Full description
The Municipal District of Maclean (1886-1906), later the Municipality of Maclean (1906-1956), was a municipality in the north of the Eastern Division of New South Wales, constituted under the Municipalities Act, 1867 (31 Victoria Act No.12) and subsequent legislation. (1) It was established in the parish of Taloumbi, in the county of Clarence.
The Municipalities Act 1867 provided for the establishment of a municipality on receipt of a petition signed by at least 50 persons who would be taxed in respect of property or household residence within the area to be incorporated. The petition was to be published in the Gazette and a local newspaper. If no counter-petition signed by a greater number of persons was received within three months, the Governor could proclaim the area a municipality and define its boundaries. Municipalities proclaimed under the Act might be designated a borough or a municipal district, based on population and area. Boroughs were cities or towns, suburbs of the City of Sydney, or a populous country district, with a population of at least 1000 and an area of no more than nine square miles. A municipal district required a population of at least 500 and an area of no more than 50 square miles. (2)
The Village of Maclean was declared in 1885 (3) as 173 acres of crown land reserved for residential settlement under the Crown Lands Act 1884 (4). A petition to establish a Municipal District of Maclean, with a population over 700 and an area of 20 square miles, was gazetted on 29 August 1887. (5) The district proclaimed on 29 December 1887 reduced this area to 1.87 square miles. (6) A returning officer was appointed to organise an election for 28 February 1888 (7) at which six aldermen were elected. (8) The mayor was appointed by 6 March (9) and the town clerk and valuers by early May. (10) By August 1888 Maclean had collected over 210 pounds in rates, 30 of which had been spent on the valuation process. (11) Though the proposed local body had been reduced, the area reserved by the Department of Lands for the Village of Maclean was increased to 7000 acres (11 square miles) later that same year. (12)
The by-laws of the new municipal district were gazetted on 15 June 1889. (13) However, in October the original proclamation establishing the district was 'revoked and cancelled' because it had been 'so inaccurate and defective by reason of errors having occurred in defining the boundaries...as to cause reasonable doubts to be raised as to its validity'. The revised boundaries, now encompassing 1.85 square miles, of the reconstituted Municipal District of Maclean were now proclaimed. (14)
When first established, Maclean was an island of local authority in lands under control of the Colony of New South Wales. The Local Government (Shires) Act 1905 (Act No.33, 1905) incorporated all previously unincorporated territory of the eastern and central divisions of New South Wales into new local government jurisdictions, to be called shires. On 7 March 1906, the territory surrounding Maclean became the Shire of Harwood. (15)
The Municipal District of Maclean became the Municipality of Maclean on 31 December 1906. Under the Local Government Extension Act, 1906 (Act No.40, 1906) the terms municipal district and borough ceased to be used. (16) In 1907 Maclean was listed as having nine aldermen, and no ward divisions. (17)
The Valuation of Land Act 1916 (Act No.2, 1916) was applied to Maclean from 28 January 1948 (18), and the first valuation list was supplied before 11 February. (19) From this time the assessment of land values was no longer a function of the municipality, which now used values assigned by the Valuer-General when levying rates.
In June 1956 the Minister of Local Government gazetted a proposal to restructure the local government jurisdictions of the Clarence region. This was to affect the municipalities of South Grafton, Ulmarra and Maclean, the City of Grafton, and the shires of Copmanhurst, Bellingen, Dorrigo, Harwood, Nymboida and Orara. The proposal was to reconstitute them as five new areas, comprising four shires and one municipality. (20) A Commissioner considered this proposal (21), and an amended scheme of seven areas was proclaimed. (22) One result was amalgamation of the Municipality of Maclean with the Shire of Harwood, to form the new Shire of Maclean on 1 January 1957.
Endnotes
1. An Act to Establish Municipalities, 1867 (31 Victoria Act No.12), s.10.
2. Ibid, s.8.
3. NSW Government Gazette No.121, 20 March 1885, p.1950.
4. Crown Lands Act, 1884 (48 Victoria Act No.18) s.101.
5. NSW Government Gazette No.486, 29 August 1887, pp.5719-20.
6. NSW Government Gazette No.754, 29 December 1887, p.8595.
7. NSW Government Gazette No.66, 23 January 1888, p.637.
8. NSW Government Gazette No.169, 13 March 1888, p.1856.
9. Ibid., p.1858.
10. NSW Government Gazette No.293, 5 May 1888, p.3255.
11. NSW Government Gazette No.539, 21 August 1888, p.5901.
12. NSW Government Gazette No.709, 14 November 1888, p.8115.
13. NSW Government Gazette No.314, 15 June 1889, pp.4221-35.
14. NSW Government Gazette No.583, 29 October 1889, p.7803.
15. NSW Government Gazette No.121, 7 March 1906, pp.1593, 1614.
16. Local Government Extension Act, 1906 (Act No.40, 1906) s.3, Sch.1, s.9; NSW Government Gazette No.286, 31 December 1906, p.7019.
17. NSW Government Gazette No.146, 20 November 1907, pp.6309-10.
18. NSW Government Gazette No.8, 23 January 1948, p.132.
19. NSW Government Gazette No.19, 20 February 1948, p.411.
20. NSW Government Gazette No.65, 8 June 1956, pp.1557-58.
21. 1956/57 Report of the Department of Local Government, pp.23-24; in Parliamentary Papers 1957-58 Session, Vol.1, pp.1211-12.
22. NSW Government Gazette No.129, 30 November 1956, pp.3503-13.
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