The City of Ballarat covers the Ballarat urban area in western Victoria, and the surrounding towns of Buninyong, Addington, Learmonth and Waubra.
The council had a population of 113,763 as of the 2021 census.
- Wards
- Redistribution
- Incumbent councillors
- History
- Council control
- Candidate summary
- Assessment
- 2020 results
- Voting trends by ward
Wards
The City of Ballarat will be divided into nine single-member wards as of 2024:
- Alfredton – north-western suburbs of Ballarat.
- Brown Hill – eastern suburbs of Ballarat.
- Buninyong – covering areas to the south of the Ballarat urban area, including Buninyong, Mount Helen and Magpie.
- Central – central parts of Ballarat, including Lake Wendouree.
- Delacombe – western suburbs of Ballarat.
- Golden Point – southern suburbs of Ballarat, including Canadian.
- North – covering the rural parts of the City to the north-west of the Ballarat urban area, including Miners Rest, Learmonth and Ascot.
- Sebastopol – south-western suburbs of Ballarat, including Sebastopol.
- Wendouree – northern suburbs of Ballarat.
Redistribution
The council previously consisted of three wards, electing nine councillors. Each ward elected three councillors.
The Central ward covered the entire new Central ward and parts of the new Alfredton, Brown Hill, Delacombe and Golden Point wards.
The North ward covered the entire new North and Wendouree wards, and parts of the new Aldfredton, Brown Hill, and Delacombe wards.
The South ward covered the entire new Buninyong and Sebastopol wards and parts of the new Delacombe and Golden Point wards.
| Central | North | South |
| Belinda Coates (Greens) | Peter Eddy (Ind) | Tracey Hargreaves (Ind) |
| Mark Harris (Ind) | Amy Johnson (Ind. Liberal) | Des Hudson (Labor) |
| Samantha Mcintosh (Ind. Lib) | Daniel Moloney (Labor) | Ben Taylor (Ind. Liberal) |
History
The City of Ballarat was created in 1994 as an amalgamation of the former City of Ballarat, Shire of Ballarat, Borough of Sebastopol and parts of the Bungaree, Buninyong, Grenville and Ripon council areas.
The council was elected from nine single-member wards until 2007, when the council transitioned to the three wards of three councillors each which was used until 2024.
Council control
While the current council includes a number of independent Liberal members, the mayoralty has been continuously held since 2020 by ALP members Daniel Moloney (2020-22) and Des Hudson (22-24), although independent Liberal Amy Johnson was deputy mayor in 2022-23. It appears that a left-leaning bloc of Labor and Greens has been able to win the support of the independents when it comes to mayoral votes.
Candidate summary
Sitting councillors Daniel Moloney and Peter Eddy are not running for re-election.
The Greens are running candidates in five wards, but all other candidates are unendorsed by any party.
Assessment
There are clear left-leaning and right-leaning blocs that are about even in strength. The move to single-member wards creates more potential for one bloc to dominate.
| Party | Votes | % | Seats won |
| Independent | 20,266 | 29.6 | 3 |
| Independent Liberal | 17,403 | 25.4 | 3 |
| Labor | 17,213 | 25.1 | 2 |
| Greens | 11,614 | 16.9 | 1 |
| Australia First | 1,391 | 2.0 | |
| Animal Justice | 659 | 1.0 | |
| Informal | 2,274 | 3.2 |
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, with Labor’s support peaking in the Golden Point ward.
Candidates – Alfredton Ward
- Damon Saunders
- Maegan Boundey (Greens)
- Thomas Lam
- Elisa Zentveld
- Nathan Anderson
- Sundram Sivamalai
Candidates – Brown Hill Ward
- Ted Lapkin
- Ellen Burns (Greens)
- Cr Amy Johnson
Candidates – Buninyong Ward
- Mark Jones
- Robert Pattie-Williams
- Cr Ben Taylor
Candidates – Central Ward
- Cr Samantha McIntosh
- John Stoneman
- Duncan Smith
- Cr Belinda Coates (Greens)
Candidates – Delacombe Ward
- Kalyan Velagala
- Gab Salkowski (Greens)
- Cr Tracey Hargreaves
- Tom Madden
- Sebastian Borys
Candidates – Golden Point Ward
- Adrik Wright (Greens)
- Phillip Lincoln Yordonopulo
- Stephen Jones
- Tess Morgan
- Cr Mark Harris
- Josh Whittingham
- Ray Borner
- Dion Cartledge
Candidates – North Ward
- Jim Rinaldi
- David Harris
- Glenn Rogers
- Rebecca McIntosh
Candidates – Sebastopol Ward
- Cr Des Hudson
- Colin Muir
Candidates – Wendouree Ward
- Joshua Morris
- Jay Morrison
- Kristen Justin
In Ballarat, you have the Liberal bloc, they’ve been represented by Amy, Samantha and Ben for the last 4 years, but have previously had more. Then you have the Labor-Greens bloc, currently Daniel, Des and Belinda. The remaining balance has been held by an eclectic group of independents which vary in their positions.
The independents usually lean a bit more to the Liberals on day to day issues, but have generally supported Labor with the mayoralty. I believe that Ballarat is a bit unique in having the Mayor serve consecutive terms, which isn’t very common in Victorian councils. Daniel Moloney for Labor having it for 2 years, and Des (Labor) having it for the past 2 years.
Tracey Hargreaves is a bit of an insane anti-vaxxer, but hard to discern her exact views on anything. The other two independents are generally fine and have no firm positions on anything. Eddy isn’t recontesting.
Liberals when they had 4 seats from 2016-2020 held the mayoralty for the full 4 years, but their drop to just 3 meant they probably couldn’t compete with the more Labor leaning independents, despite Labor only having 2 seats.
Des is fairly unpopular in Labor circles, and I would hazard a guess that is why Labor is not endorsing this year, the Trades Hall is running an active campaign to unseat him. Not sure how that will play because he is generally a fairly popular guy who is well known because he has been Mayor before in 15-16, and also because he is a cop.
Josh Morris, former MLC for Western Victoria and former Mayor of Ballarat in 2013-14 is back too, not sure how well he will do competing in a relatively non-Liberal friendly area.
Most of the people on Ballarat council have been there a very long time, and probably won’t be retiring anytime soon either.
It is generally hard to figure out how things will go for the election, with only the Greens endorsing candidates, I think people are a bit confused about who to vote for. Name recognition is always the biggest factor, and for wards not running an incumbent, that’s where the fight gets interesting.