Establishment of Orange Municipal Council
From The Orange Wiki
In 1860 the small township of Orange comprising barely 90 houses and less than 500 people was incorporated as a municipality. It was 14 years since a site for the Village of Orange had been fixed on.
The campaign for municipal government was started on 18 July 1859 when as the Bathurst Free Press reported ‘a respectable and numerous meeting almost unanimously agreed to apply for the immediate incorporation of Orange’. It was believed that many local improvements could be carried out to great advantage if a municipal corporation existed
The Petition was signed by 81 persons, whose names read like a street directory of today’s city. It led to Orange being proclaimed a Municipality on 9 January 1860. The original Municipality covered 640 acres, and included 10 miles of city streets
At noon on, 2 February 1860, the returning officer Charles Blakefield received nominations from 11 candidates. A flurry of electioneering followed with the candidates being accused of ‘wooing the sweet vote’.
The election was held on 9 February and according to the newspaper report ‘was conducted with the utmost decorum’. Only 49 electors voted but the turnout was considered to be a great success showing ‘an amount of zeal rarely displayed in country elections only 4 or 5 electors being absent in the whole number who were really eligible to vote’. Under the property franchise owners had the right to up to 4 votes each depending on the value of their properties.
John Woodward topped the polls with 37 votes and James Dale (32), George McKay (30), Dennis Hanrahan (27), John Peisley (20) and William Tucker Evans (20) were also elected. Edward Nicholls, James Dalton, Benjamin Nelson, Henry Philips and Henry Curran were unsuccessful.
Immediately after the declaration of the poll the press reported that ‘the councillors re-entered the court house with John Peisley Esq as their first chairman who was received with reiterated plaudits of the assembly. A general explanation of peace making followed and the party adjourned to Mr Councillor Hanrahan’s Wellington Inn where mutual expressions and happy toast followed in rapid succession during a merry hour’.
That evening a dinner for the defeated candidates, the returning officer, poll clerk and scrutineers was given at the Royal Hotel in Byng Street but the defeated candidates did not attend because, according to the press,’ they had taken the result of the election too deeply to heart’.
The first business meeting of the newly elected Council took place on 18 February 1860 and was held in the Court House. Crown Solicitor, George Colquhoun, was appointed Council Clerk and Messer’s James Dalton and Patrick Kenna were appointed as auditors. The real work of the Council began in April 1860 when it was decided to call tenders for clearing Lords Place from Summer Street to Byng Street and making a road 12 yards wide by filling holes with stone and gravel.
