District Council of Kingscote

The District Council of Kingscote was a local government area located on the western part of Kangaroo Island in the Australian state of South Australia and which existed from 1888 to 1996.

It was one of the local government areas that came into existence upon the proclamation of the District Councils Act 1887 on 5 January 1888, and initially comprised the entirety of Kangaroo Island.

The decision of the Government of South Australia to proclaim a single district council for the entire island, rather than the preferred option of two district councils, consisting of one for the cadastral units of the Hundreds of Dudley and Haines in the east and one for the Hundreds of Cassini and Menzies in the west, was unpopular, particularly with the residents of the Hundred of Dudley, who were concerned that they would be disfranchised due to the relatively long travel distance to the district’s likely seat in Kingscote.

A petition signed by 61 ratepayers in the Hundreds of Dudley and Haines requesting a separate district council in the east end of the island was presented to Thomas Playford, the Treasurer of South Australia, on 7 September 1887 who advised in reply:

the Hundred of Haines was in his opinion more identified with Kingscote than with Hog Bay, and that he could not recommend the request being granted. After the Bill became law if inconvenience resulted the ratepayers could petition him. The Government would give due consideration to any such request.

A subsequent petition signed by 51 ratepayers from the Hundred of Dudley which requested the severing of the Hundred of Dudley and the eastern part of the Hundred of Haines from the district council was received by the Government and was published in its gazette on 29 March 1888. On 7 June 1888, the petitioners’ request was granted by a proclamation under the District Councils Act 1887 with the creation of a new local government area, the District Council of Dudley.

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