraries also provide a range of services including (but not limited to) free computer and internet access, free computer classes, and

1768-501: 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

1820-628: 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

1872-429: 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

1924-631: 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

1976-649: 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

2028-619: 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

2080-818: 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

2132-414: 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

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2184-538: 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

2236-495: The region has been identified through retail, construction and the development of energy resources found in the Surat Basin and in food processing . As well as the development of the newly built Wellcamp Airport and Second Range Crossing , and proposed Inland Rail the city is set to become one of the largest logistical centres in the country as well as a major inland port. The total population recorded at each census before

2288-474: The region in an integrated manner." Four of the councils, Jondaryan, Millmerran, Pittsworth and Rosalie were rated as financially weak by the Queensland Treasury. While no council had supported the Commission's model, most were willing to consider some form of amalgamation, and the Commission considered whether Millmerran should be united with Dalby or Toowoomba carefully. In the end, its proposal

2340-408: 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

2392-501: The same year Crows Nest became a shire, and in 1914, Cambooya followed. On 19 March 1949, Highfields and Drayton were abolished, with their land going to Crows Nest and Toowoomba respectively. In July 2007, the Local Government Reform Commission released its report and recommended that the eight areas amalgamate. Its main reason for recommending such a large area was that the region was a growth area and

2444-493: 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

2496-621: 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

2548-501: 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

2600-539: 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

2652-621: 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

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2704-715: Was unchanged. On 15 March 2008, the City and Shires formally ceased to exist, and elections were held on the same day to elect councillors and a mayor to the Regional Council. Toowoomba Regional Council is unsubdivided and its elected body consists of 10 councillors and a mayor. Neither the Labor Party nor the Liberal National Party officially endorse candidates for council. The current council, elected in 2024 , is: The Toowoomba Region includes

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