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Local government in Victoria

This article is about local government in Victoria. For a list of local government areas, see Local government areas of Victoria.

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A map of local government areas in Victoria
Detail of local government areas in and around Melbourne
Types of LGAs
LGAs in 1992

Local government in the Australian state of Victoria consists of 79 local government areas (LGAs).[1] Also referred to as municipalities, Victorian LGAs are classified as cities (34), shires (38), rural cities (6) and boroughs (1). In general, an urban or suburban LGA is called a city and is governed by a City Council, while a rural LGA covering a larger rural area is usually called a shire and is governed by a Shire Council. Local councils have the same administrative functions and similar political structures, regardless of their classification.[2]

They will typically have an elected council and usually a mayor or shire president responsible for chairing meetings of the council. The City of Melbourne has a Lord Mayor and Deputy Lord Mayor, who are directly elected, and in the other councils a mayor and deputy mayor are elected by fellow Councillors from among their own number. Since 2017, the mayor of the City of Greater Geelong has not been directly elected. There are 10 unincorporated areas, consisting of small islands or ski resorts, which are administered either by the state government or management boards.[2]

Council elections are held every four years on the fourth Saturday in October.[3] The last council elections were held on 22 October 2016.[4] An election was not held for the City of Greater Geelong, which was under administration until council elections were held on 27 October 2017.[5][6] In 2016, 637 local Councillors were elected in the 78 Councils contested.[7] Casual vacancies of councilors are filled by countback of the last ballots,[8] except for the Lord Mayor of Melbourne, which is filled by a by-election.

  1. ^ Local Government Act 1989 (Vic)
  2. ^ a b "Local Government Areas and Statistical Local Areas – Alphabetic". Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC), Jul 2008. Australian Bureau of Statistics. 26 September 2008. Retrieved 31 January 2011.
  3. ^ Local Government Act 1989 (Vic.), s.31
  4. ^ Municipal Association of Victoria, Council elections
  5. ^ "Geelong Council officially sacked, elections to be held in 2017, as bill passes Parliament". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 14 April 2016. Retrieved 28 April 2016.
  6. ^ Local Government (Greater Geelong City Council) Act 2016
  7. ^ "2016 local government election result trends" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 April 2017. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
  8. ^ "Victorian Electoral Commission v Municipal Electoral Tribunal (No 2) (Review and Regulation) [2017] VCAT 375 (14 March 2017)" (PDF). VCAT. 16 March 2017. Retrieved 5 May 2017.