Municipality of Annandale

Municipality of Annandale New South Wales
Established	25 January 1894
Abolished	31 December 1948
Council seat	Annandale Council Chambers
LGAs around Municipality of Annandale: Balmain Rozelle Bay Leichhardt Municipality of Annandale The Glebe Camperdown Petersham

The Municipality of Annandale was a local government area of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The municipality was proclaimed in 1894 as the Borough of Annandale when the East Ward of Leichhardt Council separated, and, with an area of 1.4 square kilometres, covered the entire suburb of Annandale, excepting a small block between Johnstons Creek, Booth Street and Parramatta Road.

Council history and location

The area of Annandale, bounded by Whites Creek and Johnstons Creek in the west and east respectively and by Rozelle Bay and Parramatta Road in the north and south respectively, was first incorporated in 1871 when it was included as the East Ward within the Municipality of Leichhardt. However, the governing act in the Colony of New South Wales for local government, the Municipalities Act 1867, provided for the division of an existing municipality if a petition was made to the Governor by at least two-thirds of residents or owners of rateable property in the area. As a consequence, a requisite petition of the electors of the East Ward, which argued that the East Ward benefited little from its inclusion in Leichhardt and proposed a separate Borough of Annandale, was published in the Government Gazette on 17 June 1893.

The Borough of Annandale was subsequently proclaimed by Governor Sir Robert Duff on 29 December 1893 and was constituted on 1 February 1894. The council first met in the Methodist School Hall on Trafalgar Street on 14 February 1894, with all three former East Ward aldermen being returned, including Alderman John Young, who was elected as the first Mayor of Annandale. The first purpose-built Annandale Council Chambers, on Johnston Street, was completed at a cost of £1528 and was officially opened on 21 September 1899 by Mayor Allen Taylor in the presence of the Member for Annandale, William Mahony. In 1937 various minor boundary transfers around the Johnstons Creek area were made between Annandale and the City of Sydney. The longest serving alderman was Edward Hogan, who served 38 years as an alderman from 1906 to 1944 including several terms as mayor.

By the end of the Second World War, the NSW Government had come to the conclusion that its ideas of infrastructure expansion could not be realised by the present system of the mostly-poor inner-city municipal councils and the Minister for Local Government, Joseph Cahill, pushed through a bill in 1948 that abolished a significant number of those councils. Annandale was abolished and amalgamated with the Municipality of Leichhardt following the enactment of the Local Government (Areas) Act 1948, which came into effect from 1 January 1949. The former Annandale Municipality became the first ward of the Leichhardt Municipal Council returning four aldermen.

Annandale Council Chambers, circa 1899, designed by J.W.Richards

Mayors

Years	Mayors
1894–1897	John Young
1897–1899	Allen Taylor
1899–1900	William Wells
1900–1902	Allen Taylor
1902–1904	William Wells
1904–1907	Owen Ridge
1907–1910	William Wells
1910–1913	James Robertson
1913–1915	Thomas Colebrook
1915–1918	Edward Hogan
1918–1919	Frederick Smith
1919–1922	Arthur Packer
1922–1922	Charles Schofield
1922–1924	Edward Hogan
1924–1926	Walter Ridge
1926–1931	John Sharpe
1931–1932	Edward Hogan
1932–1933	Charles Winkworth
1933–1936	Matthew Smith
1936–1937	George Marshall
1937–1938	William Johnston
1938–1939	Edward Hogan
1939–1940	Sydney Francis
1940	John Field
1940	Percival McDonald
1940–1942	William Boyd
1942–1943	Edward Hogan
1943–1945	George Law
1945–1948	James Prendergast