History

Elec­tions for mem­bers of the fifth Coun­cil were held on 26 May, 1984. Leslie Old­field was re-elect­ed as May­or with an over­whelm­ing majority.

Elect­ed Members

• Leslie Old­field
• Her­mann Weber
• Bar­ry Browse
• Michele Castagna
• Jeff Hud­dle­stone
• Bob Kennedy
• John King
• Robert Lid­dle
• Richard Lim
• Har­vey Millard
• Rod Oliv­er
• Lynne Peterkin
• Di Shana­han

Changes with­in Council

• 4 June, 1984: Coun­cil elect­ed Her­mann Weber Deputy Mayor
• 9 April, 1985: Alder­man Har­vey Mil­lard was appoint­ed Act­ing May­or dur­ing the absence of the May­or and the Deputy May­or (8 June to 4 July, 1985)
• Res­ig­na­tions, 23 Feb­ru­ary, 1987: Alder­men Lynne Peterkin and Di Shanahan
• By-elec­tion, 11 April, 1987: Alder­men Rod Oliv­er and Jeff Huddlestone
• Res­ig­na­tion, 18 August, 1987: Coun­cil received the res­ig­na­tion of Alder­man B. Browse and con­sid­ered the appoint­ment of a per­son to act as Alder­man for the remain­der of the cur­rent Alder­man­ic term. On 31 August, 1987, it was decid­ed not to fill the vacant Alder­man position

1984 – 1985

Bob Lid­dle was the first Abo­rig­i­nal can­di­date to suc­cess­ful­ly con­test a posi­tion of Alder­man of a North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Council.

Coun­cil agreed in prin­ci­ple with the prepa­ra­tion of an offi­cial his­to­ry of Alice Springs.

The Coun­cil sup­port­ed the ini­tia­tive of the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Gov­ern­ment in seek­ing to have the Alice Springs Air­port upgrad­ed to inter­na­tion­al standards.

Two hour park­ing restric­tions were intro­duced in the CBD.

Sand was removed from the Todd Riv­er bed to reduce the impact of pos­si­ble flooding.

The con­cept of Her­itage Week and the fullest pos­si­ble com­mu­ni­ty involve­ment in it was sup­port­ed by Council.

1985 – 1986

Coun­cil adopt­ed a flag design cre­at­ed by Trevor Jel­lie after some slight modifications.

The May­or rep­re­sent­ed the Coun­cil at the offi­cial hand over cer­e­mo­ny of Ulu­ru (Ayers Rock – Mount Olga) Nation­al Park to the Tra­di­tion­al Own­ers on 26 Octo­ber, 1985.

Mr Eugene Bar­ry accept­ed the posi­tion of Senior Assis­tant Engi­neer, incor­po­rat­ing the posi­tion of Town Plan­ning Officer.

After one month the posi­tion was to be upgrad­ed to Deputy Town Engineer.

A Civic Recep­tion was held to wel­come up to two hun­dred guests on the occa­sion of the cen­te­nary of the Police pres­ence in Cen­tral Australia.

Coun­cil spon­sored the 1986 Cen­tral Aus­tralian Rac­ing Club May­oral Cup and agreed to spon­sor repli­cas of the May­oral Cup in fol­low­ing years.

Coun­cil sup­port­ed the Nation­al Trust’s pro­pos­als for the Hart­ley Street School and approved a grant to assist in the restoration.

1986 – 1987

Coun­cil con­sti­tut­ed the Alice Springs Bi-cen­ten­ni­al Com­mu­ni­ty Com­mit­tee to plan, organ­ise, and imple­ment a pro­gramme of cel­e­bra­tions in Alice Springs dur­ing 1988.

His Holi­ness Pope John Paul II vis­it­ed Alice Springs on 29 Novem­ber, 1986. A large crowd was at Blath­er­skite Park to wel­come the Pope.

Coun­cil grant­ed per­mis­sion for the Todd Mall Mar­ket Com­mit­tee to organ­ise four mar­kets in Todd Mall dur­ing the months of Sep­tem­ber to Decem­ber, 1986.

Fur­ther mar­kets were approved in 1987. Coun­cil offered to con­tribute finan­cial­ly towards the cost of installing three phase pow­er and exit signs to the Traeger Park Bas­ket­ball Stadium.

Coun­cil accept­ed a grant from the Aus­tralian Bicen­ten­ni­al Author­i­ty Nation­al Her­itage Pro­gram to pur­chase books, pho­tographs, the­sis, and maps to devel­op the Alice Springs Col­lec­tion. Coun­cil became con­cerned about the safe­ty of the Riv­er Red Gum in Par­sons Street.

Signs were erect­ed warn­ing pedes­tri­ans about the pos­si­bil­i­ty of falling branches.

Sacred Sites Author­i­ty was con­tact­ed to obtain advice on pro­ce­dures required to under­take work to make the tree safer. Coun­cil approved the plac­ing of named bricks in Todd Mall.

Coun­cil sup­port­ed the run­ning of the first Cen­tral Aus­tralian Mas­ters Games held in Alice Springs dur­ing Octo­ber, 1986.

Depot staff con­tin­ue their assis­tance in the Mas­ters Games to the present time by prepar­ing ovals, paint­ing Coun­cil facil­i­ties, clos­ing roads, and in oth­er ways.

1987 – 1988

The East­er 1988, flood­ing of the Todd Riv­er inun­dat­ed exten­sive areas of the town near the riv­er. Flood­wa­ters entered Todd Mall.

About 300 peo­ple had to be evac­u­at­ed from low-lying areas of town.

Coun­cil plays an impor­tant role at times such as this.

Depot staff are on call twen­ty-four hours a day and are respon­si­ble for clos­ing the cause­ways as well as being involved in the clean-up afterwards.

The look­out on Anzac Hill was upgrad­ed, includ­ing the con­struc­tion of ter­race walls and a stairway.

Coun­cil intro­duced annu­al Com­mu­ni­ty Ser­vice Awards to recog­nise out­stand­ing con­tri­bu­tions made to the com­mu­ni­ty by indi­vid­u­als and by organisations.

On 14 Octo­ber 1987, May­or Leslie Old­field offi­cial­ly opened the new Todd Mall.

James and Mark Todd, great great grand­sons of Sir Charles Todd, were the guests of honour.

The Coun­cil pur­chased Christ­mas dec­o­ra­tions for Todd Mall.

Coun­cil approved the dona­tion of a per­pet­u­al tro­phy, plus an annu­al repli­ca, to the Cen­tral Aus­tralian Eisteddfod Council.

Coun­cil assist­ed finan­cial­ly to the estab­lish­ment of ade­quate facil­i­ties for the play­ing of hock­ey in Alice Springs, includ­ing design and con­struc­tion of a sand filled syn­thet­ic play­ing sur­face, new clu­b­rooms, and arti­fi­cial lighting.

Coun­cil assist­ed the Aus­tralia Day Com­mit­tee (Alice Springs) with their 1988 Aus­tralia Day cel­e­bra­tions by pro­vid­ing lim­it­ed sec­re­tar­i­al and admin­is­tra­tive sup­port, pro­vi­sion of meet­ing rooms, use of the town swim­ming pool, and assis­tance with the Flag Rais­ing Cer­e­mo­ny to be held on Aus­tralia Day 1988.

Coun­cil approved a change of pur­pose of the Bicen­ten­ni­al Ini­tia­tive Grant to finance the acqui­si­tion of paint­ings by Albert Namatji­ra to form part of a spe­cial Namatji­ra col­lec­tion to be admin­is­tered by the Aralu­en Centre.

Mrs Mona Byrnes was engaged to iden­ti­fy and arrange the pur­chase of suit­able art works. Coun­cil pub­lished the book Alice Springs: Its His­to­ry and the Peo­ple Who Made It.

Coun­cil entered the book for an Aus­tralian Her­itage Award.

The Munic­i­pal bound­ary was extend­ed by virtue of a procla­ma­tion in March 1988, and Coun­cil decid­ed to pro­ceed with the for­ma­tion of a Rur­al Advi­so­ry Committee.

In May, 1988, Coun­cil appoint­ed Mrs Helen Pet­ty to the posi­tion of Man­ag­er Admin­is­tra­tion and Finance.