Yarra Ranges council election, 2024

The Shire of Yarra Ranges covers the eastern outskirts of Melbourne and a number of towns to the east of Melbourne.

The council had a population of 156,068 as of the 2021 census.

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

Wards
The Shire of Yarra Ranges is divided into nine single-member wards as of 2024:

• Billanook – in the west, covering Mount Evelyn and part of Lilydale.
• Chandler – in the south-west, covering Wandin North, Seville, Olinda, Silvan, Monbulk, Macclesfield and Kalorama.
• Chirnside – in the far west, covering Chirnside Park and parts of Mooroolbark.
• Lyster – in the far south-west, covering Narre Warren East, Belgrave, Belgrave South, Selby, Kallista, Menzies Creek and part of Lysterfield.
• Melba – in the far west, covering parts of Mooroolbark and Lilydale.
• O’Shannassy – in the east, covering about half of the council area including Warburton, Yarra Junction and Woori Yallock.
• Ryrie – in the north, covering Yarra Glen and Healesville.
• Streeton – in the far south-west, covering Mount Dandenong, Ferny Creek, Tremont, Sassafaras and part of Montrose.
• Walling – in the far west, covering Kilsyth and part of Montrose.

Incumbent councillors

¹Andrew Fullagar replaced Cathrine Burnett-Wake following a by-election in 2022.

History
Yarra Ranges Shire was formed in 1994 as a merger of the Sherbrooke, Lillydale, Healesville and Upper Yarra council areas.

The council has always been elected by single member wards, with nine councillors representing the council since prior to the 2007 review.

In the current term, the mayoralty has been held by councillors McAllister, Child and Todorov.

Council control
The record of council meeting minutes is very brief for Yarra Ranges, not even covering the 2021 mayoral election. I have been able to find records of the 2021, 2022 and 2023 mayoral elections. At no point have any of the mayoral or deputy mayoral elections been contested. Eight of the nine councillors have either run or nominated the successful candidate during this time.

As far as I can tell, the council is quite consensual and there is no minority faction in opposition to the dominant group.

Candidate summary
Councillors David Eastham, Andrew Fullagar and Johanna Skelton are not running for re-election.

The Greens, Animal Justice and the Victorian Socialists are each running one candidate.

Assessment
Yarra Ranges doesn’t have a strong pattern of factions.

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, the Liberal Party won all but two wards, with the Liberal 2PP peaking at 56% in Billanook. Generally the Liberal Party did better in wards closer to urban Melbourne. Labor won two wards at the southern end of the Shire, with 56% in Streeton and 58% in Lyster.

Candidates – Billanook Ward

• Wendy Wright
• Cr Tim Heenan

Candidates – Chandler Ward

• Belinda Grooby
• Ashley Hansen
• Gareth Ward

Candidates – Chirnside Ward

• Cr Richard Higgins

Candidates – Lyster Ward

• Mick Spruhan
• Peter McIlwain
• Divesh Sareen

Candidates – Melba Ward

• Cr Sophie Todorov
• Chris Templer
• Mitch Mazzarella

Candidates – O’Shannassy Ward

• Cr Jim Child
• Wil Mikelsons (Greens)
• Karen Duke
• James Talbett
• R. Jane Stormer
• Chloe Bond (Animal Justice)
• Dylan J. Little (Victorian Socialists)

Candidates – Ryrie Ward

• Cr Fiona McAllister

Candidates – Streeton Ward

• Sigrid Petersen
• Jeff Marriott

Candidates – Walling Ward

• David Ferrier
• Cr Len Cox

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