The Right Honourable the Lord Mayor of Sydney is the head of the Council of the City of Sydney, which is the local government area covering the Sydney central business district, New South Wales, Australia. The Lord Mayor has been directly elected since 1995, replacing the previous system of being internally elected annually by the Councillors, and serves a four-year term. The most recent election was held on 14 September 2024, at which the incumbent Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, was re-elected to a sixth term. The Lord Mayor is assisted in their work by a Deputy Lord Mayor, who is elected on an annual basis by the elected councillors.
Office history The office of the Mayor of Sydney along with the City of Sydney was created on 20 July 1842 pursuant to the Sydney City Incorporation Act 1842 by Governor Sir George Gipps. Prior to the first municipal election, the governor nominated magistrate Charles Windeyer to serve as interim mayor. The first council, consisting of 24 aldermen elected across six wards, was declared elected on 3 November 1842 and first met in the George Street Market Building (now the site of the Queen Victoria Building) on 9 November and elected John Hosking as the first elected mayor of Sydney.
The title of Mayor (in full: The Right Worshipful the Mayor) was elevated to "Lord Mayor" on 23 November 1902 by King Edward VII, and as part of this process received the honorific The Right Honourable, a title which attaches to the title of Lord Mayor and not to the individual holding the office. In December 1915, the Parliament of New South Wales passed the Sydney Corporation (Election of Mayor) Act, 1915 which amended the 1902 act to allow for the governor to appoint the lord mayor should the council be unable to elect a candidate on or before 30 December of any year. This occurred three times, in 1916, 1920 and 1934.
The office of lord mayor, along with the City of Sydney, was governed by the Sydney Corporation Act, 1932 until the passing of the Local Government (Areas) Act 1948, which placed Sydney under the terms of the Local Government Act 1919, which governed all other local governments in the state. This meant that the election of lord mayor (until 1971 in December of each year, and then in September) marked the beginning of the term, instead of the previous system, where the lord mayoral term began on 1 January and expired on 31 December. When the City of Sydney Act 1988 was passed, the City of Sydney was once again governed under a separate law, but the election of lord mayor did not change until the Local Government Legislation Amendment Act 1995, which allowed for popular direct elections from 1995.
Vestments of office As head of the council, the lord mayor is entitled to wear the chains and robes of office, as befitting the ancient status of lord mayor of a large city. In 1902 the Sydney Chamber of Commerce commissioned the first link of a mayoral chain. In 1903, the governor of New South Wales, Sir Harry Rawson presented the first lord mayor, Thomas Hughes, with the chain of office. It features the coat of arms of the Sydney Chamber of Commerce and the Stock Exchange and a pendant depicting the coat of arms of Sydney. Successive mayors each added a medallion, on which was embossed their term of office. By 1945, this practice had ended because of the size and weight of the chain. Today, the chain is worn with the robes of office only for rare civic ceremonies, a smaller collar being worn for most civic duties.
The original civic robe for the mayor of Sydney in 1842 was purple, trimmed with ermine and worn with a court dress hat. The current robes worn by the lord mayor and deputy lord mayor are black, trimmed with ermine, and worn with bicorne hat, lace jabot and white gloves. They are worn rarely and only at major civic functions.City of Sydney: Mace, chain and robes at City of Sydney official website Recently, it has become the custom not to wear the robes.
List of mayors, lord mayors and administrators # Officeholder Party/Affiliation Title Term start Term end Time in office Notes Charles Windeyer n/a Mayor 12 August 1842 9 November 1842 John Hosking 9 November 1842 1843 James Robert Wilshire 25 September 1843 November 1844 George Allen November 1844 November 1845 Henry Macdermott1846 1846 Thomas Broughton 1847 1847 Joshua Frey Josephson 1848 1848 Edward Flood 1849 1849 George Hill 1850 1850 William Edward Thurlow 1851 1852 Daniel Egan 1853 1853n/a Gilbert Elliot Chief Commissioner 1854 1856 Frederick Orme Darval Commissioner John Rae George Thornton Mayor 1857 1857 John Williams 1858 1858 George Smith 1859 1859 James Murphy 1860 1860 John Sutherland 1861 1861 James Oatley 1862 1862 Thomas Spence 1863 1863 William Speer 1864 1864 John Woods 1865 1865 John Sutton 1866 1866 Charles Moore 1867 1869 Walter Renny 1869 1870 Michael Chapman 1871 1872 James Merriman 1873 1873 Stephen Styles Goold 1874 1874 Benjamin Palmer 1875 1876– James Merriman 1877 1878 Charles James Roberts 1879 1879 Robert Fowler 1880 1880 John Harris 1881 1883 John Hardie 1884 1884 Thomas Playfair John Young 1 January 1886 31 December 1886 Alban Joseph Riley Independent 1 January 1887 31 December 1887 John Harris Independent 1 January 1888 31 December 1889 Sydney Burdekin Independent 1 January 1890 10 April 1891 Sir William Patrick Manning Independent 10 April 1891 31 December 1894 Samuel Edward Lees Independent 1 January 1895 31 December 1895 Isaac Ives Independent 1 January 1896 31 December 1897 Sir Matthew Harris Independent 1 January 1898 31 December 1900 Sir James Graham Independent 1 January 1901 31 December 1901 Thomas Hughes Independent 1 January 1902 23 November 1902 Lord Mayor 23 November 1902 31 December 1903 – Samuel Edward Lees Independent 1 January 1904 31 December 1904 Allen Taylor Independent 1 January 1905 31 December 1906 – Thomas Hughes Independent 1 January 1907 31 December 1908 – Sir Allen Taylor Independent 1 January 1909 1 May 1912 George Thomas Clarke Independent 1 May 1912 31 December 1912 Sir Arthur Cocks Independent 1 January 1913 31 December 1913 Richard Watkins Richards Independent 1 January 1914 31 December 1915 Richard Meagher Labor 15 January 1916 31 December 1917 James Joynton Smith Independent 1 January 1918 31 December 1918 John English Labor 1 January 1919 8 March 1919 – Sir Richard Watkins Richards Independent 11 March 1919 12 March 1920 William Patrick Fitzgerald Labor 16 March 1920 31 December 1920 William Lambert 1 January 1921 31 December 1921 William McElhone Independent 1 January 1922 31 December 1922 David Gilpin Civic Reform 1 January 1923 31 December 1924 Patrick Vincent Stokes Labor 1 January 1925 31 December 1926 John Harold Mostyn 1 January 1927 3 January 1928 n/a Edmund Patrick Fleming n/a Chief Commissioner 3 January 1928 3 October 1928 John Garlick Commissioner 30 October 1928 Henry Edgar Mortonn/a John Garlick n/a Chief Commissioner 30 October 1928 30 June 1930 Henry Edgar Morton Commissioner Gordon Bennett Ernest Marks Civic Reform Lord Mayor 1 July 1930 31 December 1930 Joseph Jackson 1 January 1931 31 December 1931 Sir Samuel Walder 1 January 1932 31 December 1932 Richard Hagon Independent 1 January 1933 31 December 1933 Sir Alfred Parker Civic Reform 1 January 1934 18 October 1935 Arthur McElhone Independent 22 October 1935 31 December 1935 Archibald Howie Civic Reform 1 January 1936 31 December 1937 Sir Norman Nock 1 January 1938 31 December 1939 Stanley Crick 1 January 1940 31 December 1942 Reg Bartley 1 January 1943 31 December 1944 William Harding 1 January 1945 31 December 1945 – Reg Bartley 1 January 1946 31 December 1948 Ernest Charles O'Dea Labor 1 January 1949 9 December 1952 Pat Hills 9 December 1952 30 November 1956 Harry Jensen 1 December 1956 3 December 1965 John Armstrong 4 December 1965 13 November 1967 n/a Vernon Treatt n/a Chief Commissioner 14 November 1967 26 September 1969 John Shaw Deputy Chief Commissioner William Pettingell Commissioner Sir Lawrence Emmet McDermott Civic Reform Lord Mayor 7 October 1969 25 September 1972 David Griffin 25 September 1972 24 September 1973 Sir Nicholas Shehadie 24 September 1973 26 September 1975 Leo Port 26 September 1975 26 August 1978 Nelson Meers 26 August 1978 19 September 1980 Doug Sutherland Labor 20 September 1980 26 March 1987 n/a Sir Eric Neal n/a Administrator 26 March 1987 6 April 1987 Chief Commissioner 7 April 1987 31 December 1988 Sir Nicholas Shehadie Deputy Chief Commissioner Norman Oakes Commissioner Jeremy Bingham Civic Reform Lord Mayor 3 January 1989 18 September 1991 Frank Sartor Living Sydney Independents 23 September 1991 7 April 2003 Lucy Turnbull 7 April 2003 6 February 2004 n/a Tony Pooley n/a Commissioner 6 February 2004 27 March 2004 Garry Payne Lucy Turnbull Clover Moore Clover Moore Independent Team Lord Mayor 27 March 2004 Incumbent
Deputy Lord Mayor
List of town clerks, general managers, and chief executive officers The first Town Clerk of Sydney was appointed on 3 September 1842 on a provisional basis by the Governor, pending the election of aldermen. When the council was dismissed in December 1853 and replaced by a board of three commissioners, the post of town clerk was left vacant. The Local Government Act, 1993 removed the requirement that the administrative head of a council be a "Town or Shire Clerk" and specified that the head was to be known as the general manager. The Sydney City Council had previously recognised the changing nature of role in appointing their first general manager in December 1992. In May 2005, the title of general manager was changed to chief executive officer (CEO).
# Officeholder Title Term start Term end Time in office Notes Richard O'Connor Provisional Town Clerk 3 September 1842 16 November 1842 Charles Henry Chambers Town Clerk 16 November 1842 27 July 1843 John Rae 27 July 1843 December 1853 Charles Henry Woolcott Town Clerk 1857 1887 Henry J. Daniels 1887 31 January 1898 John R. Palmer 19 July 1898 4 October 1899 Robert Anderson 24 October 1899 25 January 1901 – John R. Palmer Acting Town Clerk 19 February 1901 31 December 1901 Thomas Huggins Nesbitt Town Clerk 1 January 1902 30 June 1924 Janet Howse, 'Nesbitt, Thomas Huggins (1853–1935)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/nesbitt-thomas-huggins-7818/text13569, published first in hardcopy 1988, accessed online 11 May 2017. William Glazebrook Layton 1 July 1924 31 May 1931 Roy Hendy 1 June 1931 28 February 1956 24 years, 272 days Edward William Adams 1 March 1956 July 1962 Jack Hercules Luscombe July 1962 30 March 1974 Leon Parmeter Carter 1 April 1974 August 1992 Graham Joss Acting Town Clerk 17 August 1992 4 December 1992 Katie Lahey General Manager 14 December 1992 25 August 1995 Greg Maddock 1 February 1996 January 2001 Murray Douglas February 2001 June 2001 John Kass Acting General Manager July 2001 October 2001 Robert Domm General Manager November 2001 September 2004 Petar Vladeta Acting General Manager October 2004 March 2005 Peter Seamer General Manager March 2005 May 2005 Chief Executive Officer May 2005 April 2006 11 months Monica Barone 7 August 2006 incumbent
Election results In 1995, the Local Government Legislation Amendment Act 1995 amended the City of Sydney Act 1988, to allow for popular direct elections of the Lord Mayor from September 1995.
2024
2021
2012
Notes
References
External links City of Sydney "Mayors of Sydney" - City of Sydney Sydney’s Aldermen - City of Sydney