1985 Brisbane City Council election

Last updated

1985 Brisbane City Council election
Flag of Brisbane.svg
← 198230 March 1985 1988  →
Registered475,299
Turnout415,883 (87.5%)
Lord Mayor
 First partySecond party
  SallyanneAtkinsoncropped.png Labor Placeholder.png
Candidate Sallyanne Atkinson Roy Harvey
Party Liberal Labor
Popular vote209,651179,968
Percentage51.76%44.43%
Lord Mayor before election

Roy Harvey
Labor

Subsequent Lord Mayor

Sallyanne Atkinson
Liberal

All 26 wards on the City Council
13 wards needed for a majority
PartyLeaderVote %Seats+/–
Liberal Sallyanne Atkinson 15
Labor Roy Harvey 11
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.

The 1985 Brisbane City Council election was held on 30 March 1985 to elect a lord mayor and 26 aldermen to the City of Brisbane. [1] The election was held as part of the statewide local government elections in Queensland, Australia. [2]

Contents

The election saw the lord mayoralty re-established as a directly elected position, [3] having been chosen by a vote of the aldermen since 1973, [3] and increased the number of aldermen increased from 21 to 26. [1] [4] [5] [6] This reversed changes made by the former Country Party state government that had targeted the council's Labor administration. [4] [3] The election also saw a significant redistribution of wards to accommodate the additional aldermen, with most of the city's wards being abolished. [5] [6]

The incumbent Labor Party had controlled both the mayoralty and a majority of wards since the 1961 election. [1] The party was led by Lord Mayor Roy Harvey, who sought a ninth consecutive term for the party and a second term as Lord Mayor. [1]

The election resulted in the election of the Liberal Party under Sallyanne Atkinson. The party gaining a majority of wards and more than 50% of the mayoral vote. [1] This was in part helped by the National Party, who had contested the 1982 election, choosing to not contest this election to avoid splitting the conservative vote from the Liberal party. [1]

In the mayoral election, Liberal candidate Sallyanne Atkinson defeated Roy Harvey. [2] As of 2024, Atkinson is the first and only female Lord Mayor of Brisbane. [7]

This was the first and only election contested by the Brisbane Green Party, the predecessor to the Queensland Greens. The party contested the lord mayorship and four wards, but did not have any victories. [8]

Future lord mayor Graham Quirk was elected in Rochedale Ward at this election. [9]

Results

Ward summary

WardPartyAldermanMargin (%) [10]
Bracken Ridge Liberal Keith Murray [11] 1.5
Breakfast Creek Liberal 6.9
Camp Hill Liberal 2.7
Carina Labor 3.4
Chermside Liberal 1.3
Coopers Plains Labor 2.4
Deagon Labor Ken Leese [12] 8.2
Doboy Labor John Campbell [13] 11.2
Eagle Farm Labor Patricia Vaughan10.8
Ekibin Liberal 7.3
Enoggera Labor Brian Mellifont [14] 5.7
Fairfield Liberal Norman Rose5.2
Holland Park Liberal Gail Chiconi [15] 2.4
Inala Labor 10.8
Jamboree Liberal Phil Denman [16] 18.7
Kalinga Liberal 7.7
Kianawah Labor Don Randall12.1
McDowall Liberal John Goss [17] 11.1
Paddington Labor 6.0
Pullenvale Liberal 27.2
Rochedale Liberal Graham Quirk [9] 12.3
Runcorn Liberal Bob Ward [18] 5.1
Spring Hill Labor Ian Brusasco 4.9
Taringa Liberal Denver Beanland [19] 23.0
The Gabba Labor 4.5
The Gap Liberal Brian Hallinan [20] 11.5

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Liberals oust ALP in Brisbane council". Canberra Times. 1985-04-01. Retrieved 2024-04-14.
  2. 1 2 "Legislative Assembly WEDNESDAY, 3 APRIL 1985" (PDF). Parliament of Queensland. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 April 2024. Retrieved 8 April 2024.
  3. 1 2 3 Hensley, Melissa; Mateo-Babiano, Derlie; Minnery, John; Pojani, Dorina (2020-05-01). "How Diverging Interests in Public Health and Urban Planning Can Lead to Less Healthy Cities". Journal of Planning History. 19 (2): 71–89. doi:10.1177/1538513219873591. ISSN   1538-5132.
  4. 1 2 "ALP wins council election". The Canberra Times . Vol. 47, no. 13, 398. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 2 April 1973. p. 3. Retrieved 23 July 2025– via National Library of Australia.
  5. 1 2 Queensland Survey Office (1975). City of Brisbane (PDF) (Map). [1:63,360]. Brisbane: Queensland Survey Office. Retrieved 2024-10-04.
  6. 1 2 Department of Mapping and Surveying (1984). The North Brisbane Zone and the South Brisbane Zone (PDF) (Map). Brisbane: QueenslGovernment Printing Office. Retrieved 2025-07-23.
  7. ↑ "The team that helped Sallyanne Atkinson make history". Brisbane Times. 24 August 2014. Archived from the original on 8 April 2024. Retrieved 8 April 2024.
  8. ↑ Eddy, Elizabeth. "The green movement in Southeast Queensland: The environment, institutional failure, and social conflict, p.235". espace.library.uq.edu.au. Retrieved 2018-10-14.
  9. 1 2 "Graham Quirk joins Racing Queensland board". Brisbane Times. 4 July 2019. He joined the council in 1985 as councillor for the Rochedale Ward, rising to become deputy mayor under Campbell Newman before holding the lord mayoralty.
  10. ↑ Stockwell, S. E. (1997). Rhetoric and democracy : deliberative opportunities in current electoral processes (Thesis thesis).
  11. ↑ "Bracken Ridge - BCC Electorate, Candidates, Results". abc.net.au. 2024-04-02. Retrieved 2024-10-09.
  12. ↑ "Deagon (Key seat) - BCC Electorate, Candidates, Results". abc.net.au. 2024-04-02. Retrieved 2024-10-09.
  13. ↑ "Doboy (Key seat) - BCC Electorate, Candidates, Results". abc.net.au. 2024-04-02. Retrieved 2024-10-09.
  14. ↑ "Enoggera (Key seat) - BCC Electorate, Candidates, Results". abc.net.au. 2024-04-02. Retrieved 2024-10-09.
  15. ↑ "Holland Park - BCC Electorate, Candidates, Results". abc.net.au. 2024-04-02. Retrieved 2024-10-09.
  16. ↑ "Jamboree (Key seat) - BCC Electorate, Candidates, Results". abc.net.au. 2024-04-03. Retrieved 2024-10-09.
  17. ↑ "McDowall - BCC Electorate, Candidates, Results". abc.net.au. 2024-04-02. Retrieved 2024-10-09.
  18. ↑ "Runcorn - BCC Electorate, Candidates, Results". abc.net.au. 2024-04-04. Retrieved 2024-10-09.
  19. ↑ "Denver Edward Beanland". The Family of Thomas and Lydia Emma Kinton Beanland. Denver Beanland. Retrieved 2024-10-09.
  20. ↑ "The Gap (Key seat) - BCC Electorate, Candidates, Results". abc.net.au. 2024-04-02. Retrieved 2024-10-09.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.