Municipality of Redfern

When Redfern Municipality was proclaimed in August 1859, the area initially included the areas of Waterloo and Alexandria. However the Municipality of Waterloo was proclaimed in May 1860 and the Municipality of Alexandria separated from Waterloo in August 1868.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article228600787 |title=Municipality of Redfern |newspaper=New South Wales Government Gazette |issue=155 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=13 August 1859 |access-date=26 March 2017 |page=1765 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article115244979 |title=Jubilee of Waterloo |newspaper=The Evening News|location=Sydney |date=10 June 1910 |access-date=1 April 2015 |page=9 |publisher=National Library of Australia}} Upon incorporation in 1859, the municipality was divided into three wards: Redfern, Waterloo and Surry Hills, each electing three Aldermen. With the secession of Waterloo a few months later the wards were rearranged to be Redfern, Belmore and Surry Hills and in 1880 Golden Grove Ward was added to that number.{{cite book|author1=Redfern Municipal Council|title=Souvenir to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the incorporation of the Municipality of Redfern, 1859-1909|publisher=Redfern Municipal Council|location=Sydney: McCarron, Stewart & Co.|date=1909|url=http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/3541374?lookfor=Redfern%20Municipal%20Council&offset=2&max=9}} Under the enactment of The Municipalities Act of 1867, the title of 'Chairman' for the council was changed to be 'Mayor'. With this Act, the council also became known as the Borough of Redfern (From 28 December 1906, with the passing of the Local Government Act, 1906, the council was again renamed as the "Municipality of Redfern"). The Mayor had a set of official robes to wear as part of the office, but they were often boycotted by Labor mayors who affirmed they were against their 'democratic principles'.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article125953530 |title=Donning the Mayor Robes. |newspaper=The Richmond River Herald and Northern Districts Advertiser (NSW : 1886 - 1942) |location=NSW |date=2 April 1926 |access-date=9 October 2015 |page=2 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}

Redfern was notable for being the first suburb in Sydney to have electricity and electric street lighting, which occurred when the Council voted unanimously in 1891 to build its own power station, in Turner Street, to power the suburb. From the late 1910s and 1920s the Redfern area became increasingly populated by the unemployed and working class, employed by industry and the nearby Eveleigh Railway Workshops, resulting in the increasing domination of the Labor Party and left-wing groups in the area.{{cite journal|last1=Attarjarusit|first1=T.|last2=Burdon|first2=D.|last3=Burgess|first3=A.|last4=Boyle|first4=R.|title=Pre and Post Colonial Redfern: A Social History|journal=University of Sydney}} In 1947 the Communist Party of Australia succeeded in getting their first alderman, Patrick Levelle, elected to the council.{{cite journal|last1=Mulheron|first1=Maurie|title=Review – Radical Sydney: places, portraits and unruly episodes|journal=Illawarra Unity – Journal of the Illawarra Branch of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History|date=2010|volume=10|issue=1|pages=66–68}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article206691855 |title=Communist Wins Council Seat |newspaper=Tribune|issue=335 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=22 July 1947 |access-date=21 October 2017 |page=1 |via=National Library of Australia}} As a consequence the council, traditionally held by the merchant and middle classes, frequently found itself divided on simple matters, including the election of the mayor, which required the Minister for Local Government and the Governor to instead appoint the mayor several times.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article114102947 |title=Redfern's Mayor |newspaper=The Evening News|location=Sydney |date=21 February 1908 |access-date=27 March 2015 |page=6 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article116061772 |title=Municipal farce at Redfern. Governor Will Appoint Mayor.|newspaper=The Evening News|location=Sydney |date=15 February 1910 |access-date=27 March 2015 |page=4 |publisher=National Library of Australia}} This was a situation occurring within many of the inner-city councils as demographics of the area changed dramatically, but Redfern was considered the worst example of a council paralysed by party politics.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article99606481 |title=Party politics |newspaper=Goulburn Evening Penny Post |location=NSW |date=31 December 1936 |access-date=27 March 2015 |page=5 Edition: DAILY |publisher=National Library of Australia}}

With the Redfern area's close involvement with the labor movement and the Labor Party, the wartime conscription debate affected Redfern Council most particularly. In October 1916 Redfern Council passed a motion "without a dissentient that conscription was not in the best interests in Australia", in direct opposition to the views of ALP Prime Minister Billy Hughes and the Member for Redfern James McGowen. McGowen lost his preselection in Redfern and in response the Redfern ALP Branch president, Alderman John Leitch (Mayor, 1908–1910, 1914–1915) resigned to join the pro-conscriptionists with his friend McGowen.{{cite book|last1=Cunneen|first1=Christopher|title=William John McKell: Boilermaker, Premier, Governor-General|date=2000|publisher=UNSW Press|location=Sydney, New South Wales|isbn=0868405876|page=47}}

By the end of World War II, the Government of New South Wales realised that its ideas of infrastructure expansion could not be effected by the present system of the patchwork of small municipal councils across Sydney and the Minister for Local Government, Joseph Cahill, following the recommendations of the 1945–46 Clancy Royal Commission on Local Government Boundaries, passed a bill in 1948 that abolished a significant number of those councils.{{cite web|title=4895 Royal Commission on Local Government Boundaries|url=https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/agency/4895|website=State Records Archives Investigator|publisher=State Archives and Records Authority of New South Wales|access-date=2 November 2017}} Under the Local Government (Areas) Act 1948, Redfern Municipal Council became the Redfern Ward of the City of Sydney, returning two aldermen.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18099829 |title=City of Sydney |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |issue=34,620 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=6 December 1948 |access-date=10 September 2016 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}}

File:Portrait of Francis Augustus Wright Nla.obj-136731578-1.jpg
Mayor 1882–1884]]File:Thomas Clarke MLA for Darlington, circa 1898.gif (1846–1922), Mayor (1890–1891, 1898–1900) and Member of Parliament for Darlington (1898–1901).]] File:John Beveridge JP Alderman for Redfern 1889.jpg (1848–1916), Alderman for Belmore Ward (1886–1891) and Mayor (1891).]] File:Patrick Mooney.jpg (1880–1942), Mayor (1925) and Senator for New South Wales (1931–1932).]]

File:R W Grierson, Town Clerk of Redfern 1908.jpg

• The Hon. Jim Cope CMG, Redfern Alderman (1947–1948), Member of the Australian House of Representatives (MHR) (1955–1975), Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives (1973–1975).
• Phillip Sullivan, Redfern Alderman (1900), ALP Member of the NSW Legislative Assembly for Darlington and Phillip (1901–1907).

{{Reflist|30em}}

• {{cite book|author1=National Library of Australia|title=Souvenir to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the incorporation of the Municipality of Redfern, 1859-1909|publisher=Redfern Municipal Council|location=Sydney: McCarron, Stewart & Co.|url=http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/3541374?lookfor=Redfern%20Municipal%20Council&offset=2&max=9}}
• [https://www.warmemorialsregister.nsw.gov.au/content/redfern-town-hall-honor-roll Redfern Town Hall Honor Roll] – Register of War Memorials in NSW (NSW Government)

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

{{NSW former LGAs |state=collapsed}}

{{coord missing|New South Wales}}

Redfern

Mayors

Redfern

Category:1859 establishments in Australia

Category:1948 disestablishments in Australia