Town of Southport


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.

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:
The four resulting local government areas were:
The Order came into effect on 10 June 1949, when the first elections were held.

Chairmen and mayors

; Chairmen of the Division of Southport
ChairmanTerm
Robert F. Johnston1883, 1900–1902
William Charles Welsh1884–1889
C. A. Beetham1890–1891
George Andrews1892
Thomas M. Kirk1893–1896
W. Downs1897
Edward Hicks1898
Edward Proud1899

; Chairmen of the Shire of Southport
ChairmanTerm
Theodor Lenneberg1889
William Lather1890–1891
Edward Hicks1903, 1905, 1911
Edward Fass1904, 1917
C. A. Beetham1904*
Ernest Freeman1906, 1913–1916
J. W. Proud1907
H. Soegaard1908
George Andrews1909, 1912
John Siganto1910

; 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.
MayorTermNotes
Edward Hicks1918–1921
Edward Fass1921–1924
Washington Waters1924–1927
Joseph Hendry Grice1927–1930
C. H. Steadman1930–1933
Henry Wilson1933–1936
Joseph Wood Proud1936–1948