District Council of Gladstone

{{Short description|Former local government area of South Australia}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}}

The District Council of Gladstone was a local government area in South Australia. It was proclaimed on 10 August 1876 as the District Council of Yangya, named for the cadastral Hundred of Yangya, but was renamed Gladstone after its main town on 14 August 1879.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article208305807 |title=THE GOVERNMENT GAZETTE. |newspaper=The Express and Telegraph |volume=XIII |issue=3,825 |location=South Australia |date=11 August 1876 |access-date=5 April 2016 |page=3 (SECOND EDITION.) |via=National Library of Australia}} Gladstone had been built as a private township very close to the hundred boundary, and the adjacent government township of Booyoolie, built not long after, was in the adjacent Hundred of Booyoolie, and formed as the separate District Council of Booyoolie, dividing the twin towns (later merged into modern Gladstone in 1939) into two separate municipalities based on their respective hundreds.{{cite web |url=http://www.nacouncil.sa.gov.au/page.aspx?u=189 |title=Gladstone |publisher=Northern Areas Council |access-date=18 March 2016}} It gained the Booyoolie township from that council in 1879, and acquired the remainder of what had been the southern portion of the Booyoolie council on 12 August 1880. It then gained the remainder of the Hundred of Yangya under the District Councils Act 1887.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article207660005 |title=GOVERNMENT GAZETTE. |newspaper=The Express and Telegraph |volume=XVII |issue=4,977 |location=South Australia |date=13 August 1880 |access-date=5 April 2016 |page=3 (SECOND EDITION) |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite web | url=http://dspace.flinders.edu.au/xmlui/handle/2328/3465 | title=The District Councils Act 1887 No. 419 | publisher=Flinders University | access-date=14 November 2015}}

A ward system was first introduced in 1881, with three wards (Gladstone, Eastern and Western) each electing two councillors.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article218949310 |title=GLADSTONE DISTRICT COUNCIL. |newspaper=The Areas' Express |volume=IV |issue=404 |location=South Australia |date=17 August 1881 |access-date=5 April 2016 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}} The town of Gladstone separated as the Corporate Town of Gladstone on 8 March 1883, and the Gladstone ward was dropped.{{cite web | url=https://www.lga.sa.gov.au/webdata/resources/files/LGA-89938_-_2011_18_-_FINAL_History_of_SA_Councils.pdf | title=A History of South Australian Councils to 1936 | publisher=Local Government Association of South Australia | date=2012 | access-date=30 October 2015 | author=Marsden, Susan | pages=41}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48224515 |title=DISTRICT COUNCIL NOMINATIONS. I |newspaper=South Australian Register |volume=LVII |issue=14,232 |location=South Australia |date=24 June 1892 |access-date=5 April 2016 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}} It regained the town of Gladstone in 1933 when the Corporate Town was amalgamated back into the District Council. The post-1933 ward structure saw three town wards (North, East and West) and four rural wards (Manatoo, Rocky River, Yackamoorundie and Yangya). In 1939, it purchased the assets of the Gladstone Institute, whose trustees had been unable to fund the cost of continued maintenance.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article218893704 |title=RATEPAYERS' MEETING AT GLADSTONE. |newspaper=The Areas' Express |volume=LIX |issue=3132 |location=South Australia |date=3 November 1939 |access-date=5 April 2016 |page=1 |via=National Library of Australia}} The institute library operated until 1983, when it was replaced by the Flinders Mobile Library, an initiative of several surrounding councils. The council ceased to exist in 1988 when it merged with the District Council of Georgetown and the District Council of Laura to form the District Council of Rocky River.