City of Bankstown
The City of Bankstown was a local government area in the south-west region of Sydney, Australia, centred on the suburb of Bankstown, from 1895 to 2016. The last mayor of the City of Bankstown Council was Clr Khal Asfour, a member of the Labor Party.
A 2015 review of local government boundaries by the NSW Government Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal recommended that the City of Bankstown merge with the City of Canterbury to form a new council with an area of and support a population of approximately 351,000. On 12 May 2016, the NSW Government announced that Bankstown would merge with the City of Canterbury to be known as the City of Canterbury-Bankstown.
Suburbs of the City of Bankstown
Suburbs and localities in the former local government area were:- Bankstown
- Bankstown Aerodrome
- Bass Hill
- Birrong
- Chester Hill
- Chullora
- Condell Park
- East Hills
- Georges Hall
- Greenacre
- Lansdowne
- Leightonfield
- Manahan
- Milperra
- Mount Lewis
- One Tree Point
- Padstow
- Padstow Heights
- Panania
- Picnic Point
- Potts Hill
- Punchbowl
- Regents Park
- Revesby
- Revesby Heights
- Sefton
- Villawood
- Yagoona
History
Early history and development
The traditional Aboriginal inhabitants of the land now known as the Canterbury-Bankstown were the Dharug and Eora peoples. Early indigenous groups relied upon the riparian network of the Georges River and Cooks River catchments towards Botany Bay, with extant reminders of this lifestyle dating back 3,000 years including rock and overhang paintings, stone scrapers, middens and axe grinding grooves.Following the arrival of Europeans in 1788, the new British settlers in the area burned oyster shells from the middens along Cooks River to produce lime for use in building mortar. The first incursions and eventual land grants in the area by Europeans led to increasing tensions, culminating in a confrontation between Europeans and a group of Aboriginal people led by Tedbury, the son of Pemulwuy, in what is now Punchbowl in 1809. However, following Tedbury's death in 1810, resistance to European settlement generally ended.
The District of Bankstown was named by Governor Hunter in 1797 in honour of botanist Sir Joseph Banks. The area remained very rural until residential and suburban development followed the development of the Bankstown Railway Line with the passing of the Marrickville to Burwood Road Railway Act by the NSW Parliament in 1890, extending the rail line from Marrickville Station to Burwood Road by 1895. With the passing of the Belmore to Chapel Road Railway Act in 1906, the line was extended further to Lakemba, Punchbowl and Bankstown by 1909. The railway formed an important part of the development of Bankstown, with rapid development following its construction – so much so that the commercial centre of Bankstown moved from its former position in Irish Town on Liverpool Road to the vicinity of Bankstown railway station.
Establishment of Bankstown Council
In March 1895 a petition was submitted to the NSW Colonial Government by 109 residents of the Bankstown area, requesting the establishment of the "Municipal District of Bankstown" under the Municipalities Act, 1867. The petition was subsequently accepted and the Municipal District of Bankstown was proclaimed by Lieutenant Governor Sir Frederick Darley on 7 September 1895. The first six-member council, standing in one at-large constituency, was elected on 4 November 1895. With the passing of the Local Government Act 1906, the council area became known as the Municipality of Bankstown.Administration
On 13 December 1933, the Minister for Local Government Eric Spooner dismissed Bankstown council for the first time, which was also the first time the minister's power to dismiss a council was exercised under the Local Government Act, 1919. Spooner dismissed the council as a result of an inquiry into the council's awarding of a sanitary contract, which had recommended that the council seek further tenders for the contract as a result of an irregular and deficient original tender process, and that there was a clear implication that there had been undue influence involved in the awarding of the contract. After the council refused to accept these findings, and resolved to award the contract as originally intended, Spooner dismissed the council the next day and appointed the inquiry commissioner, William Robert Wylie, Inspector of Local Government Accounts, as administrator until fresh elections could be held in December 1934.On 3 March 1954, the Minister for Local Government Jack Renshaw dismissed Bankstown council and appointed the Chief Inspector of Local Government, Henry William Dane, as administrator. Renshaw announced that the dismissal was due to the council being "not competent to discharge its responsibilities" after failing to act upon a report by the Department of Local Government that identified serious allegations of corruption and inappropriate acquisition methods for council materials by council's assistant electrical engineer, who was later dismissed in July 1954 following an official inquiry.
On 8 November 1963, Bankstown council was dismissed for the third time by the Minister for Local Government, with Dane appointed for a second term as administrator, when five aldermen were charged with conspiracy to demand and receive payment in consideration of doing acts pertaining to aldermanic office. It was alleged the aldermen William Thomas Delauney, Charles Henry Little, Georgen Allardice Johnstone, Alfred Frederick McGuren and Murt O'Brien, were involved in a conspiracy to seek £5,000 each for ensuring that a Lendlease proposal for a shopping centre in Bankstown was approved. On 7 April 1965, Delauney and another accused who was not an alderman, Martin Goode, pled guilty to the charges, while the remaining four went to trial at the District Court of New South Wales. The Crown's case relied upon tape recordings of the accused, which the judge ruled as admissible despite an admission from the Crown that they had been illegally obtained. On 13 April 1965, Justice Monahan acquitted McGuren and O'Brien on the basis that there was insufficient evidence to connect them to the conspiracy. On 15 April 1965, Johnstone was acquitted and Little was found guilty, with Judge Monahan sentencing him, along with Delauney and Goode, to 12-months in prison.
City status and later history
Bankstown's city status was proclaimed in 1980 in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II, becoming the "City of Bankstown". On 12 May 2016, the City of Bankstown was merged with the City of Canterbury to form the Canterbury-Bankstown Council.Council seats
Council Chambers (1918)
On 29 June 1918 the new Council Chambers building located on South Terrace south of the Bankstown railway station was officially opened by the mayor, A. Townsend. Completed to a cost of £4,000, the new Council Chambers building was designed by prominent architect and mayor of Kogarah, Charles Herbert Halstead, and built by A. G. Swane. At the time of opening the street frontage included a post office, and a branch of the Australian Bank of Commerce. This remained the Council's primary meeting place and offices until new offices in the Civic Centre to the north were completed in 1963.Civic Centre and Council Chambers (1963)
By the early 1960s, Bankstown Council sought a new headquarters that would be able to accommodate a growing organisation as well as provide a new 'civic centre' for the Council area. In 1961, the council commissioned a modernist design by architect Kevin Curtin, which envisaged a complex of an Administration Building, a Council Chamber roundhouse, and a Town Hall with the capacity for 1,500 people, to be located on a large block north of the Bankstown railway station between Chapel Road, Rickard Road, Appian Way and The Mall. The Council Chambers was the first building completed and took the form of a roundhouse and was built by Monier Builders Pty Ltd, with the interior fittings and furniture designed by Maison Paul Pty Ltd of Greenacre, featuring timberwork in Queensland walnut timber. The consulting engineers for the project were M. G. Bull and John R. Wallis, Spratt & Associates.Administration building
The administration building was officially opened on 2 December 1963. It was built to house the majority of council's staff and departments, and was a two-storey square block with an external colonnade and basement level for parking. The rates, health & building, and Town Clerk's departments were located on the ground floor, while the upper floor contained the engineering and planning departments. The building's main lobby featured a mosaic mural by Michael Santry depicting the history of Bankstown, in addition to marble-clad columns, timber panelling, and terrazzo floors. In 1964, the exterior lighting of the Civic Centre received an award for meritorious lighting from the Australian Illuminating Engineering Society. In 1966 a new fountain, the "Dane Fountain", was unveiled outside the building to commemorate the service of H. W. Dane as administrator of the council.On Tuesday 1 July 1997, a fire in the building, caused by a spark from maintenance works to bring the building up to modern standards, resulted in the complete destruction of the Administration Building, along with a large number of council records and historical items. With the Council offices relocated to the nearby Bankstown Civic Tower, the remains of the Administration Building were cleared and its site became the location for a new central park which was officially named Paul Keating Park on 13 June 2000.