Full description
In accordance with the Municipalities Act of 1897, residents of the town of Wrightville and area surrounding within the Municipal District of Cobar signed a petition demanding separation and the creation of a new municipality, the Municipal District of Gladstone. According to the petition, Gazetted Friday, 30 December, 1898, the reasons put forward for separation from the Cobar Municipality were as follows:
a) the representatives of local mining interests, whose industry was worth "considerably over half a million sterling", all wished to separate from the Cobar Municipality;
b) the distances between Cobar and Wrightville render the carrying out of necessary improvements by the Cobar authority as "inconvenient";
c) the irrigation scheme proposed by the Cobar Council was considered inadequate, an alternate more effective scheme being proposed by the petitioners for Wrightville would be put in place;
d) Cobar Council's lack of spending for improvements within Wrightville relative to the amount taken in rates from the area;
e) land lying idle could be disposed of by the Government and improved via the construction of access roads by the proposed Gladstone Council (1).
The petition remained unchallenged, and the Municipal District of Gladstone was incorporated on 25 September 1899 (2). The limits set for the Municipality of Gladstone were the County of Robinson, the parishes of Cobar, Toy, Kaloogleguy, and Mopone, being an area of 34.45 square miles (3).
The Returning Officer, John Leah, was appointed 25 September 1899 and the following Aldermen were elected on 19 December of that year:
a) Thomas Henry Rowe, also elected Mayor;
b) Michael Scanlan;
c) Patrick Freely;
d) William Henry Lew;
e) William Bax;
f) Albert Armstrong Hutchinson (4,5).
The Gladstone Municipality underwent a name change with the assent of the Municipal District of Wrightville Naming Act, 1902 (No.116, 1902) in December of that year, its boundaries remaining unaltered (6).
Due to insufficient members of Council being able to form a quorum, the Municipal District of Wrightville was declared to be a defaulting area within the meaning of the Local Government Act, 1919, and an Administrator was appointed on 23 May, 1922 (7). The Wrightville Municipal District was abolished by the Wrightville Municipality Abolition Act, assented to 28 September, 1922, and was re-absorbed into the Municipal District of Cobar (8,9).
ENDNOTES:
(1) NSW Government Gazette 30 December, 1898, pp 10039 - 10040.
(2) NSW Government Gazette 29 September, 1899, p 7345.
(3) ibid, p7345.
(4) NSW Government Gazette 22 December, 1899, p 9566.
(5) NSW Government Gazette 27 December, 1899, p 9634.
(6) Municipal District of Wrightville Naming Act, 1902 (Act No.116, 1902).
(7) NSW Government Gazette 2 June, 1922, p 3136.
(8) Wrightville Municipality Abolition Act, 1922 (Act No.12, 1922).
(9) Hughes, Joy N., (editor) Local Government..Local History: A Guide to NSW Local Government Minute Books and Rate Books. Royal Australian Historical Society, Sydney, 1990, p19.
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