Randwick City Council

The City of Randwick is a local government area in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Established in 1859, Randwick is the second-oldest local government area in New South Wales, after the City of Sydney. It comprises an area of 36 square kilometres (14 sq mi) and as per the 2021 census had a population of 134,252.

The mayor of the City of Randwick is Cr. Dylan Parker, a member of the Australian Labor Party, who was elected on 8 October 2024.

Suburbs and localities in the local government area

Suburbs and localities in the City of Randwick are:

These localities are also serviced by Randwick Council:

History

The name Randwick comes from the village of Randwick in Gloucestershire, England, birthplace of the district's first mayor Simeon Henry Pearce. The area was home to a few wealthy landowners and the poor residents of several shantytowns until the 1880s, when the coming of trams from Sydney brought extensive suburban development. The New South Wales University of Technology opened at Kensington in 1949 on the site of Kensington Racecourse, eventually becoming the University of New South Wales.

A 2015 review of local government boundaries recommended that the City of Randwick merge with the Waverley and Woollahra councils to form a new council with an area of 58 square kilometres (22 sq mi) and support a population of approximately 274,000. Following an independent review, in May 2016 the NSW Government sought to dismiss the council and force its amalgamation with Woollahra and Waverley councils. Woollahra Council instigated legal action claiming that there was procedural unfairness and that a KPMG report at the centre of merger proposals had been "misleading". The matter was heard before the NSW Court of Appeal who, in December 2016, unanimously dismissed Woollahra Council's appeal, finding no merit in its arguments that the proposed merger with Waverley and Randwick councils was invalid. In July 2017, the Berejiklian government decided to abandon the forced merger of the Woollahra, Waverley and Randwick local government areas, along with several other proposed forced mergers.

Town Clerks and General Managers

Demographics

At the 2016 census, there were 140,660 people in the Randwick local government area, of these 49.2% were male and 50.8% were female. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 1.5% of the population; significantly below the NSW and Australian averages of 2.9 and 2.8 per cent respectively. The median age of people in the City of Randwick was 34 years. Children aged 0–14 years made up 14.9% of the population and people aged 65 years and over made up 13.4% of the population. Of people in the area aged 15 years and over, 38.5% were married and 9.1% were either divorced or separated.

Population growth in the City of Randwick between the 2001 Census and the 2006 census was 1.10%; and in the subsequent five years to the 2011 census, population growth was 7.59%. When compared with total population growth of Australia for the same periods, being 5.78% and 8.32% respectively, population growth in Randwick local government area was lower than the national average. The median weekly income for residents within the City of Randwick was higher than the national average.

Council

Randwick Town Hall, designed in the Italianate style by Sydney architects Blackman and Parkes, has been the seat of the council since 1886.

Current composition and election method

Randwick City Council is composed of fifteen councillors elected proportionally as five separate wards, each electing three councillors. All councillors are elected for a fixed four-year term of office. The mayor is elected for a two-year term, with the deputy mayor for one year, 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:

The current Council, elected in 2024, in order of election by ward, is:

Election results

2024

Heritage listings

The City of Randwick has a number of heritage-listed sites, including those listed under the New South Wales Heritage Register:

Future

The new Kensington to Kingsford Planning Strategy by the City of Randwick will include 8 new plazas, more than a doubling of public space, and wider footpaths along the Anzac Parade. The general height controls along the Parade will increase to 31 metres, while the key intersections with Todman Avenue Strachan Street, and Nine-ways roundabout will be 57–60 metres. It will also require 5% affordable housing of new residential developments and a requirement that active street frontages are used for commercial activities.

References

Uses material from the Wikipedia article Randwick City Council, released under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.