Municipality of Strathfield
The
Municipality of Strathfield is a
Local Government Municipal Area of
New South Wales,
Australia, near
Sydney. Though a disastrous attempt was made to farm the land by the
first settlers, from the 1870s, the district was developed as a residential area for the wealthy elite of Sydney. The area, however, was not known as the Municipality of Strathfield until Strathfield council was formed in 1885. (The Municipality of Strathfield is separate to the
suburb of
Strathfield in that the Municipality incorporates several suburbs, including Strathfield). Over the years it has become a major
multicultural centre, having many different nationalities in its 14.1 km
2 boundaries, of which the 3 largest non-Australian born groups are
South Korean,
Chinese and
Sri Lankan.
The municipality is governed by Strathfield Municipal Council, which has traditionally opposed forced amalgamations with other local government areas, though Strathfield Council itself has been expanded in size and population by incorporating the abolished Homebush Council in 1947 and the West Ward of the former Enfield Council in 1949. The council was rocked in 2004-05 by allegations of corruption, which resulted in an enquiry by the
Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) into 'Activities of Certain Councillors' involving two former Mayors, John Abi-Saab and Alfred Tsang, local property developers and the editor of the
Inner Western Courier newspaper, Geoff Howe.
Suburbs in the municipality are:
*
Flemington*
Homebush*
Homebush West*
Strathfield*
Strathfield South*
Chullora [part]
*
Belfield [part]
*
Greenacre [part]
Main article: History of the Strathfield area
Strathfield Municipal Council was proclaimed on
June 2,
1885 by the Governor of NSW, Sir Augustus Loftus, after residents of the Redmyre area petitioned the New South Wales State government. The council built the current Council Chambers in
1887, between 1885 and 1887 the Council operated from various private homes in Strathfield, pending the building of a permanent Council Chambers. The Strathfield Town was built in 1923. The council annexed the
Flemington district in 1892 and in doing so doubled the number of residents they needed to provide infrastructure for.
|
Strathfield council chambers (c. 1915). |
Several attempts at amalgamating the council have been made: the first happened with
The Greater Sydney Movement, where many influential people such as
Sidney Webb and
John Daniel Fitzgerald believed that most of Sydney should be merged into a single Sydney area. This was extremely unpopular with both residents and many councils, including Strathfield council, and though bills were raised in State parliament in
1912,
1927 and
1931 they failed to gather any real support and the attempt to force amalgamation failed. In
1947 Homebush and Strathfield councils merged and part of
Enfield was added. In
1974 two reports, one by J.C. Barnett and the other from the
State Boundaries Commission, recommended that
Ashfield,
Drummoyne,
Burwood and
Concord should amalgamate with Strathfield. This was energetically opposed by residents and council alderman and this amalgamation also did not come to fruition. In
1992, a section of the northern part of the Municipality was transferred to the
Auburn Council area. In return, the area of and between Boundary Creek and the railway line, occupied by the former Ford factory building, was transferred from Auburn to Strathfield Council.
On
August 17th,
1991, seven people were killed, when
Wade Frankum stabbed a fifteen year-old girl to death, before running amok with a
rifle in the Strathfield Plaza shopping mall, and then turning the weapon on himself. This is commonly known as the
Strathfield Massacre and it shocked the nation.
In
2004 the then Mayor of the Municipality of Strathfield,
Alfred Tsang, stepped down when he was caught on film accepting money from a property developer. This resulted in an enquiry by the Independent Commission Against Corruption.
|
Strathfield Municipal Council Chambers |
Strathfield has a wide mix of people groups, with about 48% of the population born overseas. As a result there are many services for newly arrived
immigrants, and many overseas students live in the area. Some of the organisations that are located in the Municipality of Strathfield are the Russian Ethnic Community Council of NSW Inc, which provides access to information and referral to mainstream services to recent immigrants of
Russian and
Russian speaking background and disseminates information to remote and offshore areas on a number of issues [
1] and the Sydney Tamil Resource Centre Inc, which provides resources to
Tamil immigrants.
In the
90s Strathfield saw a large influx of
Korean immigrants, mainly due to its proximity to
Campsie — which also had experienced an influx of Koreans into the area and a boom in numbers of International Students — but also because of Strathfield Korean
Uniting Church on Homebush Road. There are now numerous Korean restaurants and shops in the area.
There are various community organisations in the Municipality. Strathfield has a local
Rotary club, which provides community support and assistance via various projects in the area [
2] and a Musical Society, which normally produces two shows a year in the
Latvian Theatre in Strathfield. Their main social activity is rehearsing twice weekly and they present seven performances of their musical production over two weekends. Strathfield Lantern Club Voluntary is located in Strathfield and provides fundraising organisation for raising funds specifically for the
Royal Institute for Deaf & Blind Children in
North Rocks.
The Municipality has a local library in Homebush and a branch library in Strathfield South. The central library, located in
Homebush, was demolished in 2002 and a new library was built and opened in 2004.
A key element of Strathfield is its role as a location for many esteemed educational institutions including a campus of
Australian Catholic University,
Strathfield Girls High,
St Patrick's College,
Santa Sabina,
Meriden, Trinity Grammar Preparatory School and
Homebush Boys High. Those colleges have produced many significant contributors to Australia's sporting, political and social life. From St. Patricks's College for example have come former State Opposition Leader
John Brogden, author and historian
Tom Keneally and duel international
John Ballesty.
Whilst not perhaps basking in quite the same popular musical glory as neighbouring
Burwood with its links to the formation of the
Easybeats and
AC/DC, Strathfield has made its own unique contribution to
pop. Strathfield was home during part of the
1960s to The
BeeGees (Redmyre Road) and several Australian
indie rock and
indie pop bands have emerged from Strathfield including
Prince Vlad & the Gargoyle Impalers,
Lunatic Fringe,
The Upbeat,
Women of Troy member
Paul O'Reilly and
The Mexican Spitfires.
Grant McLennan of
The Go-Betweens also lived in Carrington Ave., Strathfield for a number of years in the
1990s. Although no members of the bandwere Stathfield residents the address in
Woodward Ave, Strathfield of one of
Radio Birdman's earliest fan club members inspired the lyrics of their mid-
1970s pop song "Murder City Nights":
Cruising down Woodward gotta find me some action:Looking for a lover with a power reaction.
The Mexican Spitfires also immortalised
Strathfield in their song
Rookwood about
Rookwood Cemetery which must be one of very few
pop songs about a cemetery. Written by
Stephen McCowage the song featured the chorus:
And the gates close at sunset:And they open on judgement day:When the Lord comes down from heaven:To take us from this Redmyre clay.
Teen pop star
Nikki Webster who shot to international fame via her role in the Opening Ceremony of the
Sydney Olympic Games attended
McDonald College in
North Strathfield.
Strathfield has also been home to a number of famous sporting identities including cricketers
Bobby Simpson and
Alan Davidson and three Prime Ministers,
Frank Forde,
Billy Hughes and
George Reid.
Australia has three tiers of government: the Federal government (responsible for national matters such as external trade and commerce, quarantine, currency, patents, marriage, immigration, defence, telecommunications, and the provision of welfare and other assistance payments), State government (responsible for provincial matters such as policing, public schools, roads and traffic, public hospitals, public housing, and business regulation) and Local government (responsible for town planning, building approvals, local roads, parking, public libraries, public toilets, water and sewerage, waste removal, domestic animals and community facilities). The Municipality of Strathfield is part of Australia's local government system.
Traditionally, the municipality has fought amalgamation of their area with other councils, though additional land has been added to the Municipality since 1885 such as annexure of parts of the Lidcome Municipality in
1992, merged the western ward of the abolished Enfield Council in
1949 and voluntarily merged with the Municipality of Homebush in May
1947. However, they strenuously objected to a push to amalgamate the councils into one mega-council, known as
The Greater Sydney Movement, that happened from the early part of the
1890s till the later half of the
1930s. In
1983 it was recommended by the
NSW State Boundaries Commission that Strathfield be amalgamated into Burwood, however a great deal of uproar greeted this plan and after the then mayor,
Clarrie Edwards, spoke in well attended public meetings the state government abandoned the plan due to a great deal of opposition from residents of the area. In
1999 another proposal was made to merge the
Municipality of Burwood with the Municipality of Strathfield. However, the residents of Strathfield did not support this proposal and the merger never proceeded. A proposal was lodged by Auburn Council for a boundary change, which had the effect of a takeover of Strathfield Council. This was heavily objected to by residents of Strathfield.
The Inner West (which includes the Municipality of Strathfield) has long been an area where lots of development has been undergoing and competition amongst developers has been intense. According to
The Australian, they were known to strongly lobby the
Australian Labor Party and the party "spent almost $100,000 fighting last year's election, with $84,500 of that donated by local developers, electoral funding records show." (Sexton, Feb 2, 2005 [
3]). Alfred Tsang, of the
Unity Party, was elected to Strathfield Council in March 2003. Tsang was seen as a threat by various Lebanese developers as he overturned various rezoning that had been arranged by the previous Labor party. It is alleged by Tsang that Labor councillor
John Abi-Saab and state member of parliament and Labor powerbroker
Eddie Obeid set him up for accepting a bribe.
|
Strathfield Mayor, Alfred Tsang, was forced to step down after photos of him accepting cash were published in The Australian newspaper. |
On
December 20,
2004, Tsang was forced to stepped down over allegations of corruption. Pictures had been published in
The Australian of him accepting a $200,000 of $100 bills from a developer, Michael Saklaoui. It was not initially clear why the money was given to him though it was alleged that he was talking to Mr Saklawi about the redevelopment of an 800m² council-owned carpark (Sexton, Dec 20 2004), however it was later revealed to be payment for rezoning the council car park and three adjoining houses for the benefit of developer Michael Saklaoui (Sexton, Feb 2, 2005 [
4]). According to
The Australian he was heard to have said that "Basically, we get it for nothing," Mr Tsang says. "I am making Strathfield a better place ... I am doing it for the area." (Sexton, Feb 2, 2005 [
5]) Strathfield council soon afterwards released a press statement that it "will not and does not" tolerate misconduct. (
Sydney Morning Herald, December 20, 2004 [
6]) The
Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) is currently investigating whether claims developers were given inside information about land rezoning proposals put to Strathfield Council have any substance and the pictures taken by
The Australian were handed to them for further investigation.
According to Anne Davies, who reports for
The Sydney Morning Herald, "behind the Strathfield saga is a ferocious battle among developers for sites. These developers are not from the big end of town; they are locals - many are Lebanese - who regard the inner west as their development playground." (Davies,
SMH, pg. 4).
Michael King, the counsel assisting ICAC, found that John Abi-Saab was involved in a plot to entrap Alfred Tsang and force him from office and recommended five findings against him, and King also recommended that Tsang should be found to have acted corruptly. On
March 28, 2005 both Tsang and Abi-Saab tendered their resignations to Strathfield Council's general manager. (
The Sydney Morning Herald, March 1, 2005 [
7]).
See also: List of Mayors of the Municipality of StrathfieldThe Municipality of Strathfield is located at 33°52'10" North, 151°5'59" West (33.8717, 151.0899). It covers a total area of approximately 14.1
square kilometres and includes the suburbs of
Strathfield, Strathfield South,
Homebush, Homebush West, part of
Enfield, part of
Belfield and part of
Greenacre [
8] (in Australia, a
Local Government Area, or LGA, incorporates many suburbs into its area). Homebush Bay Drive bounds the Municipality of Strathfield to the north, Powells Creek, The Boulevarde and Coronation Parade bounds it to the east, Punchbowl Road and Juno Parade form the southern border and Roberts Road, Chullora rail yards,
Rookwood Cemetery and the
Sydney Olympic Park Rail line bound the Municipality to the west.
For
NSW state elections, the Municipality of Strathfield is divided between the
State Electoral District Of Strathfield,
State Electoral District of Drummoyne and
State Electoral District of Canterbury, New South Wales and for Federal elections it is in the electorate of
Lowe.
See also: Demographics of the Municipality of Strathfield. |
Overseas-born birthplaces based on 2001 Australian Census data for the Strathfield LGA |
The estimated resident population as of June 2003 was 30,220 (
Aust. Bureau of Statistics). The Strathfield Local Government Area is a
culturally diverse region. The 2001 Census recorded the population of the Municipality as 27,956 — an increase of 8.1% since the 1996 Census. Of the total area, the census showed that 46% of the people stated that they were Australian-born. The number of people born overseas was 13,521 (48% of the total population) compared with 11,386 (44% of the total population) in 1996 and 10,176 (40% of the total population) in 1991. Of those born overseas the three main countries of birth were the
Republic of Korea (South) — 1750 people (6.3%);
China (excluding SARs and Taiwan) — 1632 people (5.9%) and
Sri Lanka — 1544 people (5.5%).
*
Australian Bureau of Statistics (2003).
The people of New South Wales. Statistics from the 2001 Census. Joint publication of the NSW State Government (Community Relations Commission) & the Australian Federal Government (Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs).
* Davies, Anne (December 21, 2004). Design rules for developments won't block out ground-floor corruption.
The Sydney Morning Herald.
*
History Records of Australia, 1/1
* Jones, Cathy (2004).
Strathfield - origin of the name. Retrieved October 4, 2004.
* Jones, Michael (1985).
Oasis in the West: Strathfield's first hundred years. North Sydney: Allen & Unwin Australia. ISBN 0-86861-407-6.
*
Mayor stands down over cash wad claim (December 20, 2004).
The Sydney Morning Herald.
* Sexton, Jennifer (December 20, 2004).
Video cash mayor steps down.
The Australian.
* Sexton, Jennifer (February 5, 2005).
Machinations and the mayor.
The Australian.
* Strathfield Municipal Council,
About our Local Government Area. Retrieved October 8, 2004.
* "Strathfield pair resign" (March 1, 2005).
The Sydney Morning Herald.
* New South Wales State Electoral Office.
State Electoral District Of Strathfield. Retrieved October 17, 2004.
* Bureau of Crime and Statistics,
NSW Recorded Crime Statistics - Strathfield LGA,
as PDF, or
as Excel spreadsheet.
*
Strathfield Municipal Council official website*
Strathfield Historical Society*
2001 Census Information
