Former local government areas of Tasmania facts for kids
In Tasmania, an island state in Australia, local governments help manage towns and regions. These areas are called Local Government Areas (LGAs). Sometimes, these areas change. They might be combined with other areas (this is called amalgamation), or they might stop existing as separate councils. This happens to make local government work better and more efficiently.
What is Local Government?
Local government is the closest level of government to you. It looks after things that affect your daily life in your local community. Think about your local park, the roads you use, or even your library. These are often managed by your local council. Each council has elected representatives who make decisions for their area.
Why Do Local Areas Change?
Over many years, the way Tasmania's local government areas are organised has changed a lot. This happens for several reasons:
- Making things more efficient: Sometimes, combining smaller areas into larger ones can save money and make services better.
- Population changes: As towns grow or shrink, the boundaries of local government areas might need to be updated.
- Better services: Larger councils might have more resources to provide better services to their communities.
A Look at Tasmania's Past Councils
Tasmania used to have many more local government areas than it does today. For example, back in 1907, there were 149 different local areas! Over time, many of these smaller areas merged together. This reduced the number of councils. By 1993, a big change happened, and the number of LGAs went from 46 down to just 29. This means many smaller councils joined up to form larger ones.
Here are some examples of places that used to have their own separate local councils in Tasmania:
- Municipality of Beaconsfield
- Municipality of Bothwell
- Municipality of Emu Bay (which later became part of Burnie)
- Municipality of Campbell Town
- Municipality of Deloraine
- Municipality of Esperance
- Municipality of Evandale
- Fingal Municipal Council
- Municipality of Gormanston (now part of West Coast Council)
- Municipality of Hamilton
- Municipality of Huon
- Municipality of Lilydale
- Municipality of Longford
- Municipality of New Norfolk
- Municipality of Oatlands
- Municipality of Penguin
- Municipality of Queenborough
- Municipality of Queenstown (now part of West Coast Council)
- Municipality of Richmond
- Municipality of Ross
- Municipality of Scottsdale
- Municipality of Strahan (now part of West Coast Council)
- Municipality of Ulverstone (formerly called Leven)
- Municipality of Wynyard (formerly called Table Cape Council)
- Municipality of Zeehan (now part of West Coast Council)
These changes show how Tasmania's local government has evolved over time to best serve its communities.
