Municipality of Balmain

The Municipality of Balmain was proclaimed on 21 February and Gazetted on 27 February, with the first elections held on 27 March 1860.{{cite web|title=Municipality of Balmain|url=http://search.records.nsw.gov.au/organisations/59|website=State Records Archives Investigator|publisher=NSW State Records|access-date=3 June 2016}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article64098011 |title=MUNICIPALITIES OF BALMAIN, WAVERLEY, AND MUDGEE. |newspaper=The Empire |issue=2,629 |date=28 February 1860 |access-date=3 June 2016 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}} The election of the first nine councillors was declared on 5 April 1860, with the first meeting occurring on the first day and the election of the first chairman, Rev. Ralph Mansfield.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article60409678 |title=MUNICIPALITY OF BALMAIN. |newspaper=The Empire |issue=2,685 |date=3 May 1860 |access-date=4 June 2016 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article60408236 |title=BALMAIN MUNICIPALITY. |newspaper=Empire |issue=2,661 |date=5 April 1860 |access-date=4 June 2016 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}} Following the passing of the Municipalities Act, 1867, chairman was retitled "Mayor" and Councillors became Aldermen. With this Act, the council also became known as the Borough of Balmain (From 28 December 1906, with the passing of the Local Government Act, 1906, the council was again renamed as the "Municipality of Balmain"). On 3 September 1913, the six acres of land adjoining Callan Park Asylum grounds, known as Callan Park were transferred from Leichhardt Council to Balmain, bringing the boundaries further south.

File:Balmain Town Hall, 3 June 2016.jpg, designed by mayors James McDonald (1881) and Edward Harman Buchanan (1888), was the seat of the council from 1881 to 1948.]]

The council first met on 5 April 1860 in the loft of a warehouse owned by Councillor Thomas Rowntree on Mort Bay (now the site of Gilchrist Place), then to rooms rented on the western side of Adolphus Street and thereafter in St Mary's schoolroom at 7 Adolphus Street. From 1862 to 1876, the council met in the Balmain School of Arts on 142 Darling Street. The current site of the Balmain Town Hall on Darling Street was purchased in 1876 and the existing stone cottage on the site became the council chambers. The council approved the building of new Council meeting chambers, located as a rear extension to the existing cottage, on 16 March 1880, designed by former Balmain mayor James McDonald, which were completed and opened in June 1881.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13489421 |title=NEW HALL AT BALMAIN. |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |issue=13,495 |date=1 July 1881 |access-date=3 June 2016 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}} However the need for large premises and a community hall for public meetings was needed and in 1888 a design by the sitting mayor Edward Harman Buchanan was accepted and demolition of the existing cottage commenced. Buchanan's design in the Victorian Free Classical style town hall included the centenary hall, a library, mayor's room, several rooms for council officers, and a council clerk's residence.{{cite journal|last1=McNamara|first1=Chris|title=Completing the Civic Skyline: Replacing the Dome on the Balmain Town Hall|journal=Leichhardt Historical Journal|date=1986|issue=15|pages=2–6|url=http://www.catalogue.lmc.nsw.gov.au/DIGITAL/EBOOKS/JPEG/lhj15.PDF|access-date=4 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160301220935/http://www.catalogue.lmc.nsw.gov.au/DIGITAL/EBOOKS/JPEG/lhj15.PDF|archive-date=1 March 2016|url-status=dead}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71102029 |title=THE BALMAIN TOWN HALL. |newspaper=Australian Town and Country Journal |volume=XXXVIII |issue=974 |date=8 September 1888 |access-date=3 June 2016 |page=30 |via=National Library of Australia}} The council grew a reputation for its strong Labor councils from the 1920s and in 1942–1944 the council was composed entirely of Labor councillors, which led the council to abolish its committees in favour of a cabinet-style system.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article167480416 |title=Balmain Council Abolishes Committee System |newspaper=The Newcastle Sun |issue=7510 |date=13 January 1942 |access-date=3 June 2016 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}}

By the end of the Second World War, the NSW Government had come to the conclusion, following the recommendation of the 1945–46 Clancy Royal Commission on Local Government Boundaries, 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. Balmain was abolished and amalgamated with Annandale into the Municipality of Leichhardt following the enactment of the Local Government (Areas) Act 1948, which came into effect from 1 January 1949.

File:Rev. Ralph Mansfield (The Sydney Mail 11 September 1880).jpg (1799–1880), first Chairman of the Balmain Municipality.]]

File:Jacob Garrard c. 1895.jpg (1846–1931), Mayor 1885–1886, Secretary for Public Works 1885–1886, Minister for Public Instruction 1894–1898.]]

File:Captain_Trouton_FL15984842.jpg (1826–1896), Mayor 1873-1874]]

• John McMahon, Balmain Alderman (1942–1944), State MP for Balmain (1950–1968).
• William O'Connor, Balmain Alderman (1944–1948), Member of the House of Representatives (1946–1969).

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{{NSW former LGAs |state=expanded}}

{{NSW Local Government Act 1948|state=collapsed}}

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Category:1860 establishments in Australia

Category:1948 disestablishments in Australia

Balmain

Balmain

Category:Inner West

Category:Balmain, New South Wales