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The City of Hawkesbury is a local government area of New South Wales, Australia, located on the northern and north-western fringe of the Greater Sydney area, about 50 kilometres (31 mi) north-west of the Sydney central business district. Hawkesbury City is named after the Hawkesbury River. Major suburbs in the City of Hawkesbury are Windsor, Richmond and Pitt Town. It is a member council of the Hawkesbury River County Council.
| City of Hawkesbury New South Wales | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Location in Outer Metropolitan Sydney | |||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 33°36′41.42″S 150°48′53.68″E | ||||||||||||||
| Population | 67,207 (LGA 2021)[1] | ||||||||||||||
| Established | 1 January 1981 | ||||||||||||||
| Area | 2,776 km2 (1,071.8 sq mi) | ||||||||||||||
| Mayor | Sarah McMahon (Liberal) | ||||||||||||||
| Region | Greater Western Sydney | ||||||||||||||
| State electorate(s) | |||||||||||||||
| Federal division(s) | |||||||||||||||
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| Website | City of Hawkesbury | ||||||||||||||
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The mayor of the City of Hawkesbury is Cr. Sarah McMahon, a member of the Liberal Party.
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Suburbs and localities in the City of Hawkesbury are:
- Agnes Banks (shared with City of Penrith)
- Berambing
- Bilpin
- Blaxlands Ridge
- Bligh Park
- Bowen Mountain
- Bucketty (shared with Cessnock City Council)
- Cattai (shared with The Hills Shire)
- Central Colo
- Central Macdonald
- Clarendon
- Colo
- Colo Heights
- Cornwallis
- Cumberland Reach
- East Kurrajong
- Ebenezer
- Fernances
- Freemans Reach
- Glossodia
- Grose Vale
- Grose Wold
- Higher Macdonald
- Hobartville
- Kurmond
- Kurrajong
- Kurrajong Heights
- Kurrajong Hills
- Leets Vale (shared with The Hills Shire)
- Lower Macdonald
- Lower Portland (shared with The Hills Shire)
- Maraylya (shared with The Hills Shire)
- Mcgraths Hill
- Mellong
- Mogo Creek
- Mountain Lagoon
- Mulgrave
- North Richmond
- Oakville
- Perrys Crossing
- Pitt Town
- Pitt Town Bottoms
- Putty
- Richmond
- Richmond Lowlands
- Sackville
- Scheyville
- South Windsor
- St Albans
- Ten Mile Hollow (shared with Central Coast Council)
- Tennyson
- The Devils Wilderness
- The Lowlands
- The Slopes
- Upper Colo
- Upper Macdonald
- Vineyard (shared with City of Blacktown)
- Webbs Creek
- Wheeny Creek
- Wilberforce
- Windsor
- Windsor Downs
- Wisemans Ferry (shared with Central Coast Council, The Hills Shire and Hornsby Shire)
- Womerah
- Wrights Creek
- Yarramundi
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The original inhabitants of the Hawkesbury district were the Darug tribe of Aboriginals, also spelt as Dharug or Daruk. The river, which they called Derrubbin, was a focal point as a source of food and transport. The Darug people used the river to farm for fish, eels, water birds, and mussels. They also used the river as a mode of transport in bark canoes.[2]
It was first settled by Europeans in 1794 in a bid to acquire arable land to feed the increasing population of the penal colony at Sydney. In April 1794, Lieutenant Governor Francis Grose submitted plans for the first 22 farms on the Hawkesbury River in the present Pitt Town Bottoms area. In June 1795, Lieutenant Governor William Paterson deployed troops to engage with Aboriginals inhabiting land along the Hawkesbury River.[3][editorializing]
By 1811 Governor Lachlan Macquarie established the five Macquarie Towns in the area. They are Windsor, Richmond, Castlereagh, Wilberforce and Pitt Town. Many of the early 19th century buildings still survive today. Ebenezer has the oldest surviving church and school building in Australia. Windsor District Council was formed in 1843 and disbanded in 1846. In 1871 the Borough Council of Windsor was founded and the Richmond Borough Council followed in 1872. The two councils amalgamated in 1949 to become the Municipality of Windsor. Colo Shire Council was established in 1906 and joined Windsor Municipal Council from 1 January 1981 to become Hawkesbury Shire Council.[4][5] On 1 July 1989, Hawkesbury became a City.[6][7]
On its creation in 1981, Hawkesbury was largely rural, but urban expansion within Sydney has since transformed the southern part of the area into dormitory suburbs. The northern part of the local government area still contains some farmlands and national parkland.
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At the 2021 Census, there were 67,207 people in the Hawkesbury local government area. Of these, 49.8% were male and 50.2% were female. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 4.8% of the population, which was 1.6% above the national average. The median age of people in the City of Hawkesbury was 39 years. Children aged 0 – 14 years made up 19.1% of the population and people aged 65 years and over made up 16.6% of the population. Of people in the area aged 15 years and over, 49.3% were married and 12.4% were either divorced or separated.[8]
Population in the City of Hawkesbury between the 2001 Census and the 2006 Census decreased by 0.54%; and in the subsequent five years to the 2011 Census, population growth was 2.96%. Between the 2011 and 2016 Census, population increased by a further 1.04%. When compared with total population growth of Australia for the same periods, population growth in Hawkesbury local government area was significantly lower than the national average.[9] The median weekly income for residents within the City of Hawkesbury has been consistently marginally higher than the national average.[10][11][12][8]
At the 2021 Census, the proportion of residents in the Hawkesbury local government area who stated their ancestry as Australian or English amounted to 80.8%, representing an increase from 62% in 2011. Many people from the Hawkesbury identified as having a Catholic (26.0%) or Anglican (19.3%) religious affiliation in 2021.
| Selected historical census data for Hawkesbury local government area | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Census year | 2001[9] | 2006[12] | 2011[11] | 2016[10] | 2021[8] | |
| Population | Estimated residents on census night | 60,887 |  60,561 |  62,353 | 64,592 | 67,207 |
| LGA rank in terms of size within New South Wales | 34th | |||||
| % of New South Wales population | 0.90% | 1.66% | 0.83% | |||
| % of Australian population | 0.32% | 0.31% | 0.29% | 0.27% | 0.26% | |
| Cultural and language diversity | ||||||
| Ancestry, top responses | Australian | 32.6% | 30.4% | 41.1% | ||
| English | 29.5% |  29.5% | 39.7% | |||
| Irish | 7.6% | 8.3% | 10.6% | |||
| Scottish | 6.3% | 6.8% | 9.5% | |||
| Maltese | 3.1% | 3.5% | 5.8% | |||
| Language, top responses (other than English) | Maltese | 0.8% | 0.7% | 0.8% | 0.9% | 0.9% |
| Italian | 0.6% | 0.6% | 0.5% | 0.4% | 0.4% | |
| Cantonese | – | – | – | 0.3% | 0.3% | |
| German | 0.3% | 0.3% | 0.3% | 0.3% | – | |
| Arabic | 0.3% | 0.3% | 0.3% | 0.3% | 0.4% | |
| Punjabi | – | – | – | – | 0.5% | |
| Religious affiliation | ||||||
| Religious affiliation, top responses |
Catholic | 26.6% | 27.3% | 28.2% | 27.5% | 26.0% |
| Anglican | 30.9% | 29.9% | 29.4% | 24.6% | 19.3% | |
| No Religion | 12.2% | 14.8% | 16.7% | 23.9% | 33.7% | |
| Not stated | – | – | – | 8.3% | 5.5% | |
| Uniting Church | 5.7% | 5.0% | 4.4% | 3.3% | 2.6% | |
| Presbyterian and Reformed | 3.0% | 5.7% | 2.8% | – | – | |
| Median weekly incomes | ||||||
| Personal income | Median weekly personal income | – | $527 | $622 | $728 | $860 |
| % of Australian median income | – | 113.1% | 107.8% | 110.0% | 106.8% | |
| Family income | Median weekly family income | – | $1,146 | $1,598 | $1,916 | $2,272 |
| % of Australian median income | – | 111.6% | 107.9% | 110.5% | 107.1% | |
| Household income | Median weekly household income | – | $1,290 | $1,385 | $1,668 | $1,980 |
| % of Australian median income | – | 110.2% | 112.2% | 116.0% | 113.4% | |
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Current composition and election method
Hawkesbury City Council is composed of twelve councillors elected proportionally as one entire ward. All councillors are elected for a fixed four-year term of office. The mayor is elected by the councillors at the first meeting of the council. The most recent election was held on 4 December 2021, and the makeup of the council is as follows:[13]
| Party | Councillors | |
|---|---|---|
| Liberal Party | 4 | |
| Independents and Unaligned | 3 | |
| Labor Party | 2 | |
| Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party | 1 | |
| The Greens | 1 | |
| The Small Business Party | 1 | |
| Total | 12 | |
The current Council, elected in 2021, in order of election, is:[13]
| Councillor | Party | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nathan Zamprogno | Independent | Elected Liberal in the 2016–2021 term, now independent | |
| Sarah McMahon | Liberal | Mayor 2022–date | |
| Mary Lyons-Buckett | Independent | Mayor 2016–2018, Deputy Mayor 2018–2021 | |
| Barry Calvert | Labor | Deputy Mayor 2018–date, Mayor 2016–2018, Deputy Mayor 2022–date | |
| Patrick Conolly | Liberal | Mayor 2020–2022 | |
| Paul Veigel | Liberal | ||
| Jill Reardon | Liberal | ||
| Danielle Wheeler | Greens | ||
| Les Sheather | Independent | ||
| Eddie Dogramaci | The Small Business Party | ||
| Amanda Kotlash | Labor | ||
| Shane Djuric | Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party | ||
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2021
| Elected councillor | Party | |
|---|---|---|
| Sarah McMahon | Liberal | |
| Patrick Conolly | Liberal | |
| Paul Veigel | Liberal | |
| Jill Reardon | Liberal | |
| Barry Calvert | Labor | |
| Amanda Kotlash | Labor | |
| Mary Lyons-Buckett | People Not Parties | |
| Nathan Zamprogno | Ind. Liberal | |
| Les Sheather | Les and The Doc | |
| Shane Djuric | SFF | |
| Danielle Wheeler | Greens | |
| Eddie Dogramaci | Small Business | |
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | 13,577 | 34.3 | +6.0 | ||
| Labor | 4,783 | 12.1 | −4.3 | ||
| People Not Parties | 3,846 | 9.7 | |||
| Independent Liberal | 3,357 | 8.5 | |||
| Les and The Doc | 2,916 | 7.4 | |||
| Shooters, Fishers, Farmers | 2,821 | 7.1 | +7.1 | ||
| Greens | 2,795 | 7.1 | −0.8 | ||
| Small Business | 1,899 | 4.8 | +4.8 | ||
| Andrew Cadman Group | 1,070 | 2.7 | |||
| Independent | 947 | 2.4 | |||
| Hawkesbury Alliance | 944 | 2.4 | |||
| The Locals | 448 | 1.1 | |||
| Independent | John Ross | 85 | 0.2 | ||
| Total formal votes | 39,488 | 94.9 | |||
| Informal votes | 2,135 | 5.1 | |||
| Turnout | 41,623 | 86.1 | |||
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| Mayor | Party | Term | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 – 27 September 1994 | ||||
| Dr Rex Stubbs | Independent | 27 September 1994 – 30 September 1997 | [16] | |
| 30 September 1997 – 29 September 1999 | ||||
| Dr Rex Stubbs OAM | Independent | 29 September 1999 – 27 September 2004 | [16] | |
| Bart Bassett | Liberal | 27 September 2004 – 18 September 2006 | [17] | |
| Dr Rex Stubbs OAM | Independent | 18 September 2006 – 18 September 2007 | [18] | |
| Bart Bassett | Liberal | 18 September 2007 – 20 September 2011 | [19] | |
| Kim Ford | 20 September 2011 – 10 September 2016 | [20][21][22] | ||
| Mary Lyons-Buckett | Independent | 27 September 2016 – 18 September 2018 | [23] | |
| Barry Calvert | Labor | 18 September 2018 – 22 September 2020 | [24] | |
| Patrick Conolly | Liberal | 22 September 2020 – 23 August 2022 | [25] | |
| Sarah McMahon | Liberal | 23 August 2022 – date | ||
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