Liam McNally
The state government has confirmed the new ward structure for 39 councils across the state and Moorabool council is one of five that will become a single-ward shire.
Over the past 15 months an Electoral Representation Advisory Panel (ERAP) has been figuring out how it to advise the state government to restructure council ward boundaries and councillor numbers to comply with changes to the Local Government Act.
Currently, Moorabool council is divided into four wards – East Moorabool Ward covers the area around Bacchus Marsh and is represented by four councillors, Central Moorabool Ward begins at the south-east border of the shire and ends in the middle, encompassing Ballan, and is represented by one councillor. West Moorabool Ward covers the west, and Woodlands Ward covers most of the shire north of the Western Freeway, except for Bacchus Marsh. Each is represented by a single councillor.
Following the restructure, at the next local government elections at the end of the year Moorabool residents will vote for nine councillors and the entire shire will be considered one ward.
The ERAP’s final report said the recommendation was based largely on Moorabool’s fast growth rate and the growth being unevenly distributed across the shire.
“Such rapid and uneven growth means that any subdivided electoral structure cannot be maintained for a long period of time,” it said.
“As such, the panel considered an unsubdivided model as the most practical and sensible approach to accommodate and account for changes in the shire’s population. Additionally, the panel found it very difficult to develop a ward-based structure using meaningful boundaries that did not divide any communities.”
Moorabool council chief executive Derek Madden said council encouraged residents to have their say during the consultation stage of the electoral boundaries and wards review.
“We thought it important that the community had a say on how council is structured,” he said.
“It’s good we now have the certainty of knowing how many councillors we’ll have after the upcoming elections and we turn our focus to encouraging Moorabool residents to consider running for council.”
