The Upper Hunter Shire is a

local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a federated state, state, province, division (politica ...

in the Upper

Hunter Valley The Hunter Region, also commonly known as the Hunter Valley, Newcastle Region, or simply Hunter, spans the region in northern New South Wales, Australia, extending from approximately to north of Sydney. It contains the Hunter River and its ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, Australia. The Shire was formed in May 2004 from the Scone Shire and parts of

Murrurundi Murrurundi ( ) is a rural town located in the Upper Hunter Shire, in the Upper Hunter region of New South Wales, Australia. Murrurundi is situated northwest by road from Newcastle and north from Sydney. At the the town had a population of 8 ...

and Merriwa shires. The mayor of the Upper Hunter Shire Council is Cr. Maurice Collison, following the sudden resignation of Wayne Bedggood as mayor and as a councillor on 9 June 2020. No reason has been given for the sudden resignation. Council's General Manager is Greg McDonald.

Towns

The towns of the Upper Hunter are

Scone A scone ( or ) is a traditional British and Irish baked good, popular in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is usually made of either wheat flour or oatmeal, with baking powder as a leavening agent, and baked on sheet pans. A scone is often ...

, Parkville,

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

, and Merriwa, as well as several villages, including Bunnan, Gundy, Moonan Flat,

Ellerston Ellerston is a rural locality of the Upper Hunter Shire local government area, about north-east of Scone in the Upper Upper Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. It is about from Sydney, the state capital. Ellerston Pastoral Ellerston ...

, Wingen,

Blandford Blandford Forum ( ) is a market town in Dorset, England, on the River Stour, Dorset, River Stour, north-west of Poole. It had a population of 10,355 at the United Kingdom 2021 census, 2021 census. The town is notable for its Georgian archit ...

and Cassilis. Of the towns, only Aberdeen on the Shire's southeastern border is situated on the

Hunter River Hunter River may refer to: *Hunter River (New South Wales), Australia *Hunter River (Western Australia) *Hunter River, New Zealand *Hunter River (Prince Edward Island), Canada **Hunter River, Prince Edward Island, community on Hunter River, Canada ...

Heritage listings

The Upper Hunter Shire has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: * Ardglen, Main Northern railway:

Ardglen Tunnel The Ardglen Tunnel, also called the Liverpool Range tunnel, is a heritage register, heritage-listed summit rail tunnel located on the Main North railway line, New South Wales, Main North railway between the village of Ardglen, New South Wales, ...

* Merriwa, Bow Street: Colonial Cottage Museum * Murrurundi, Main Northern railway: Murrurundi railway station * Murrurundi, Mount Street: Rosedale Cottage * Scone, 144 Kelly Street: Scone Civic Theatre

Scone, New South Wales Scone () is a town in the Upper Hunter Shire in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. At the 2021 census, Scone had a population of 5,013 people. It is on the New England Highway north of Muswellbrook about 270 kilometres (167.77 mil ...

* Scone, 41 Kingdon Road: Old Court Theatre * Scone, Main Northern railway: Scone railway station * Wingen, Raglan Street: Mountain House, Wingen

Demographics

At the , there were people in the Upper Hunter Shire local government area, of these 50.0 percent were male and 50.0 percent were female.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups, w ...

made up 7.0 percent of the population, which was higher than the national and state averages of 3.4 and 3.2 percent respectively. The

median The median of a set of numbers is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a Sample (statistics), data sample, a statistical population, population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as the “ ...

age of people in the Upper Hunter Shire was 42 years, which was marginally higher than the national median of 38 years. Children aged 0 – 14 years made up 18.6 percent of the population and people aged 65 years and over made up 21.2 percent of the population. Of people in the area aged 15 years and over, 47.3 per cent were married and 13.1 per cent were either divorced or separated. Population growth in the Upper Hunter Shire between the and the was 6.00 percent. When compared with the total population growth of Australia for the same period, at 8.32 percent, population growth in the Upper Hunter Shire local government area was slightly lower than the national average. The median weekly income for residents within the Upper Hunter Shire was marginally lower than the national average. At the , the proportion of residents in the Upper Hunter Shire local government area who stated their

ancestry An ancestor, also known as a forefather, fore-elder, or a forebear, is a parent or ( recursively) the parent of an antecedent (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent and so forth). ''Ancestor'' is "any person from ...

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

or English exceeded 85 percent of all residents (the national average was 62.9 percent). In excess of 29% of all residents in the Upper Hunter Shire nominated a

religious Religion is a range of social- cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural ...

affiliation with

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

at the , which was considerably higher than the national average of 9.8 percent. Meanwhile, as at the date, compared to the national average, households in the Upper Hunter Shire local government area had a significantly lower than average proportion (5.3 percent) where two or more languages are spoken (the national average was 24.8 percent); and a significantly higher proportion 89.5 percent where only English was spoken at home (the national average was 72.0 percent).

Council

Current composition and election method

Upper Hunter Shire Council is composed of nine

councillor A councillor, alternatively councilman, councilwoman, councilperson, or council member, is someone who sits on, votes in, or is a member of, a council. This is typically an elected representative of an electoral district in a municipal or re ...

s elected by

Optional Preferential Voting One of the ways in which ranked voting systems vary is whether an individual vote must express a minimum number of preferences to avoid being considered invalid ("spoiled" or "informal" or "rejected"). Possibilities are: * Full preferential vot ...

as a single

ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

. All councillors are elected for a fixed four-year term of office. The mayor is elected by the councillors at the first meeting of the council. The most recent election was held on 4 December 2021 and the makeup of the council is as follows:

Election results

2024

Attractions

The Upper Hunter is the largest horse-rearing region in Australia. The

Burning Mountain Burning Mountain, the common name for Mount Wingen, is a hill near Wingen, New South Wales, Australia, approximately north of Sydney just off the New England Highway. It takes its name from a Coal-seam fire, smouldering coal seam running underg ...

Nature Reserve, near Wingen, is the site of a subterranean

coal seam fire A coal-seam fire is a burning of an outcrop or underground coal seam. Most coal-seam fires exhibit smouldering combustion, particularly underground coal-seam fires, because of limited atmospheric oxygen availability. Coal-seam fire instances ...

that has been burning for several thousand years. The council also owns several FM rebroadcasters of

Radio National ABC Radio National, more commonly known as Radio National or simply RN, is an Australian nationwide public service radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). From 1947 until 1985, the network was known as ABC Radio 2. ...

and

SBS Radio SBS Radio is an Australian radio network owned by the Special Broadcasting Service directed towards newly arrived immigrants in Australia. It originally began as two stations based in Melbourne and Sydney, set up to provide pre-recorded informa ...

, under the self-help schemes run by those broadcasters.

References

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