Municipality of Alexandria
{{Short description|Former local government area in New South Wales, Australia}}
{{Use Australian English|date=August 2019}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}}
{{Infobox Australian place
| type = lga
| name = Municipality of Alexandria
| city = Sydney
| state = nsw
| image = Alexandria Town Hall, pictured in "Alexandria, 'the Birmingham of Australia'", 1943.jpg
| caption = Alexandria Town Hall, pictured in 1943.
| coordinates = {{coord|-33.910|151.193|type:city_region:AU-NSW|display=inline,title}}
| force_national_map =
| latd =
| latm =
| lats =
| longd =
| longm =
| longs =
| pushpin_label_position = left
| est = 27 August 1868
| abolished = 31 December 1948
| seat = Alexandria Town Hall
| pop = 8060
| pop_year = {{CensusAU|1947}}
| pop_footnotes = {{cite book|last1=Spearritt|first1=Peter|title=Sydney's Century: A History|date=2000|publisher=UNSW Press|location=Sydney|pages=272–273}}
| region =
| area = 4.2
| parish = Alexandria
| logo =
| near-n = Redfern
| near-ne = Waterloo
| near-e = Waterloo
| near-se = Waterloo
| near-s = North Botany/Mascot
| near-sw = St Peters
| near-w = Macdonaldtown/
Erskineville
| near-nw = Newtown
}}
The Municipality of Alexandria was a local government area of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Originally part of the municipalities of Redfern from 1859 and Waterloo from 1860, the Borough of Alexandria was proclaimed on 27 August 1868. With an area of 4.2 square kilometres, it included the modern suburbs of Alexandria, Beaconsfield and parts of Eveleigh, St Peters and Erskineville. After a minor boundary change with the Municipality of Erskineville in 1908, the council was amalgamated with the City of Sydney, along with most of its neighbours, with the passing of the Local Government (Areas) Act 1948, although the former council area was later transferred in 1968–1982 and 1989–2004 to the South Sydney councils.
Council history and location
=Early history of incorporation=
The area that would constitute the municipality of Alexandria was first incorporated as the Waterloo Ward of the Municipality of Redfern in August 1859.{{Gazette NSW |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article228600787 |title=MUNICIPALITY OF REDFERN. |issue=155 |date=13 August 1859 |access-date=26 March 2017 |page=1765 |via=Trove}} Under the provisions of the Municipalities Act, 1858, 250 residents of the area including Alexandria signed a petition which was published in the Government Gazette on 17 January 1860, noting that "they have every reason for believing that their interests, as part of the said Municipality of Redfern, will be seriously injured by their incorporation with such Municipality, and are, therefore, desirous to be separated therefrom, and be and become a separate and distinct Municipality".{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article230039338 |title=PETITION FOR SEPARATION FROM REDFERN. |newspaper=New South Wales Government Gazette |issue=13 |date=17 January 1860 |access-date=13 October 2016 |page=100 |via=Trove}} The area was subsequently proclaimed as the Municipality of Waterloo on 16 May 1860 by Governor Sir William Denison.{{Gazette NSW |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article230042527 |title=PROCLAMATION. |issue=90 |date=17 May 1860 |access-date=13 October 2016 |page=946 |via=Trove}}
=Secession of Alexandria=
In March 1868, a petition of 257 electors (including the first chairman of the Waterloo municipality, Edward Hawkesley) in the Western Ward of Waterloo was published in the Government Gazette arguing for the establishment of a "Borough of Alexandria", noting that "the rates received from the Western Ward have never been wholly expended in that Ward, and that no improvements of a permanent nature are in progress in the said Ward; nor has any sum been voted for that purpose during the past half-year [...] they believe that justice has not been done to them; nor can they hope that their interests will be consulted by the Council as at present constituted."{{Gazette NSW |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article225465667 |title=SEPARATION OF THE BOROUGH OF WATERLOO. |issue=63 |date=17 March 1868 |access-date=14 October 2016 |page=741 |via=Trove}} The petition was subsequently accepted by the Government and the Governor Lord Belmore proclaimed the separation of the Borough of Alexandria and the reconstitution of Waterloo on 27 August 1868.{{Gazette NSW |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article225725194 |title=PROCLAMATION. |issue=213 |date=31 August 1868 |access-date=14 October 2016 |page=2914 |via=Trove}}{{Gazette NSW |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article225725193 |title=PROCLAMATION. |issue=213 |date=31 August 1868 |access-date=14 October 2016 |page=2914 |via=Trove}}
It was bounded by the Eveleigh railway yards and Boundary Street to the north, Botany Road in the east, Canal and Gardeners roads to the south and crossing through the suburbs of St Peters and Erskineville in the west.Gregory's Street Directory of Sydney and Suburbs. 1st Edition, 1934. The Australian Guide Book Co, Sydney. The first nine-member council was elected on 3 October 1868.{{Gazette NSW |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article225579098 |title=Private Advertisements. Borough of Alexandria |issue=248 |date=9 October 1868 |access-date=26 March 2017 |page=3457 |via=Trove}}{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article28423473 |title=Borough of Alexandria |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=6 October 1868 |access-date=26 March 2017 |page=4 |via=Trove}}
The first chairman of the Waterloo Municipality, Edward John Hawksley, was elected as the first mayor on 7 October 1868 and laid the foundation stone for the first Town Hall, built by local builder Thomas Shirley, on 8 December.{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article60829979 |title=LAYING THE FOUNDATION STONE OF THE TOWN HALL AT ALEXANDRIA. |newspaper=Empire |date=9 December 1868 |access-date=26 March 2017 |page=2 |via=Trove}} However, Hawksley's term proved short-lived when the mayor of Waterloo, William Moon, disputed his election as an alderman for Alexandria in the Supreme Court. The case, based on electoral roll irregularities, was successful and Hawksley was disqualified from public office, leaving the council without a mayor until the election of Alderman Samuel Sparks on 7 January 1869.{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article166799742 |title=Law Gazette. Supreme Court. |newspaper=Sydney Mail |date=19 December 1868 |access-date=26 March 2017 |page=12 |via=Trove}}{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article28420936 |title=Borough of Alexandria |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=9 January 1869 |access-date=26 March 2017 |page=4 |via=Trove}} In a snap election called in February 1869 because of the vacancy, Hawksley was re-elected and was subsequently elected mayor once more.{{Gazette NSW |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article228676994 |title=Borough of Alexandria |issue=35 |date=12 February 1869 |access-date=26 March 2017 |page=415 |via=Trove}}
=Expansion and development=
Over the next sixty years there were few alterations to municipal boundaries centred on the suburb of Alexandria. Rapid industrial and residential development occurred from the 1880s, with the population of the municipality recorded as 7499 in 1705 dwellings by April 1891.[http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/AboutSydney/documents/history/GreenSquare/HistoriesofGreenSquare.pdf Histories of Green Square] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110314080339/http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/AboutSydney/documents/history/GreenSquare/HistoriesofGreenSquare.pdf |date=2011-03-14 }} City Of Sydney, accessed 18 March 2011. It was this development that was noted in an 1887 profile of the municipality in The Sydney Morning Herald: {{blockquote|"Like its immediate neighbours, Alexandria is a working man's borough, nearly all the dwellings being of a humble description. A large humber of industrial occupations are carried on, some being of a slightly unpleasant nature, so far as the olfactory nerves are concerned. Among others, may be mentioned-boiling-down establishments, tanneries, soap and candle works, and a varnish factory, the whole employing a considerable number of hands."{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article28345687 |title=XI.—ALEXANDRIA. |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=20 December 1887 |access-date=2 April 2017 |page=11 |via=Trove}}}}
The Alexandria Town Hall in Garden Street was designed and completed by Ferdinand Reuss Snr in 1881, with major alterations completed by architects D. T. Morrow and Gordon in 1928.{{cite web|title=Alexandria Town Hall including interior|url=http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/heritageapp/ViewHeritageItemDetails.aspx?ID=2420816|website=NSW Heritage Database|publisher=Office of Environment and Heritage|access-date=26 March 2017}}{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13465585 |title=BOROUGH COUNCILS. |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=6 August 1880 |access-date=26 March 2017 |page=2 |via=Trove}}{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article107216188 |title=Suburban Public Buildings. |newspaper=Evening News |date=27 June 1881 |access-date=26 March 2017 |page=4 |via=Trove}}{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16483749 |title=NEW TOWN HALL. |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=3 August 1928 |access-date=26 March 2017 |page=17 |via=Trove}} In February 1883 a petition was submitted to the Government for the division of the borough into three wards.{{Gazette NSW |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article221662005 |title=Borough of Alexandria—PETITION FOR DIVISION INTO WARDS. |issue=69 |date=23 February 1883 |access-date=2 April 2017 |page=1011 |via=Trove}} The division of the borough into East Ward, West Ward and South Ward was subsequently proclaimed on 22 June 1883.{{Gazette NSW |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article225729350 |title=Government Gazette Proclamations and Legislation |issue=267 |date=22 June 1883 |access-date=2 April 2017 |page=3430 |via=Trove}} In January 1886, owing to the growth in population in the South Ward, a further petition was submitted for the division of the ward into two, adding "Beaconsfield Ward".{{Gazette NSW |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article221651690 |title=Borough of Alexandria—PETITION FOR ADJUSTMENT OF WARDS. |issue=58 |date=29 January 1886 |access-date=2 April 2017 |page=719 |via=Trove}} This was accepted and proclaimed on 16 June 1886.{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article221683048 |title=Government Gazette Proclamations and Legislation |newspaper=New South Wales Government Gazette|issue=334 |date=16 June 1886 |access-date=2 April 2017 |page=4103 |via=Trove}}
By 1891, the tramline along Botany road was constructed, the road itself the major thoroughfare in the municipality being laid out in 1821. From 28 December 1906, following the passing of the Local Government Act, 1906, the council was renamed as the "Municipality of Alexandria". By 1943, when the municipality celebrated 75 years of existence, Alexandria was the largest industrial district in Australia, and known as the "Birmingham of Australia", a term coined by the long-serving alderman and mayor of Alexandria, Michael O'Riordan.{{cite book|last1=Whitaker|first1=Anne-Maree|title=Pictorial History South Sydney|date=2002|publisher=Kingsclear Books Pty Ltd|location=South Sydney, New South Wales|page=121}}{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article108022652 |title=THREE TIMES MAYOR |newspaper=The Freeman's Journal |date=11 March 1905 |access-date=26 March 2017 |page=17 |via=Trove}}
=Later history=
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, passed a bill in 1948 that abolished a significant number of those councils. Under the Local Government (Areas) Act 1948, Alexandria Municipal Council was merged, along with most of its neighbours, with the larger neighbouring City of Sydney which was located to the North.
Mayors
File:John Dacey FL3459075 02.jpg, Mayor 1888–1890]]
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Citation | author1=Municipality of Alexandria| title=Alexandria, "the Birmingham of Australia": 75 years of progress, 1868-1943 | publication-date=1943 | publisher=Alexandria Municipal Council | url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/25408668}}
{{NSW Local Government Act 1948|state=expanded}}
{{NSW former LGAs |state=collapsed}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alexandria}}
Category:Former local government areas in Sydney
Category:1868 establishments in Australia