City of Burnside
The City of Burnside is a local government area in the South Australian city of Adelaide stretching from the Adelaide Parklands into the Adelaide foothills with an area of. It was founded in August 1856 as the District Council of Burnside, the name of a property of an early settler, and was classed as a city in 1943. The LGA is bounded by Adelaide, Adelaide Hills Council, Campbelltown, Mitcham, Norwood Payneham and St Peters and Unley.
A primarily residential upper middle class area, Burnside has little to no industrial activity and a small commercial sector. Over of its area is dedicated to Parks and Reserves, the result being one of the greenest areas in Adelaide.
It was one of the first areas outside of Adelaide to be settled, with the early villages of Magill, Burnside, Beaumont and Glen Osmond now inner suburbs.
At the 2021 census, City of Burnside was considered the most relatively socio-economically advantaged LGA in South Australia, and the suburb of Skye the third most advantaged locality in the state, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics' SEIFA indexes.
History
Prior to the British colonisation of South Australia in 1836, Burnside was inhabited by the Kaurna, an Aboriginal people who lived around the creeks of the River Torrens during the summer months and in the Adelaide Hills during the wintertime. The area was first settled in 1839 by Peter Anderson, a Scots migrant, who named it Burnside after his property's location adjacent to Second Creek. The Village of Burnside was established shortly thereafter and the District Council of Burnside was gazetted in 1856, being separated from the larger East Torrens Council. The council's first chairman was Dr. Christopher Rawson Penfold, of Penfolds Wines fame.The present Council Chambers were built in 1927/28 in Tusmore, with the council becoming a municipality in 1935. With strong growth and development throughout the region, Burnside was then proclaimed a city in 1943. The 1960s brought Burnside Library, built next to the Council chambers, and the George Bolton Swimming Centre in Hazelwood Park. Both were further expanded and upgraded between 1997 and 2001.
Beaumont House, a historic structure, was constructed for the first bishop of Adelaide, Augustus Short, during 1851. Wineries, mining and olive groves were the mainstay of an early Burnside economy; Glen Osmond boasted substantial mineral deposits and world-class vineyards were established at Magill. The first council chamber was designed by chairman George Soward and built in 1869 by Thomas Hill and William Yateman.
Geography and environment
Burnside has an area of and is located from the east to the south-east of the Adelaide city centre and parklands, extending east to the Cleland National Park in the Mount Lofty Ranges. Two creeks of the River Torrens run through a gradually sloping plain from the ranges; there is much variation in land use and topography.Before European Settlement in South Australia, much of the Adelaide Plains were swamps and woodland. In what became Burnside, plains leading out to Unley hosted the large Black Forest of grey box woodland. To the north and the floodplains of First and Second Creeks, there were blue gums and River Red Gums. Nearer to the foothills, in Mount Osmond and Waterfall Gully, a more diverse range of plant species existed, however Manna Gums and blue gums were predominant. With colonisation, much of the native foliage was cut down to enable crops and grazing. Market Gardens in the Adelaide Hills lowered the amount of water flowing down the creeks and some of the Hills Face was used for quarrying. Early crops included olives, grapes for winemaking, wheat and barley. Over the years agriculture greatly declined and only vineyards survive today in Magill and Waterfall Gully.
With new suburbs being gazetted in the 20th century, the Burnside Council undertook ambitious tree-planting, beautification and conservation schemes to slow and then reverse the negative impact on the natural environment. of the council area is held in reserves and parks and some 35,000 trees line the streets. A "Second Generation Tree Planting Program" started in 1993. The council launched its Urban Tree Strategy in 2014, with a strategic plan covering the period to 2025. In February 2020, it won a Tree Cities of the World designation from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and Arbor Day Foundation. It was one of three suburban Adelaide councils to be awarded the designation, along with the City of Mitcham and the City of Unley, which as of 2020 are the only three in Australia.
Notable parks and reserves include Chambers Gully, Langman Reserve and Hazelwood Park.
Council
Council consists of 13 Elected Members comprising a Mayor, and 12 Ward Councillors. The Council area is divided into six wards, with two Councillors elected from each ward. The wards are as follows:- Beaumont Ward
- Burnside Ward
- Eastwood & Glenunga Ward
- Kensington Gardens & Magill Ward
- Kensington Park Ward
- Rose Park & Toorak Gardens Ward
Council Chairmen/Mayors of Burnside
Council Chairmen/Mayors since 1856 have been as follows:Prior to 1935, the head of the Elected Members was the Chairman of the District Council.
| Years | Chairmen |
| 1856-1857 | C R Penfold |
| 1857-1858 | A Fergusson |
| 1858-1863 | D Ferguson |
| 1863-1869 | G R Debney |
| 1869-1871 | G Soward |
| 1872-1874 | H Hughes |
| 1874-1879 | E Birkin |
| 1879-1881 | M Goldsack |
| 1881-1883 | G F Cleland |
| 1883-1885 | E Markey |
| 1885-1894 | G F Cleland |
| 1894-1913 | J R Osborn |
| 1913-1918 | P Wood |
| 1920-1935 | J A Harper |
| Years | Mayor |
| 1935-1936 | J A Harper |
| 1936-1938 | A W F Webb |
| 1938-1940 | W C N Waite |
| 1940-1943 | F L Parsons |
| 1943-1946 | P R Claridge |
| 1946-1948 | T R Mellor |
| 1948-1950 | A R Burnell |
| 1950-1952 | W H Holmes |
| 1952-1954 | G J H Bolton |
| 1954-1956 | J H Parkinson |
| 1956-1959 | P R Claridge |
| 1959-1962 | T A Philps |
| 1962-1967 | G J H Bolton |
| 1967-1969 | W W Langman |
| 1969-1973 | W H W Roney |
| 1973-1975 | M G R Perry |
| 1975-1979 | M E Bond |
| 1979-1982 | C J Soward |
| 1982-1987 | D J Batt |
| 1987-1989 | J C Wickham |
| 1989-1991 | J G Schaeffer |
| 1991-1993 | H V Shearn |
| 1993-1995 | J W Jacobsen |
| 1995-2000 | A J Taylor |
| 2000-2010 | W S Greiner |
| 2010-2018 | D T Parkin |
| 2018-current | D A Monceaux |
Governance
Politics
For State Government Burnside is part of the Electoral Districts of Adelaide, Bragg, Morialta, Hartley, Heysen, Norwood and Unley. Bragg takes in most of the city; it is the strongest Liberal Party district in the Adelaide Metropolitan Area and the third strongest in the state. Liberal strength is strongest in the wealthy hills suburbs to the south-east around Beaumont and weakest around Norwood in the north where the Labor Party dominates. Before their catastrophic collapse in recent years, the Democrats polled impressive results in the western near-city suburbs. The Greens gained much of the previous Democrats vote in recent elections. Bragg has been held by Jack Batty of the Liberal Party, since the 2022 by-election following Vickie Chapman's resignation.Burnside forms the southern part of the Federal Division of Sturt, which takes in much of Adelaide's eastern suburbs, stretching from Paradise to Glen Osmond. Up until the 2007 federal election, it was a safe Liberal seat for over thirty years. At the election, on a two-party preferred basis, the Liberal Party gained 50.94% of the vote and the Labor Party 49.06%, a difference of only 1,712 votes. Christopher Pyne held the seat for the Liberal Party from 1993 to 2019 when he retired. He was followed by James Stevens who was elected in the 2019 Australian federal election. Stevens previously served as the chief of staff to Steven Marshall, the premier of South Australia, and prior to that as the general manager of Michell Australia.
An inquiry was launched in 2009 by the then state Local Government Minister Gail Gago into allegations of "harassment, bullying and misconduct" by then members of the City Council. After about $200,000 of expenditure by the council and $1.3 million by the state government, legal action by former councilors prevented the release of the report. A Supreme Court ruling on 27 May 2011, found that the report could be partially released, after material related to parts of the terms of reference deemed inappropriate was redacted.