Municipality of Waterloo

Council history and location

The area that would constitute the municipality of Waterloo was first incorporated as the Waterloo Ward of the Municipality of Redfern in August 1859. Under the provisions of the Municipalities Act, 1858, 250 residents of the area signed a petition which was published in the Government Gazette on 17 January 1860, noting that "they have every reason for believing that their interests, as part of the said Municipality of Redfern, will be seriously injured by their incorporation with such Municipality, and are, therefore, desirous to be separated therefrom, and be and become a separate and distinct Municipality". The area was subsequently proclaimed as the Municipality of Waterloo on 16 May 1860 by Governor Sir William Denison.

The first councillors were declared elected and held their first meeting at the residence of William Brown, at the corner of what is now Buckland and Botany streets, on 1 July 1860: Edward John Hawkesley (elected Chairman), John Geddes, Thomas Rostron, Edward Byrnes, William Austin, William Bryant, John Oates, George Kitson and Jules Felix Charet. Initially established as one at-large constituency, on 5 October 1863 the council was divided into three wards: Northern Ward (Waterloo), Eastern Ward (Rosebery and Zetland) and the Western Ward (Alexandria).

The first permanent chambers of the Waterloo council was a cottage opposite the Cauliflower Hotel on Botany Road and the council later moved to a cottage in Buckland street, which was also the residence of the council clerk. The council continued to meet there until August 1868, when the council met in a room in Wellington Street, Waterloo. Following the enactment of the Municipalities Act, 1867, the title of Chairman was renamed "Mayor" and the council became known as the Borough of Waterloo.

Secession of Alexandria

In March 1868, a petition of 257 electors (including the first chairman, Edward Hawkesley) in the Western Ward of Waterloo was published in the Government Gazette arguing for the establishment of a "Borough of Alexandria", noting that "the rates received from the Western Ward have never been wholly expended in that Ward, and that no improvements of a permanent nature are in progress in the said Ward; nor has any sum been voted for that purpose during the past half-year [...] they believe that justice has not been done to them; nor can they hope that their interests will be consulted by the Council as at present constituted." The petition was subsequently accepted by the Government and the Governor Lord Belmore proclaimed the separation of the Borough of Alexandria and the reconstitution of Waterloo (Eastern and Northern Wards, which were abolished in favour of a single constituency) on 27 August 1868.

New Town Hall

In 1880 the council leased a block of land from the Cooper family on Elizabeth Street for a town hall. The Victorian Italianate town hall, designed by architect Edward Hughes of the firm Thornley & Smedley. However the construction of the Hall, undertaken by builders Bretnall & Poulton, went through several cost blow-outs, delays and enlargements, with a final cost of £3500 (from an original cost of £2600) with a £370 annual cost in interest payments. The council first met in the hall on 19 August 1882. The council continued to pay a rental of £10 per annum for the land to the Cooper family until 1912, when Sir William Cooper, 3rd Baronet, gave the council the freehold title to the land.

Expansion and development

As the suburbs of Sydney expanded south, the rural character of Waterloo gradually disappeared in favour of higher density and the growth of industry transforming it into a working class area. This transformation was described by the Sydney Morning Herald in 1887, who noted that:

"Numerous industries are carried on in the borough, a very large amount of employment being provided for the residents. Among others may be mentioned wool-washing establishments, tanneries, rope works, soap works, bakeries, and breweries; and to this list may be added vegetable growing which in this locality is a very important item indeed. Waterloo, like one or two other suburbs, is essentially a working-man's borough, and it contains few dwellings of a superior description."

Following an unsuccessful petition to divide the council once more into wards in 1884, which came up against significant opposition, a petition signed by 115 electors was eventually submitted to the Government in December 1894 recommending the division of Waterloo into four wards. This petition was subsequently approved and proclaimed by Lieutenant Governor Sir Frederick Darley on 17 May 1895, with Waterloo divided into four wards: North Ward, East Ward, West Ward and South Ward.

From 28 December 1906, following the passing of the Local Government Act, 1906, the council was again renamed as the "Municipality of Waterloo". In February 1909, council began planning for the South Sydney Hospital, with land provided in Zetland from the Cooper Family and a large bequest from local businessman and benefactor James Joynton Smith. In September 1909, Mayor John Dunning, passed through council, on a vote of 6-5, a motion to purchase a set of mayoral and town clerk municipal robes for the occasion of the laying of the foundation of the South Sydney Hospital by the Governor Lord Chelmsford on 21 October.

In June 1921, council submitted a petition to abolish the wards created in 1895, which was accepted and proclaimed by Governor Sir Walter Davidson on 13 March 1922.

Amalgamation proposals

The transformation of the area into heavy industry increased the infrastructure and maintenance demands on the council and by 1924, the financial state of the council was in such a dire situation that the council resolved to consider various proposals for amalgamation with one or several of their neighbours. In September 1924, Alderman Bunting moved through a motion in council to start negotiations with Redfern, Mascot, Botany and Alexandria councils for a proposed "Greater South Sydney" council.

However this proposal proved short-lived, as a few months later, in February 1925, the new mayor, Alderman Dan Mulcahy, pushed through a proposal for a conference with the City of Sydney to consider amalgamation with its largest northern neighbour. Mulcahy noted that this would contribute towards achieving a "Greater Sydney" council. The conference, convened in August 1925, however split this proposal along party lines, gaining the strong support of Labor councillors and the approbation of the conservative Civic Reform Association councillors, who took particular issue with the large costs involved. Given the strong support of the Labor-controlled city council, and given that Waterloo and Sydney only shared a small boundary along Moore Park, it was difficult for many to avoid the conclusion that the proposal was simply an attempt to secure Labor's hold over the City of Sydney. The Sunday Times editorial of 23 August 1925 expressed this sentiment in the strongest terms, going so far as to describe the proposal as a "put-up job":

"What the Labour Party is out to do is manifestly to bring into the city area such a mass of Labour voting strength as will insure continuity of office in the City Council for the Labour Party. Waterloo, we are told, is to be divided into two wards, each represented by two aldermen. Those four aldermen are, according to Caucus calculations, pretty sure to be Labour men, and we have no hesitation in saying that that and that alone is the reason why the Caucus is proposing to tag on to the city an area which is not even contiguous to the city proper, and whose absorption cannot be shown to be of any benefit to the ratepayers. Frankly we look upon the Waterloo scheme as a put up job, and we sincerely hope that popular opinion will be so aroused against it that it will not go through."

On 2 December 1925, the Labor Lord Mayor of Sydney, Paddy Stokes, convened a meeting of the city council to approve the amalagamation proposal for consideration of the NSW Parliament, which was approved on a vote along party lines. The Sydney Corporation Amendment (Municipality of Waterloo) Bill was subsequently introduced and received its first reading in the NSW Legislative Assembly a few days later on 10 December. The final proposal moved that Waterloo would be absorbed into the City of Sydney, becoming the Waterloo and Rosebery wards, each returning two aldermen, with an undertaking for the city council to "spend £200,000, in four annual instalments of £50,000, in the reconstruction of roads and footpaths in the Waterloo municipality." The bill, again proving highly controversial, once more split along party lines, with the Leader of the Opposition, Thomas Bavin, noting to parliament that "The way we are being treated with respect to this Bill is an insult to Parliament. It is a grossly improper and unfair thing, and the Minister knows it" while Lord Mayor Stokes (who sat in parliament as the Member for Goulburn) declared that he stood "for the progress and development of the city. [...] We are in a position to reduce rates next year."

Despite passing the Legislative Assembly with the majority of the Lang Government, when the bill came for second reading in the Legislative Council, which did not have a Labor majority, it was defeated on a margin of 35 to 31. With the bill's defeat, Waterloo council moved on 8 June 1926 to send an amalgamation proposal to Alexandria, with Alderman Warner noting "If Alexandria doesn't take it, [Waterloo] will go bankrupt." It was this point, alongside allegations of criticisms made against Alexandria council by Waterloo aldermen, that led Alexandria to emphatically reject this proposal at their next meeting on 17 June. Alexandria aldermen even went so far as to pass a motion to "consign the communication to the waste paper basket".

Later history

In March 1940, three aldermen, former mayor John William Neilson, Ernest Navin and George Leslie Cohan, were each sentenced to three months gaol with hard labour for accepting bribes, where it had been found that they had taken bribes in order to register a company under the Noxious Trades Act 1902. The case, combined with the resulting vacancies, threw Waterloo council into chaos, with the mayor notifying the state government that they could not afford the by-elections for the vacancies and that quorum would be an issue until the next election. At the following triennial council election in December 1941, no Labor aldermen were elected on the 12 member council. At the following election in December 1944, the situation reversed, with 10 Labor aldermen elected including the first female alderman, Mary Veronica Neilson, who later rose to be mayor.

By the end of the Second World War, the NSW Government had come to the conclusion that its ideas of infrastructure expansion could not be realised by the present system of the mostly-poor inner-city municipal councils and the Minister for Local Government, Joseph Cahill, passed a bill in 1948 that abolished a significant number of those councils. Under the Local Government (Areas) Act 1948, Waterloo Municipal Council was merged, along with most of its neighbours, with the larger neighbouring City of Sydney which was located immediately to the Northeast.