The City of Greater Geelong covers the entire Geelong urban area, as well as the Lara area to the north and most of the Bellarine peninsula.
The council had a population of 271,057 as of the 2021 census.
- Wards
- Redistribution
- Incumbent councillors
- History
- Candidate summary
- Assessment
- 2020 results
- Voting trends by ward
Wards
The City of Greater Geelong will be divided into eleven single-member wards as of 2024:
- Barrabool Hills – in the west, covering Highton, Wandana Heights and Ceres.
- Charlemont – in the south, covering Armstrong Creek, Charlemont, Marshall and part of Belmont.
- Cheetham – in the centre, covering East Geelong, Moolap, Newcomb, St Albans Park, Thomson and Whittington.
- Connewarre – on the southern shore of the Bellarine peninsula, covering Barwon Heads, Breamlea, Collendina and Ocean Grove.
- Corio – at the northern end of the Geelong urban area, covering Corio, Norlane and North Shore.
- Deakin – in the south-western corner of the City, covering Grovedale, Mount Duneed and Waurn Ponds.
- Hamlyn Heights – covering suburbs immediately to the west of the Geelong city centre, including Bell Park, Bell Post Hill, Hamlyn Heights, Herne Hill and Manifold Heights.
- Kardinia – covering the Geelong city centre, and the neighbouring suburbs of Geelong West, North Geelong, Newtown, Drumcondra and Rippleside.
- Leopold – in the south-east of the council, covering suburbs on the north side of the Bellarine peninsula including Leopold and part of Drysdale.
- Murradoc – on the tip of the Bellarine peninsula, covering St Leonards and part of Drysdale.
- You Yangs – covering rural areas at the northern end of the council area, including Lara Batesford, Moorabool and Anakie.
Redistribution
The council previously consisted of four wards, electing eleven councillors. The Windermere Ward elected two members, while the Bellarine, Brownbill and Kardinia wards each elected three.
The eastern Bellarine ward covered the Bellarine peninsula, including the new Connewarre, Leopold and Murradoc wards, and parts of Cheetham ward.
The central Brownbill ward covered the entire new Kardinia ward and parts of the new Leopold and Hamlyn Heights wards.
The southern Kardinia ward covered the entire new Barrabool Hills, Charlemont and Deakin wards, and a small part of the new Hamlyn Heights ward. Interestingly the new Kardinia ward shares no territory with the old Kardinia ward.
The northern Windermere ward covered the entirety of the new Corio and You Yangs wards.
| Bellarine | Elise Wilkinson (Put Climate First)1 | Jim Mason (Ind Labor) | Trent Sullivan (Ind Lib) |
| Brownbill | Melissa Cadwell (Ind Labor)2 | Eddy Kontelj (Ind) | Peter Murrihy (Ind) |
| Kardinia | Bruce Harwood (Ind) | Belinda Moloney (Put Climate First) | Ron Nelson (Ind Lib) |
| Windermere | Anthony Aitken (Ind) | Sarah Hathway (Soc All)3 |
1Elise Wilkinson replaced Stephanie Asher (Ind Lib) following a countback in 2023.
2Melissa Cadwell replaced Sarah Mansfield (Greens) following a countback in 2023.
3Sarah Hathway replaced Kylie Grzybek (Independent) following a countback in 2023.
History
The City of Greater Geelong was created in 1993 by amalgamating part or whole of seven neighbouring councils, although one of those council areas was moved into a neighbouring council as part of the 1994 council reorganisation.
The council’s mayor was elected by councillors until 2012, when direct election of the mayor was introduced. The first direct election saw businessman Keith Fagg win the role.
Fagg resigned from the mayoralty in 2013, and a subsequent by-election was won by media personality Darryn Lyons. He led the council until 2016, when the council was sacked by the state government.
A fresh election was called in 2017, with the council reduced in size from twelve to eleven, with the mayor now elected from amongst the councillors. The electoral structure was also changed from single-member wards to four multi-member wards electing two or three councillors each.
Stephanie Asher was re-elected unopposed as mayor for a two year term following the 2020 election, with Trent Sullivan as her deputy.
Asher resigned early from the mayoralty in June 2022, and Peter Murrihy was elected to finish her term.
The November 2022 meeting elected Trent Sullivan as mayor and Anthony Aitken as deputy mayor for the remainder of the council term.
Candidate summary
Councillors Jim Mason, Belinda Moloney and Bruce Harwood are not running for re-election.
The Greens are running for seven wards, and Socialist Alliance are running in two, while all other candidates are unendorsed.
Assessment
Labor does well in Geelong at state and federal elections, but partisanship is not strong in Greater Geelong.
| Party | Votes | % | Seats won |
| Independent | 58,513 | 35.5 | 4 |
| Independent Liberal | 43,263 | 26.3 | 4 |
| Independent Labor | 25,648 | 15.6 | 1 |
| Greens | 17,081 | 10.4 | 1 |
| Put Climate First | 12,518 | 7.6 | 1 |
| Socialist Alliance | 4,292 | 2.6 | |
| Animal Justice | 3,408 | 2.1 | |
| Informal | 7,474 | 4.3 |
Voting trends by ward
In order to understand the relative political position of each ward, I have estimated the results of the 2022 federal election in each ward.
On a two-party-preferred basis, Labor won every ward. The Labor vote was weakest in the wards on the Bellarine peninsula. The Liberal primary vote was 35% or more in the Connewarre, Leopold and Murradoc wards.
Candidates – Barrabool Hills Ward
- Cr Ron Nelson
- David McGinness
- Aleta Moriarty
Candidates – Charlemont Ward
- Susan Joachim
- Emma Sinclair
- Blake Hadlow
- Sian Milton-Mcgurk (Greens)
- Teagan Mitchell
- Sunny Dhaliwal
Candidates – Cheetham Ward
- Cr Melissa Cadwell
- Jess Harper (Greens)
- Jon Metrikas
- Mellissa Hutchinson
- Tom Gant
Candidates – Connewarre Ward
- Cr Elise Wilkinson
- Angela Shearman
Candidates – Corio Ward
- Azadeh Doosti
- Cr Sarah Hathway (Socialist Alliance)
- Maddie Slater (Greens)
- Robert Blaszczyk
- Danny Mahfoud
- Cr Anthony Aitken
Candidates – Deakin Ward
- Sue Cox
- Nicholas Kennedy
- Izzy Scherrer (Greens)
- Andrew Katos
- Andy Richards
- Joshua Haitsma
- Derek Wallace
- Anastasia Hilton
Candidates – Hamlyn Heights Ward
- Angela Carr (Socialist Alliance)
- Mathew Hood
- Cr Eddy Kontelj
- Joey Nicita (Greens)
Candidates – Kardinia Ward
- Johnny Dunstan
- Candice Costoso
- Daniel Garcia
- Peter Desbrowe-Annear
- Cr Peter Murrihy
- Emilie Flynn (Greens)
- Stretch Kontelj
Candidates – Leopold Ward
- Shona McKeen
- David Lynch
- Cr Trent Sullivan
Candidates – Murradoc Ward
- Rowan D. Story
- Kate Lockhart
Candidates – You Yangs Ward
- Theresa Slater (Greens)
- Lorraine Kulic
- Nicole Lynch
- Chris Burson
Thanks for this analysis, Ben.
The various resignations and countbacks definitely complicate the picture a bit, but I note that there are currently two “Put Climate First” councillors, and there was previously a Green (and the two groups’ combined primary was ~29k, more than Independent Labor). Not to mention a Socialist ended up on the council after a countback.
This makes me think there is a fairly strong climate-lefty vote across the LGA as a whole, and it’d be interesting to see how this is spread geographically.
Is there any chance you could include a Greens primary toggle on your map?
The Greens have announced 7 candidates for Geelong. Their biggest campaign to-date and must be considered in with a chance in at least the two inner city wards. Likewise in Surf Coast they are running in all wards for the first time. Both campaigns have been running for a couple of months now, well ahead of most other candidates. They appear to have established a foothold in the region, following on from their growing vote in the state and federal elections.
@WanderWest with single-member wards I don’t think the Greens will win seats even in the inner-city. Geelong is a working-class city, those wards will go to Labor.
These single-member wards are good and bad. In bigger and more diverse councils like Brisbane the Central Coast I would like them, but in councils like Melbourne (where they don’t exist) they would be terrible because they would be so biased towards one party (in the case of Melbourne it would be the Greens, with Labor probably getting a ward then the only ward that’s even remotely competitive for the Liberals being Docklands which is the Pyrmont of Melbourne); it would be like regional councils having Nationals candidates and single-member wards, the Nationals would win almost every ward. It would start to look like some American state legislative chambers where over 80% of members come from one party (e.g in Wyoming the Republicans have a supermajority in the House and Senate; in the House they currently have 57 Republicans and five Democrats while in the Senate they have 29 Republicans and two Democrats).
Councils should elect all in one lot or have a series of 3 member wards this allows for diversity in representation.
Geelong has changed a lot over the past ten years and tends to vote differently at a local level compared to state and federal. Many young professionals, priced out of Melbourne, have moved to Geelong. The inner city ward of Kardinia will be between Liberals and Greens. Cheetham likely between Labor and Greens. Labor have not had much success in Geelong Council in recent years and are running a pretty low profile campaign. The current and previous mayor are both Liberals. In 2020 the Greens came first in the inner city multi-member ward. But yes, single member wards are the worst structure for local government. I agree with Mick, either unsubdivided of multi-member wards.
Liberals (Independent Liberals technically) had a pretty bumper election here. 4 of them won wards, which were Kardinia (the inner-city ward), Deakin, Leopold and Murradoc. Could be interesting federally, especially in Corangamite which the Liberals seem to have put a decent effort into, and most of the council wards in it voting for an independent Liberal. Coker should be concerned.
@James it could be a concern but I think she’ll be fine given that local elections are different.
I agree with NP much of Corangamite and the Greater Geelong region is trending left with sea changers moving in and has been doing so since the turn of this century.
Yeah I don’t think Corangamite is going to be a huge headache for Labor or Libby Coker come next election due to the factors mentioned above with the leftward trend of the seat, plus the fact that the recent redistribution has essentially pushed out the remainder of the rural areas in the electorate and is completely concentrated on the Bellarine and Surf Coast, both of which are progressive heartlands of Geelong. It’s not the Corangamite of the Sarah Henderson days anymore.
Plus as Ben mentioned, Independent Liberals are more competitive on a local council levels but Labor is dominant on state and federal levels.
The new Greater Geelong Coucncil has decided to reinstate Australia Day. Strathbogie council in Regional Victoria has also followed suit.
@Nimalan good.