Shire of Glenelg

The Shire of Glenelg is a local government area in the Barwon South West region of Victoria, Australia, located in the south-western part of the state. It covers an area of and in June 2018 had a population of 19,665. It includes the towns of Casterton, Heywood, Merino and Portland.

The Shire is governed and administered by the Glenelg Shire Council; its seat of local government and administrative centre is located at the council headquarters in Portland, it also has service centres located in Casterton and Heywood. The Shire is named after the Glenelg River, a major geographical feature that meanders through the Shire.

Service industries, timber production, grazing and manufacturing are the Shire's main economic activities.

History The formally recognised traditional owners for the area in which Glenelg Shire sits are the Gunditjmara People who are represented by the Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation.

Although a shire of the same name existed before the amalgamations of the mid-1990s, the current Shire was formed in 1994 from the amalgamation of most of the former Shire of Glenelg with the Shire of Heywood and City of Portland.

During the local government review process in 1993 and 1994, all three former municipalities made submissions to the Local Government Board arguing that the City of Portland should continue to stand alone, even if Glenelg and Heywood were to be merged. However, the Board considered that, despite Portland's industrial character, the city's role as a service and export centre gave it a sufficiently strong connection to its rural hinterland, and proposed to merge the three LGAs into a "Shire of Henty". The name "Glenelg" was substituted later.

Council Current composition The council is composed of seven councillors elected to represent an unsubdivided municipality. The current councillors, in order of election at the 2024 election, are: WardPartyCouncilorNotesUnsubdivided IndependentKaren StephensCurrent Mayor. Independent Michael Carr Independent John Pepper Independent Mike Noske Independent Robyn McDonald Independent Matt Jowett Independent Dwayne Angelino

2024 election results

Administration and governance The council meets in the council chambers at the council headquarters in the Portland Municipal Offices, which is also the location of the council's administrative activities. It also provides customer services at both its administrative centre in Portland, and its service centres in Casterton and Heywood.

Townships and localities The 2021 census, the shire had a population of 20,152 up from 19,557 in the 2016 census

Population Locality 2016 2021 128 168 35 56 ^ 98 113 601 647 ^ 351 304 ^ 50 39 4 11 ^ 123 129 150 151 ^ 70 67 228 197 1,668 1,673 ^ 86 85 ^ 17 15 121 104 33 27 322 299 ^ 43 57 124 122 47 46 152 160 73 70 116 91 188 236 227 237 18 54 51 58 237 238 60 75 1,726 1,815 23 36 45 34 8 9 ^ 6 9 29 37 7 9 29 31 253 249 63 46 43 42 111 100 ^ 31 29 73 64 14 17 ^ 93 79 387 462 190 191 30 33 9,712 10,016 625 708 569 619 144 130 183 176 ^ 36 30 20 20 21 17 ^ 212 198 ^ 113 94 48 41 ^ 104 96 28 46 20 14 ^ - Territory divided with another LGA

Shire of Glenelg

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