City of Townsville
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City of Townsville Queensland |
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Location within Queensland
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| Population | 193,946 (2015) (26th) | ||||||||||||
| • Density | 51.954/km2 (134.561/sq mi) | ||||||||||||
| Established | 1865 | ||||||||||||
| Area | 3,733 km2 (1,441.3 sq mi) | ||||||||||||
| Mayor | Jenny Hill | ||||||||||||
| Council seat | Townsville City | ||||||||||||
| Region | North Queensland | ||||||||||||
| Federal Division(s) | Herbert, Dawson, Kennedy | ||||||||||||
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| Website | City of Townsville | ||||||||||||
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The City of Townsville is an Australian local government area (LGA) located in North Queensland, Australia. It encompasses the city of Townsville, together with the surrounding rural areas, to the south are the communities of Alligator Creek, and Reid River, and to the north are Northern Beaches and Paluma, and also included is Magnetic Island. It currently has a population of 175,542 residents, and is the 18th largest LGA in Australia.
Prior to 2008, the new City of Townsville was an entire area of two previous and distinct local government areas:
The City of Townsville was first established as the Borough of Townsville under the Municipal Institutions Act 1864 on 15 February 1866. The surrounding rural area, which was given the name Thuringowa Division, was established on 11 November 1879 as one of 74 divisions around Queensland under the Divisional Boards Act 1879. On 31 March 1903, Thuringowa Division became the Shire of Thuringowa and Townsville was granted city status under the Local Authorities Act 1902, the ancestor of the current Local Government Act 1993.
The borders of the Townsville municipality were expanded to keep pace with urban growth in 1882, 1918, 1936, 1958 and 1964 – the purpose of expanding the borders was to keep urban and rural administrations separate. This state government convention changed under the Bjelke-Peterson government and the borders between the two local governments became static. By 1986 the Shire of Thuringowa had grown to a population of 27 000 and was declared a city.
In 1939, Fred Paterson stood successfully as an alderman for the Townsville City Council, becoming the first member of the Communist Party to win such an office in Australia. He was then re-elected in 1943. The same year, he stood for the federal seat of Herbert, but was narrowly defeated. He then contested and won the Bowen seat in the Queensland Parliament, holding it from 1944 until 1950.
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