Surf Coast Shire

Surf Coast Shire
Local government area
Location in Victoria
Country	Australia
State	Victoria
Region	Barwon South West
Established	1994
Council seat	Torquay
Government
• Mayor	Cr Mike Bodsworth
• State electorates	Polwarth South Barwon
• Federal divisions	Corangamite Wannon
Area [1]
• Total	1,553 km2 (600 sq mi)
Population
• Total	37,623 (2021)[1]
• Density	24.226/km2 (62.745/sq mi)
Gazetted	9 March 1994[2]
Website	Surf Coast Shire
LGAs around Surf Coast Shire Golden Plains Golden Plains Greater Geelong Colac Otway Surf Coast Shire Bass Strait Colac Otway Bass Strait Bass Strait

Aerial views of the Barwon South West region of Victoria, Australia.

The Surf Coast Shire is a local government area in the Barwon South West region of Victoria, Australia, located in the south-western part of the state. It covers an area of 1,553 square kilometres (600 mi2). It had a population of 32,251 in June 2018.[1] It includes the coastal towns of Aireys Inlet, Anglesea, Lorne and Torquay and the inland towns of Moriac and Winchelsea.

The Shire is governed and administered by the Surf Coast Shire Council; its seat of local government and administrative centre is located at the council headquarters in Torquay. The Shire is named after its location on the popular surf coast of Victoria.

Before the 1990s local government reforms, the Surf Coast Shire's area was covered by three municipalities: the Shire of Winchelsea, the Shire of Barrabool, and the City of South Barwon. The Barrabool/South Barwon boundary was the Surf Coast Highway. This meant that Jan Juc and part of Torquay were in Barrabool, while the remainder of the Torquay district, including the traditional town centre, was in South Barwon.

When the City of Greater Geelong was created in May 1993, it initially took in the entire Torquay/Jan Juc area as far west as Ghazeepore Road. It also annexed areas on Geelong's fringe (Ceres, Wandana Heights, Waurn Ponds and Mount Duneed) which had previously belonged to Barrabool.[3]

In March 1994, the Surf Coast Shire was formed from the amalgamation of the Torquay/Jan Juc area from Greater Geelong, the remainder of the Shire of Barrabool, and the Shire of Winchelsea (less the Birregurra and Barwon Downs districts, which were lost to the Shire of Colac).[2] The Surf Coast Shire's modern boundaries were settled six months later when the Lake Murdeduke and Mount Gellibrand area, part of the territory lost to Colac, was brought back into the Shire.[4]

The Surf Coast Shire's predecessor LGAs (green) as at the beginning of 1993. The administrative centres of the former LGAs are marked by green dots.

Post-2008, following an electoral representation review, the decision was made to re-subdivide the municipality into four wards, the current wards are Torquay, Anglesea, Winchelsea and Lorne. Between 2004 and 2008, the Shire was an unsubdivided municipality and as a result, the entire municipality voted to elect nine councillors. Between 1996 and 2004, the municipality was subdivided into six wards, where three councillors per ward were elected from the Torquay and Anglesea wards, and one councillor per ward was elected from the Lorne, Winchelsea, Moriac and Aireys Inlet wards. A position of Deputy Mayor was created in 2004, but it was abolished for the 2005 mayoral election.

The council is composed of three wards electing three councillors each.

Ward	Councillor		Affiliation	Notes
Otway Range Ward		Mike Bodsworth	Independent	Mayor
		Libby Stapleton	Independent	Deputy Mayor
		Leon Walker	Independent
Torquay		Paul Barker	Libertarian
		Liz Pattison	Independent
		Phoebe Crockett	Greens
Winchelsea		Joel Grist	Independent Libertarian
		Tony Phelps	Independent
		Adrian Schonfelder	Independent Labor

• Cr Noel Bates (1995–1997)
• Cr Henry Love (1997–1998)
• Cr Julie Hansen (1998–2000)
• Cr Mike Barrow (2000–2001)
• Cr Beth Davidson (2001–2004)
• Cr Keith Grossman (2004–2005)
• Cr Libby Mears (2005–2006)
• Cr Rose Hodge (2006–2007)
• Cr Dean Webster (2007–2008)
• Cr Libby Mears (2008–2009)
• Cr Libby Coker (2009–2010)
• Cr Dean Webster (2010–2011)
• Cr Brian McKiterick (2011–2012)
• Cr Libby Coker (2012–2013)
• Cr Rose Hodge (2013–2014)
• Cr Margot Smith (2014–2015)
• Cr Rose Hodge (2015–2016)
• Cr Brian McKiterick (2016-2017)
• Cr David Bell (2017-2018)
• Cr Rose Hodge (2018–2020)
• Cr Libby Stapleton (2020–2022)
• Cr Liz Pattison (2022–2024)

The council meets in the council chambers at the council headquarters in the Torquay Municipal Offices, which is also the location of the council's administrative activities. It also provides customer services at its Municipal Office in Torquay.

Surf Coast Shire: Anglesea Ward

Party			Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labor		Libby Coker	2,504	48.50
	Independent		Margot Ann Smith	1,393	27.00
	Independent		Jenna Robinson	1,268	24.6
Turnout			6,891	76.20%
	Labor hold			Swing
	Independent hold			Swing

Surf Coast Shire: Torquay Ward

Party			Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labor		Rose Hodge	2,866	27.20
	Independent		David Bell	1,962	18.60
	Liberal		Brian McKiterick	1,268	16.00
	Greens		Marian Smedley	1,529	14.50
	Independent		Martin Paul Duke	1,522	14.20
	Independent		Joe Remenyi	993	9.40
Turnout			19,367	68.96%
	Labor hold			Swing
	Independent hold			Swing
	Liberal hold			Swing
	Independent gain from Greens			Swing

According to the 2021 census, the shire had a population of 37,694, up from 29,397 in the 2016 census.[6]

^ - Territory divided with another LGA

• List of localities (Victoria)

• Surf Coast Shire Council official website
• Great Ocean Road Journey, Victoria, Australia (replaces the Surf Coast Tourist website)
• Metlink local public transport map
• Link to Land Victoria interactive maps
• The Anglesea & District Historical Society Inc.
• Interactive map of Victorian local government areas (pre-1994 vs present) - Victorian Government - Digital Twin Victoria

38°18′00″S 144°00′00″E / 38.30000°S 144.00000°E / -38.30000; 144.00000