The Snowy Valleys Council is a local government area located in the South West Slopes region of New South Wales, Australia. This area was formed on 12 May 2016 from the merger of the Tumut Shire and Tumbarumba Shire councils. However, following a massively successful referendum in 2025, the council will be deamalgamated back to the two shires by 2027.
The council area comprises and covers the western side of the southernmost parts of the Great Dividing Range and foothills in New South Wales. Large sections of the local government area are contained in national parks. At the time of its establishment, the population of the council area was estimated to be .
The Mayor of Snowy Valleys Council is Councillor Julia Ham, who won the most recent election in 2024.
In November 2025, the Snowy Valleys Council held a referendum to de-amalgamate into the former Tumbarumba Shire and Tumut Shire local government areas with 87.28% support and 12.72% against.
Main towns and villages
In addition to the towns of Adelong, Batlow, Tumbarumba and Tumut, localities in the area include Brindabella, Brungle, Cabramurra, Gilmore, Grahamstown, Greg Greg, Gocup, Jingellic, Khancoban, Killimicat, Little River, Maragle, Rosewood, Talbingo, Tooma, Wondalga and Yarrangobilly.
Heritage listings The Snowy Valleys Council has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: Mount Kosciuszko to Eden: Bundian Way Tumut, Adelong Falls Gold Workings Tumut, Cootamundra-Tumut railway: Tumut railway station Tumut, 46 Russell Street: Montreal Community Theatre Tumut, Tumut Plains Road: Junction Bridge, Tumut Rosewood, 1730 Tumbarumba Rd - Elm Cottage established c 1885.
Demographics At the , there were 14,891 people in the Snowy Valleys local government area; of these 50.4% were male and 49.6% were female. The median age of people in Snowy Valleys Council was 45 years; the national median is 38 years.
At the 2021 census, 42.0% of residents stated their ancestry as Australian. 65% nominated a religious affiliation with Christianity, which was significantly higher than the national average of 47.1%. 87.2% of households only speak English at home, higher than the national average of 72%.
Selected historical census data for Snowy Valleys local government areaCensus year 20162021Population Estimated residents on census night 14,395 14,891LGA rank in terms of population size within New South Wales 7776% of New South Wales population 0.19% 0.18%% of Australian population 0.06% 0.06%Cultural and language diversity Ancestry,top responses Australian 45.5% 42.0%English 38.9% 40.0%Irish 11.7% 11.6%Scottish 9.4% 9.7%German 4.6%n/cAustralian Aboriginal 0.7% 6.1%Language, used at home(other than English)Afrikaans0.4% 0.6%Mandarin0.4% 0.3%Filipino0.2% 0.2%German0.2%n/cThain/c 0.3%Wiradjurin/c 0.2%Religious affiliation Religious affiliation,top responsesAnglican29.3% 23.8%Catholic26.2% 23.5%No religion, so described18.8% 29.3%Not stated12.1% 9.9%Presbyterian and Reformed3.5% 2.8%Median weekly incomes Personal income Median weekly personal income A$A$% of Australian median income %%Family income Median weekly family income A$A$% of Australian median income %%Household income Median weekly household income A$A$% of Australian median income %%
Council Snowy Valleys Council consists of nine councillors elected proportionally as a single ward.
Current composition PartyCouncillors Independents 8 Independent Labor Independent Liberal Libertarian 1 Total 9
The current Council, elected in 2024, is:
CouncillorPartyNotes James Hayes Independent Trina Thomson Independent Grant Hardwick Independent Julia Ham IndependentMayor John Larter Libertarian Andrew Wortes Independent David Sheldon Independent Michael Inglis Independent Hugh Packard Independent Deputy Mayor
Election results 2024
See also
Local government areas of New South Wales
Notes
References