Surf Coast Shire

The Surf Coast Shire is a local government area in the Barwon South West region of Victoria, Australia, located in the south-western part of the state. It covers an area of 1,553 square kilometres (600 sq mi). It had a population of 32,251 in June 2018. It includes the coastal towns of Aireys Inlet, Anglesea, Lorne and Torquay and the inland towns of Moriac and Winchelsea.

Surf Coast Shire
Local government area
Location in Victoria
Country	Australia
State	Victoria
Region	Barwon South West
Established	1994
Council seat	Torquay
Government
• Mayor	Cr Mike Bodsworth
• State electorates	Polwarth South Barwon
• Federal divisions	Corangamite Wannon
Area
• Total	1,553 km^2 (600 sq mi)
Population
• Total	37,623 (2021)
• Density	24.226/km^2 (62.745/sq mi)
Gazetted	9 March 1994
Website	Surf Coast Shire
LGAs around Surf Coast Shire Golden Plains Golden Plains Greater Geelong Colac Otway Surf Coast Shire Bass Strait Colac Otway Bass Strait Bass Strait

The Shire is governed and administered by the Surf Coast Shire Council; its seat of local government and administrative centre is located at the council headquarters in Torquay. The Shire is named after its location on the popular surf coast of Victoria.

History

Formation

Before the 1990s local government reforms, the Surf Coast Shire's area was covered by three municipalities: the Shire of Winchelsea, the Shire of Barrabool, and the City of South Barwon. The Barrabool/South Barwon boundary was the Surf Coast Highway. This meant that Jan Juc and part of Torquay were in Barrabool, while the remainder of the Torquay district, including the traditional town centre, was in South Barwon.

When the City of Greater Geelong was created in May 1993, it initially took in the entire Torquay/Jan Juc area as far west as Ghazeepore Road. It also annexed areas on Geelong's fringe (Ceres, Wandana Heights, Waurn Ponds and Mount Duneed) which had previously belonged to Barrabool.

In March 1994, the Surf Coast Shire was formed from the amalgamation of the Torquay/Jan Juc area from Greater Geelong, the remainder of the Shire of Barrabool, and the Shire of Winchelsea (less the Birregurra and Barwon Downs districts, which were lost to the Shire of Colac). The Surf Coast Shire's modern boundaries were settled six months later when the Lake Murdeduke and Mount Gellibrand area, part of the territory lost to Colac, was brought back into the Shire.

Representation and structure

Post-2008, following an electoral representation review, the decision was made to re-subdivide the municipality into four wards, the current wards are Torquay, Anglesea, Winchelsea and Lorne. Between 2004 and 2008, the Shire was an unsubdivided municipality and as a result, the entire municipality voted to elect nine councillors. Between 1996 and 2004, the municipality was subdivided into six wards, where three councillors per ward were elected from the Torquay and Anglesea wards, and one councillor per ward was elected from the Lorne, Winchelsea, Moriac and Aireys Inlet wards. A position of Deputy Mayor was created in 2004, but it was abolished for the 2005 mayoral election.

Council

Current composition

2024 ward boundaries. Expand the map and click on a ward to see the ward name

The council is composed of three wards electing three councillors each.

Ward	Councillor		Affiliation	Notes
Otway Range Ward		Mike Bodsworth	Independent	Mayor
		Libby Stapleton	Independent	Deputy Mayor
		Leon Walker	Independent
Torquay		Paul Barker	Libertarian
		Liz Pattison	Independent
		Phoebe Crockett	Greens
Winchelsea		Joel Grist	Independent Libertarian
		Tony Phelps	Independent
		Adrian Schonfelder	Independent Labor

List of former and current mayors

• Cr Noel Bates (1995–1997)
• Cr Henry Love (1997–1998)
• Cr Julie Hansen (1998–2000)
• Cr Mike Barrow (2000–2001)
• Cr Beth Davidson (2001–2004)
• Cr Keith Grossman (2004–2005)
• Cr Libby Mears (2005–2006)
• Cr Rose Hodge (2006–2007)
• Cr Dean Webster (2007–2008)
• Cr Libby Mears (2008–2009)
• Cr Libby Coker (2009–2010)
• Cr Dean Webster (2010–2011)
• Cr Brian McKiterick (2011–2012)
• Cr Libby Coker (2012–2013)
• Cr Rose Hodge (2013–2014)
• Cr Margot Smith (2014–2015)
• Cr Rose Hodge (2015–2016)
• Cr Brian McKiterick (2016-2017)
• Cr David Bell (2017-2018)
• Cr Rose Hodge (2018–2020)
• Cr Libby Stapleton (2020–2022)
• Cr Liz Pattison (2022–2024)

Administration and Governance

The council meets in the council chambers at the council headquarters in the Torquay Municipal Offices, which is also the location of the council's administrative activities. It also provides customer services at its Municipal Office in Torquay.

Election results

2024

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 2024 Victorian local elections in Barwon South West § Surf Coast results.edit

2024 Victorian local elections: Surf Coast

Party			Votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	Independent		12,164	49.67		5
	Back to Basics Team		5,604	22.88	+22.88	3	3
	Greens		4,284	17.49		0	1
	Independent Labor		2,437	9.95		1	1
Formal votes			24,489	97.43
Informal votes			648	2.57
Total			25,137	100.0
Registered voters / turnout			30,125	83.44

2016

Surf Coast Shire: Anglesea Ward

Party			Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labor		Libby Coker	2,504	48.50
	Independent		Margot Ann Smith	1,393	27.00
	Independent		Jenna Robinson	1,268	24.6
Turnout			6,891	76.20%
	Labor hold			Swing
	Independent hold			Swing

Surf Coast Shire: Torquay Ward

Party			Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labor		Rose Hodge	2,866	27.20
	Independent		David Bell	1,962	18.60
	Liberal		Brian McKiterick	1,268	16.00
	Greens		Marian Smedley	1,529	14.50
	Independent		Martin Paul Duke	1,522	14.20
	Independent		Joe Remenyi	993	9.40
Turnout			19,367	68.96%
	Labor hold			Swing
	Independent hold			Swing
	Liberal hold			Swing
	Independent gain from Greens			Swing

Townships and localities

According to the 2021 census, the shire had a population of 37,694, up from 29,397 in the 2016 census.

Population
Locality	2016	2021
Aireys Inlet	802	979
Anglesea	2,545	3,208
Bambra	101	115
Barrabool	235	247
Bellbrae	865	1,346
Bells Beach	130	151
Benwerrin	5	9
Big Hill	261	281
Birregurra^	828	942

Population
Locality	2016	2021
Boonah	21	18
Breamlea^	162	151
Buckley	211	228
Connewarre^	788	953
Deans Marsh	269	368
Eastern View	35	47
Fairhaven	296	390
Freshwater Creek	414	454
Gherang	370	391

Population
Locality	2016	2021
Gnarwarre	267	297
Inverleigh^	1,474	1,746
Jan Juc	3,683	4,151
Lorne	1,114	1,327
Modewarre	276	277
Moggs Creek	89	120
Moriac	782	852
Mount Duneed^	1,578	6,182
Mount Moriac	240	251

Population
Locality	2016	2021
Ombersley^	97	93
Paraparap	151	167
Pennyroyal^	86	110
Torquay	13,258	18,534
Wensleydale	107	95
Winchelsea^	1,954	2,456
Winchelsea South	179	171
Wurdiboluc	138	147

^ - Territory divided with another LGA

See also

• List of localities (Victoria)

Notes

1. Including one endorsed Libertarian Party member and one independent Libertarian member.