Port Stephens Council

Port Stephens Council New South Wales
Although entirely geographically in the Hunter Region, Port Stephens is also considered to be part of the Mid North Coast as demonstrated by this sign, only 900 m (2,953 ft) north of the Hunter River.
Location in New South Wales
Coordinates	32°45′S 151°55′E / 32.750°S 151.917°E / -32.750; 151.917Coordinates: 32°45′S 151°55′E / 32.750°S 151.917°E / -32.750; 151.917
Population	70,447 (2015 Est.)[1]
• Density	71.95/km2 (186.3/sq mi)
Area	979 km2 (378.0 sq mi)[2]
Time zone	AEST (UTC+10)
• Summer (DST)	AEDT (UTC+11)
Mayor	Bruce MacKenzie[3]
Location	168 km (104 mi) NNE of Sydney 25.8 km (16 mi) N of Newcastle 22 km (14 mi) E of Maitland
Council seat	Raymond Terrace
Region	Hunter,[4] Mid North Coast
State electorate(s)	Port Stephens[5] Newcastle[6]
Federal Division(s)	Paterson[7] Newcastle[8]
Website	Port Stephens Council
LGAs around Port Stephens Council: Dungog Dungog, Mid Coast Mid Coast Maitland Port Stephens Council Tasman Sea Maitland Newcastle Tasman Sea

Port Stephens Council is a local government area in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. The area is just north of Newcastle and is adjacent to the Pacific Highway which runs through Raymond Terrace, the largest town and Council seat. The area is named after Port Stephens, which is the major geographical feature of the area. It extends generally from the Hunter River in the south, to near Clarence Town in the north, and from the Tasman Sea in the east, to just south of Paterson in the west. The Mayor of the Port Stephens Council is Bruce MacKenzie.^[3]

Main towns and villages

Most of the population is concentrated in Raymond Terrace and its satellite suburb of Heatherbrae or around or near the shores of Port Stephens in the suburbs of Anna Bay, Boat Harbour, Corlette, Fingal Bay, Fishermans Bay, Karuah, Lemon Tree Passage, Mallabula, Nelson Bay, One Mile, Oyster Cove, Salamander Bay, Shoal Bay, Soldiers Point, Swan Bay, Tanilba Bay and Taylors Beach. However, another significant portion of the population lives in a large rural/semi-rural area to the west of the Pacific Highway in the towns and suburbs of Balickera, Butterwick, Duns Creek, Eagleton, East Seaham, Glen Oak, Hinton, Nelsons Plains, Osterley, Seaham, Wallalong and Woodville and in the predominantly residential estate of Brandy Hill.

In the southern part of the area are the rural communities of Bobs Farm, Fern Bay, Fullerton Cove, Salt Ash, Tomago and Williamtown. Tomago supports both rural and industrial communities while Williamtown is the location for a Royal Australian Air Force base that shares its airfield with Newcastle Airport.

At the northern end of the area are Karuah and Twelve Mile Creek. Located adjacent to Port Stephens and straddling the Karuah River, Karuah is predominantly residential. It is the location of the largest Aboriginal community in the area. Twelve Mile Creek is almost exclusively rural.

Centrally located in the area, between Raymond Terrace and Port Stephens are Campvale, Ferodale and Medowie. Ferodale is dominated by Grahamstown Dam, a man-made dam with a capacity of 131,800 megalitres (4,650×10^⁶ cu ft) that is a major source of fresh water in the region.^[9] The remainder of this area is a mix of rural, semi-rural and residential developments.

A map of the various towns, suburbs and localities within the Port Stephens Council area is available from the Port Stephens Council website.^[10]

Demographics

At the 2011 census, there were 64,807 people in the Port Stephens local government area, of these 49.2 per cent were male and 50.8 per cent were female. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 3.6 per cent of the population, which was higher than the national and state averages of 2.5 per cent. The median age of people in the Port Stephens Council area was 42 years, which was significantly higher than the national median of 37 years. Children aged 0 – 14 years made up 19.5 per cent of the population and people aged 65 years and over made up 19.3 per cent of the population. Of people in the area aged 15 years and over, 52.0 per cent were married and 13.5 per cent were either divorced or separated.^[11]

Population growth in the Port Stephens Council area between the 2001 census and the 2006 census was 7.10 per cent; and in the subsequent five years to the 2011 census, population growth was 7.15 per cent. When compared with total population growth of Australia for the same periods, being 5.78 per cent and 8.32 per cent respectively, population growth in the Port Stephens local government area was approximately equal to the national average.^[12][13] The median weekly income for residents within the Port Stephens Council area was significantly lower than the national average.^[11]

At the 2011 census, the proportion of residents in the Port Stephens local government area who stated their ancestry as Australian or Anglo-Saxon exceeded 81 per cent of all residents (national average was 65.2 per cent). In excess of 63% of all residents in the Port Stephens Council nominated a religious affiliation with Christianity at the 2011 census, which was significantly higher than the national average of 50.2 per cent. Meanwhile, as at the census date, compared to the national average, households in the Port Stephens local government area had a significantly lower than average proportion (4.6 per cent) where two or more languages are spoken (national average was 20.4 per cent); and a significantly higher proportion (92.2 per cent) where English only was spoken at home (national average was 76.8 per cent).^[11]

Selected historical census data for the Port Stephens Council local government area
Census year			2001[12]	2006[13]	2011[11]
Population		Estimated residents on Census night	56,474	60,484	64,807
		LGA rank in terms of size within New South Wales
		% of New South Wales population			0.94%
		% of Australian population	0.30%	0.30%	0.30%
Cultural and language diversity
Ancestry, top responses		Australian			33.3%
		English			32.5%
		Irish			8.0%
		Scottish			7.5%
		German			3.1%
Language, top responses (other than English)		Italian	0.2%	0.3%	0.3%
		German	0.3%	0.2%	0.2%
		Greek	0.2%	0.2%	0.2%
		Croatian	0.2%	0.2%	0.2%
		French	n/c	0.1%	0.1%
Religious affiliation
Religious affiliation, top responses		Anglican	32.5%	31.3%	29.4%
		Catholic	24.2%	23.5%	23.3%
		No Religion	11.9%	14.9%	18.7%
		Uniting Church	8.0%	7.2%	6.4%
		Presbyterian and Reformed	4.5%	4.1%	3.9%
Median weekly incomes
Personal income		Median weekly personal income		A$388	A$498
		% of Australian median income		83.3%	86.3%
Family income		Median weekly family income		A$1,029	A$1,245
		% of Australian median income		87.9%	84.1%
Household income		Median weekly household income		A$830	A$999
		% of Australian median income		80.8%	81.0%

Council

Current composition and election method

Port Stephens Council is composed of ten Councillors, including the Mayor, for a fixed four-year term of office. The Mayor is directly elected while the nine other Councillors are elected proportionally as three separate wards, each electing three Councillors. The most recent election was held on 8 September 2012, and the makeup of the Council, including the Mayor, is as follows:^[3][14]

The current Council, elected in 2012, in order of election by ward, is:

Proposed merger with Newcastle

A 2015 review of local government boundaries by the NSW Government Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal recommended the merger of a number of adjoining councils. In the initial proposal, Port Stephens Council was not included in any amalgamation proposals. However, after Lake Macquarie City Council successfully avoided a proposed merger between it and Newcastle City Council,^[15] the Minister for Local Government subsequently proposed that Newcastle City Council instead merge with Port Stephens Council to form a new council with an area of 1,045 km² (403 sq mi) and support a population of approximately 230,000.^[16][17]

The proposed merger has been met with significant opposition. Thousands of residents have attended rallies and signed petitions opposed to the proposal,^[18] while 470 have attended public inquiry meetings.^[19][20] The state member for Port Stephens, Kate Washington, former state member Craig Baumann and broadcaster Alan Jones have all publicly expressed their opposition.^[18][20][21] Federal Liberal member for Paterson, Bob Baldwin, spoke in parliament, urging the Liberal Baird government to reconsider the proposal, claiming "this proposal seems to defy logic".^[22][23] Port Stephens Council claims that 93% of residents surveyed were opposed to the merger, and included the results of its community survey in its submission to the delegate responsible for evaluating the merge.^[19][24] In response to the government's proposal, Port Stephens Council has formally asked the government to evaluate a merger between Port Stephens and Dungog Shire.^[19][25][26] Although the Dungog Shire mayor is opposed to this merger, it is reported that the proposal has community support within both local government areas.^[26][27] The proposal was debated in the New South Wales parliament on 23 March 2016, with the Minister for Local Government confirming that the proposal had been referred to the Office of Local Government.^[28][29]

Climate

Port Stephens Council covers an area of 979 square kilometres (378 sq mi), stretching approximately 57 kilometres (35 mi) from east to west and approximately 30 km (19 mi) from north to south, and experiences various climatic conditions throughout the LGA.^[2][10] These are monitored by five weather stations, four of which are located at the approximate cardinal points of the area, operated by the Bureau of Meteorology. The fifth station is located on RAAF Base Williamtown. The following tables indicate average climatic data throughout the area.

Eastern

North

South-central

Western

Southern

Sister cities

Port Stephens has sister city relationships with the following cities:

City	Prefecture/State	Country	Year	Sources
Bellingham	Washington	United States	1982	[35][36][37]
Kushiro	Hokkaidō	Japan	1994	[35]
Tateyama	Chiba	Japan	2009	[35]
Yugawara	Kanagawa	Japan	1999	[35]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Port Stephens Council.

• Hunter Region Botanic Gardens