Town of Southport explained

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 Feb 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.^[1]

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.^{[2] [3]} 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	Term	Notes
Edward Hicks	1918–1921
Edward Fass	1921–1924
Washington Waters^[4]	1924–1927
Joseph Hendry Grice	1927–1930
C. H. Steadman	1930–1933
Henry Wilson	1933–1936
Joseph Wood Proud	1936–1948	^[5]

Election results

1933

Notes and References

1. 30 December 2013.
2. News: New coast names. . . Brisbane . 10 December 1948 . 5 September 2013 . 3 . National Library of Australia.
3. News: DETAILS OF SOUTH COAST SHIRES. . . Ipswich, Queensland . 10 December 1948 . 5 September 2013 . 1 . DAILY . National Library of Australia.
4. Book: Pugh. Theophilus Parsons. Pugh's Almanac for 1927. 1927. 13 June 2014.
5. 26 January 2020.