The Town of Southport was a local government area in South East Queensland, Australia.
History On 11 November 1879, the Nerang and Coomera Divisions was created as two of 74 divisions within Queensland under the Divisional Boards Act 1879.
On 6 July 1883, Southport Division was formed from part of subdivision No. 1 of Nerang Division and part of subdivision No. 1 of Coomera Division.
On 6 February 1889, part of Southport Division was separated to be a municipal Shire of Southport, but this shire was abolished on 30 June 1892 and the original division was restored.
With the passage of the Local Authorities Act 1902, the entire Southport Division became the Shire of Southport on 31 March 1903.
On 12 April 1918, the Shire of Southport became the Town of Southport on 12 Apr 1918.
A new town hall was in opened in 1935 and listed on the Queensland Heritage Register in 1998.
Amalgamations in 1948 On 9 December 1948, as part of a major reorganisation of local government in South East Queensland, an Order in Council replacing ten former local government areas between the City of Brisbane and the New South Wales border with only four. The former ten were: Beaudesert Beenleigh Cleveland Coolangatta Coomera Nerang Southport Tamborine Tingalpa Waterford
The four resulting local government areas were: Town of South Coast, an amalgamation of the Towns of Southport and Coolangatta with the Burleigh Heads part of Nerang (which later became City of Gold Coast) the new Shire of Albert: a merger of Beenleigh, Coomera, Nerang (except for the Burleigh Heads area), the southern part of Tingalpa and the eastern part of Waterford an enlarged Shire of Beaudesert, an amalgamation of Beaudesert and Tamborine with the western part of Waterford the new Redland Shire, an amalgamation of Cleveland and the northern part of Tingalpa (which later became Redland City)
The Order came into effect on 10 June 1949, when the first elections were held.
Chairmen and mayors Chairmen of the Division of Southport
Chairman Term Robert F. Johnston 1883, 1900–1902 William Charles Welsh 1884–1889 C. A. Beetham 1890–1891 George Andrews 1892 Thomas M. Kirk 1893–1896 W. Downs 1897 Edward Hicks 1898 Edward Proud 1899
Chairmen of the Shire of Southport
Chairman Term Theodor Lenneberg 1889 William Lather 1890–1891 Edward Hicks 1903, 1905, 1911 Edward Fass 1904, 1917 C. A. Beetham 1904* Ernest Freeman 1906, 1913–1916 J. W. Proud 1907 H. Soegaard 1908 George Andrews 1909, 1912 John Siganto 1910
Mayors of the Town of Southport
Following Southport's change of status to a Town, Edward Hicks was elected its first mayor at a meeting on 11 May 1918. From then on, mayors were popularly elected at triennial elections.
Mayor TermNotes Edward Hicks 1918–1921 Edward Fass 1921–1924 Washington Waters 1924–1927 Joseph Hendry Grice 1927–1930 C. H. Steadman 1930–1933 Henry Wilson 1933–1936 Joseph Wood Proud 1936–1948
Election results 1933
References