Wyndham council election, 2024

The City of Wyndham covers parts of the outer west of Melbourne. The council stretches along the shore of Port Phillip Bay between Geelong and the rest of Melbourne.

The council covers Werribee, Point Cook, Wyndham Vale, Williams Landing, Truganina, Tarneit and Manor Lakes. The council had a population of 292,011 as of the 2021 census.

• Wards
• Redistribution
• Incumbent councillors
• History
• Council control
• Candidate summary
• Assessment
• Voting trends by ward

Wards
The City of Wyndham will be divided into eleven single-member wards as of 2024:

• Bemin – in the north-east, covering Laverton North and part of Truganina.
• Brinbeal – in the north of the City, covering parts of Tarneit.
• Cheetham – in the south-east, covering parts of Point Cook.
• Featherbrook – in the east, covering parts of Point Cook.
• Grange – in the centre, covering parts of Hoppers Crossing.
• Heathdale – in the centre, covering parts of Werribee.
• Iramoo – in the west, covering Mambourin and parts of Wyndham Vale.
• Quandong – in the north-west covering Manor Lakes and parts of Wyndham Vale.
• Werribee Park – the largest ward in the south west, covering Werribee South and parts of Werribee.
• Williams Landing – in the east, covering Williams and Landing and parts of Laverbrook and Point Cook.
• Wimba – in the north, covering parts of Tarneit.

Redistribution
The council previously consisted of three wards, electing eleven councillors. The Iramoo Ward elected three members, while the Chaffey and Harrison wards each elected four.

The northern Chaffey ward covered the entirety of the new Brinbeal and Wimba wards and parts of the new Grange and Heathdale wards.

The eastern Harrison ward covered the new Bemin, Featherbook and Williams Landing wards, most of the new Cheetham ward and a small part of the new Werribee Park ward.

The western Iramoo ward covered the new Iramoo and Quandong wards, most of the new Werribee Park ward and parts of the new Cheetham and Heathdale wards.

Incumbent councillors

History
A local government district named ‘Wyndham’ was first created in 1862, and it was renamed the Shire of Werribee in 1909.

That shire lost territory to more suburban councils to the west in 1922, 1941 and 1957, and in 1987 became a City.

Werribee City was left mostly intact in the local government reorganisation of 1994, losing some areas to Hobsons Bay and Melton, but was also renamed the City of Wyndham.

The council was split into seven single-member wards until a review in 2005 which replaced the wards with three three-member wards. The next review in 2012 increased the council’s size from nine to eleven, and added a fourth seat to two of the three wards.

The 2020 election saw eleven councillors elected, including three members of the ALP and a sole member of the Liberal Party.

Council control
Over the last four years there have been eight elections for mayor or deputy mayor. Three of those elections were unopposed, one saw the winner gain ten out of eleven votes, while the other four elections produced 6-5 or 7-4 victories.

The mayoralty was held successively by councillors Hegedich, Maynard, McIntyre and Barrera.

Throughout the term, two groups always voted together. A block of five councillors (Barrera, Gilligan, Hegedich, Hill, Marcus and Shaw) have always voted together, while another block of four councillors (Mahfoud, Maynard, Ramesh and Szatkowski) have also voted together. A fifth councillor, Hill, has mostly voted with the latter group of four, although on one occasion she voted with the other block and on another occasion she was the sole dissenting vote in a 10-1 defeat.

The final councillor, McIntyre, has always been on the winning side. The group of five won the mayoralty twice unopposed, while the group of four won it once and McIntyre won in the other year.

Two of the three ALP members on the council are part of the group of four, while the other Labor councillor and sole Liberal councillor are part of the group of five.

In 2020, Hegedich and Maynard were elected unopposed as mayor and deputy respectively.

In 2021, Maynard defeated Hegedich 6-5, with McIntyre and Hill siding with the group of four. Hill defeated Marcus for deputy mayor on the same split.

In 2022, McIntyre won the mayoralty over Hill by a 10-1 margin, while Barrera defeated Szatkowski 7-4, with McIntyre and Hill siding with the majority.

In 2023, Barrera was elected mayor unopposed, while Gilligan defeated Ramesh with the support of the group of five and McIntyre.

Candidate summary
No information.

Assessment
There aren’t strong factional or partisan patterns in the City of Wyndham, which makes it hard to say what could happen.

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 only two wards where the Labor two-party-preferred vote dropped below 60% was Cheetham and Featherbrook. These wards are the only ones where the Liberal primary vote was over 30%, and were also the best areas for the Greens.