The City of Brimbank is a local government area located within the metropolitan area of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is located 10 kilometres west of the Melbourne city centre and is the gateway to Melbourne’s western suburbs.
The city has an area of 123 km² and in 2021, Brimbank had a population of 194,618.
With more than half of its residents born overseas and more than 160 languages spoken, Brimbank is one of Australia’s most multiculturally diverse municipalities.
History The Wurundjeri people have been the custodians of the land in the Port Phillip Bay region, including the current City of Brimbank, for over 40,000 years before European settlement. Brimbank lies within the area occupied by the Kurung-Jang-Balluk and Marin-Balluk clans of the Wurundjeri people (also known as the Woiwurrung language group) who form part of the larger Kulin Nation. Other groups who occupied land in the area include the Yalukit-Willam and Marpeang-Bulluk clans.
Brimbank was founded on 15 December 1994 during the amalgamations of local councils by the state government. It was formed from the merger of the western portions of the former Cities of Keilor and Sunshine. It was named after Brimbank Park in Keilor, which itself was named for the practice of local farmers driving livestock "around the brim of the bank" of the Maribyrnong River.
The municipality has thirteen places listed on the Victorian Heritage Register.
Misconduct investigations and dismissal In 2008 and 2009, the Brimbank City Council was the subject of several investigations into alleged misconduct by councillors.
On 30 July 2008, the state MP for Keilor, George Seitz, invoked parliamentary privilege in the Legislative Assembly to accuse former Brimbank mayor Cr Natalie Suleyman of branch stacking, describing her as the "Robert Mugabe of Brimbank". Seitz alleged that Suleyman had 'retaliated' by directing Council to block funding for capital works projects after she was defeated in Labor Party preselection for the 2008 Kororoit state by-election. Following disclosures made under the Whistleblowers Protection Act 2001, the Victorian Ombudsman, George Brouwer, commenced an investigation into the Council in September.
Brouwer's report was presented to Parliament on 7 May 2009, and found councillors were "generally dysfunctional", "lacked awareness of their role", and were "influenced" by unelected third parties. The report asserted that between 2005 and 2008, decisions were reached by a majority (or 'ruling') faction of councillors who would vote on decisions as a bloc. Of the 6 members of the 'ruling faction', only two were re-elected to council in 2008.
The report concluded that: External parties, including state MPs George Seitz and Theo Theophanous, and former federal MP Andrew Theophanous, had unduly influenced council business, The 'ruling faction' "did not exercise reasonable care" in directing Brimbank CEO Marilyn Duncan to remove funding for the Keilor Lodge Reserve project, The 'ruling faction' intended to "worry" Seitz by calling for expressions of interest on the Keilor Lodge Reserve site, Cr Suleyman acted "with inappropriate partiality" in prioritising works at Cairnlea Park in the Council's 2008–09 budget, Cr Eriksson contravened the Council's Code of Governance by releasing confidential information to the Sunshine Advocate, Brimbank Leader and Brimbank Star newspapers, The Labor Party had appeared to breach the Electoral Act by distributing prohibited material to Cr Capar, Councillors had misused council-owned laptops and BlackBerry devices, Council had failed to handle the severance package of outgoing CEO Marilyn Duncan "in an open and transparent manner", The 'ruling faction' had determined the election of mayor until 2013, and Local Government Victoria had failed to adequately deal with complaints from residents about Council decision-making.
In response to the Brouwer report, the Minister for Local Government, Richard Wynne, appointed William Scales to closely monitor the council over a three-month period. In his second report Scales found that, despite being closely monitored, there remained widespread misconduct amongst councillors, and recommended that councillors should be suspended or dismissed from their positions. David Walker, a former police detective, was also appointed to investigate possible breaches of the Local Government Act.
On 15 September, Wynne announced that Council would be dismissed, with administrators appointed until November 2012. On 17 November, the Victorian Government appointed Peter Lewinsky, Joanne Anderson and Meredith Sussex as administrators for a three-year period. Investigations into the conduct of Seitz, along with councillors Suleyman, Kathryn Eriksson and Troy Atanasovski, concluded in December with the Local Government Inspectorate informing those involved that it would take no further action.
In May 2012, the Victorian Government announced it would extend the tenure of administrators for a further three years, with Lewinsky reappointed alongside John Watson and former Brimbank commissioner Jane Nathan.
In October 2016, council elections were held in Brimbank for the first time in eight years. Two former councillors were re-elected: Sam David and Margaret Giudice, the latter having rescinded her Labor Party membership in 2014.
Wards and councillors
PartyCouncillors Independent Labor 5 Independent 4 Greens 1 Independent Liberal 1 Total 11
The councillors following the October 2024 local elections are:
WardPartyCouncillorNotes Albanvale Independent Victoria Borg Deputy Mayor Cherry Creek Independent Labor Kim Thien Truong Copernicus Independent Liberal Maria Kerr Delahey Independent Labor Katharine Nikolic Grasslands Independent Labor Thuy Dang Mayor Harvester Independent Labor Daniel Kruk Horseshoe Bend Independent Virginia Tachos Kororoit Creek Greens Lucy Nguyen Mount Derrimut Independent Joh Bauch Organ Pipes Independent Labor Ranka Rasic St Albans East Independent Duyen Anh Pham
Mayors Mayors (1998– 2009) No.Mayor PartyTerm1Ciro Lombardi Labor19982Sam David Labor1998–19993Brooke Gujinovic Labor1999–20004Charlie Apap Labor2000–20015Natalie Suleyman Labor2001–20026Andres Puig Labor2002–2003(2)Sam David Labor2003–2004(5)Natalie Suleyman Labor2004–20067Margaret Giudice Labor2006–2007(2)Sam David Labor2007–20088Troy Atanasovski Labor2008–2009
Administrators (2009–2016) AdministratorsTermPeter Lewinsky (chair)Joanne AndersonMeredith Sussex 2009–2012John Watson (chair)Peter LewinskyJane Nathan2012–2014John Watson (chair)Jane NathanJohn Tanner2014–2016
Mayors (2016–present) No.Mayor PartyTerm9John Hedditch Independent2016–2017(7)Margaret Giudice Independent2017–201810Lucinda Congreve Independent2018–201911Georgina Papafotiou Independent2019–202012Ranka Rasic Labor2020–202113Jasmine Nguyen Labor2021-202214Bruce Lancashire Independent2022-2023(12)Ranka Rasic Labor2023-202415Thuy Dang Labor2024-2025
Demographics Selected historical census data for City of Brimbank local government areaCensus year 20012006201120162021Population Estimated residents on census night LGA rank in terms of size within Victoria 3 3 6 5% of Victoria population 3.53% 3.41% 3.41% 3.28% 2.99%% of Australian population 0.87% 0.85% 0.85% 0.83% 0.77%Cultural and language diversity Ancestry,top responses Vietnamese 9.1% 10.7% 12.8% 16.0% 16.9%Australian 15.1% 15.1% 12.9% 12.4% 12.6%English 12.0% 11.8% 11.8% 11.7% 11.6%Chinese 4.5% 5.1% 5.9% 6.5% 6.8%Italian 8.3% 7.8% 7.0% 6.5% 6.2%Maltese 9.4% 8.1% 6.7% 5.7% 5.2%Language,top responses(other than English) Vietnamese10.4% 12.6% 14.2% 16.2% 18.5%Tagalog/Filipino 2.7% 2.7% 2.5%Greek4.2% 3.7% 3.2% 2.7% 2.4%Punjabi 2.3% 2.9% 2.2%Arabic 2.3% 2.2% 2.2%Macedonian4.1% 3.5% 2.9% 2.4% 2.2%Maltese5.2% 4.0% 3.3% 2.7% 2.1%Italian4.6% 3.8% 3.2% 2.5% 2.0%Religious affiliation Religious affiliation,top responses Catholic42.9% 40.1% 36.1% 31.3% 29.6%No religion7.9% 9.3% 11.0% 16.8% 21.0%Buddhism9.1% 10.8% 11.8% 10.8% 11.1%Islam 5.6% 5.8% 6.7%Orthodox11.6% 10.5% 9.2% 6.4% 6.0%Anglican5.9% 5.3% 4.5% 3.1% 2.4%Median weekly incomes Personal income Median weekly personal income 358 429 487% of Australian median income 76.8% 74.4% 73.6%Family income Median weekly family income 1029 1195 1358% of Australian median income 87.8% 80.7% 78.3%Household income Median weekly household income 921 1106 1263% of Australian median income 98.2% 89.6% 87.8%Dwelling structure Dwelling type Separate house88.7% 82.4% 76.9% 73.2%Semi-detached, terrace or townhouse4.0% 10.3% 5.0% 13.1%Flat or apartment6.3% 7.0% 7.5% 4.5%
Townships and localities The 2021 census, the city had a population of 194,618 up from 194,319 in the 2016 census
Population Locality 2016 2021 5,491 5,641 4,731 4,334 3,103 3,170 ^ 8 10 9,657 10,038 0 0 18,126 18,145 8,339 8,077 8,269 8,651 ^ 1,174 1,156 3,194 3,226 ^ 5,853 5,906 9,995 9,857 ^ 0 0 1,752 1,668 67 67 2,719 2,684 8,198 8,203 37,309 38,042 9,768 9,445 11,700 12,047 18,580 18,552 10,838 10,578 15,519 15,174 ^ 11 9
^ - Territory divided with another LGA
Environmental issues
In 2021, Brimbank was recognised as Melbourne's smelliest local government area with more than 640 complaints from residents mainly due to the large amount of industries in the area. This includes the Kealba Sunshine Landfill which produced a smell described as "rotting carcasses" for three years. EPA Victoria suspended and then cancelled the license to operate the landfill by Barro Group.
References
https://dbr.abs.gov.au/region.html?lyr=lga&rgn=21180
Bibliography
Alt URL
External links
Metlink local public transport map City of Brimbank at the Local Government Victoria website