History

Elec­tions for mem­bers of the sixth Coun­cil were held on 28 May, 1988. Leslie Old­field was re-elect­ed Mayor.

Elect­ed Members

• Bob Kennedy
• Michele Castagna
• Richard Lim
• Har­vey Millard
• Rod Oliv­er
• Jeff Hud­dle­stone
• Lor­raine Braham
• Lynne Peterkin
• Daphne Calder
• Robert Lid­dle

Changes with­in Council

• 4 July, 1988: Coun­cil elect­ed Alder­man Richard Lim Deputy Mayor
• Res­ig­na­tion, 2 May, 1989: Alder­man Daphne Calder
• Res­ig­na­tion, 5 May, 1989: Alder­man Robert Liddle
• By-elec­tion, 8 July, 1989: Alder­men Car­ole Frost and Richard Grainger
• 30 Octo­ber, 1989: Alder­man Kennedy was appoint­ed Act­ing May­or for two short peri­ods in November
• 14 May, 1990: Alder­man Kennedy was appoint­ed Act­ing May­or as required dur­ing the next two months
• Res­ig­na­tion, 23 Sep­tem­ber, 1991: Alder­man Richard Grainger for fam­i­ly and busi­ness rea­sons. With ordi­nary elec­tions due in May, 1992, Coun­cil decid­ed not to fill the vacancy

1988 – 1989

The ordi­nary elec­tion in May 1988, saw the intro­duc­tion of the Exhaus­tive Pref­er­en­tial Sys­tem for count­ing of votes at Coun­cil elections.

This sys­tem is applic­a­ble to Munic­i­pal­i­ties which have mul­ti­ple vacan­cies to be filled.

The Coun­cil was favourably dis­posed to assum­ing own­er­ship, cus­tody, care, and main­te­nance of the N.T. Art Col­lec­tion of the Cen­tral Aus­tralian Arts Soci­ety. Own­er­ship of the col­lec­tion was accept­ed in August 1988.

A cer­e­mo­ny for the ded­i­ca­tion and the offi­cial open­ing of the Bicen­ten­ni­al grant/​Alice Springs Col­lec­tion was held on 28 Novem­ber 1988.

Coun­cil con­tin­ued to press for the devo­lu­tion of plan­ning pow­ers to local authorities.

On 29 Octo­ber 1988, Jus­tice Bri­an Mar­tin offi­cial­ly opened the Alice Prize.

As Pres­i­dent of the NT Divi­sion of the Bicen­ten­ni­al Author­i­ty, he pre­sent­ed the Albert Namatji­ra water­colour paint­ing Across the Plain to Mount Giles to the May­or rep­re­sent­ing the peo­ple of the town of Alice Springs.

The recip­i­ent of the Com­mu­ni­ty Ser­vices Award for 1988 was Mrs Iris Mahomet.

The Coun­cil agreed in prin­ci­ple with the pro­pos­al of the Min­is­ter for Trans­port and Works to estab­lish an Alice Springs Bus Ser­vice and autho­rised the Chief Executive/​Town Clerk to nego­ti­ate the mat­ter further.

May­or Leslie Old­field and the Chief Executive/​Town Clerk Eric Mitchell attend­ed the 1989 Aus­tralian Her­itage Awards pre­sen­ta­tion held in Bris­bane in April. Council’s book, Alice Springs: Its His­to­ry and the Peo­ple Who Made It, was entered into the Awards and received a Cer­tifi­cate of Merit.

Coun­cil approved the con­struc­tion of a con­crete skate­board bowl, to be locat­ed with­in the Swim­ming Cen­tre grounds.

A Pol­i­cy on Stock Selec­tion and Acqui­si­tion for the Alice Springs Pub­lic Library was adopted.

Coun­cil approved the oper­a­tion of an overnight pie cart from the site of the old Todd House in Todd Street.

1989 – 1990

The Coun­cil pro­vid­ed assis­tance to the 1990 World Solar Chal­lenge when the event passed through Alice Springs.

The for­ma­tion of a Town Band was sup­port­ed by Council.

Coun­cil made funds avail­able to each high school and col­lege in Alice Springs for an annu­al award pre­sen­ta­tion to be deter­mined by each school.

In Sep­tem­ber, 1989, the Coun­cil extend­ed a Civic Wel­come to their Hon­ours the Admin­is­tra­tor Mr Jim Muir­head QC and Mrs Muirhead.

Dur­ing the fol­low­ing week, Town Coun­cil host­ed a Civic Recep­tion to wel­come their Excel­lences, the Gov­er­nor Gen­er­al Mr Bill Hay­den and Mrs Hay­den to Alice Springs.

“Hon­orary Cit­i­zen” cer­tifi­cates and leather bound edi­tions of Alice Springs: Its His­to­ry and the Peo­ple Who Made It were pre­sent­ed to Mr W. Hay­den and Mr J. Muirhead.

The Coun­cil took steps to reg­is­ter ​“ASBUS” as a busi­ness name.

A Todd Mall Pro­mo­tion Local Rate was levied for the pur­pose of defray­ing the expens­es of the Coun­cil in rela­tion to the man­age­ment and pro­mo­tion of Todd Mall.

A dis­count for prompt pay­ment of rates was intro­duced where­by pay­ments by nat­ur­al per­sons with­in four­teen days received a 5 per cent discount.

A Peri­od­ic Review – Elec­toral Rep­re­sen­ta­tion by Coun­cil found that the Coun­cil was sat­is­fied that the exist­ing num­ber of Alder­men pro­vid­ed a fair and equi­table rep­re­sen­ta­tion for the elec­tors of Alice Springs and that it found no demon­stra­ble need to divide the Munic­i­pal­i­ty into wards.

Coun­cil formed the Alice Springs Town Camps Advi­so­ry Com­mit­tee to advise the Coun­cil on the pro­vi­sion of ser­vices to Town Camps and their residents.

The Com­mit­tee was to include rep­re­sen­ta­tives of The Town Coun­cil, Tan­gen­tyere Coun­cil, and Town Camp Hous­ing Asso­ci­a­tions in Alice Springs.

May­or Leslie Old­field received an award for Indi­vid­ual Effort from the Keep Aus­tralia Beau­ti­ful Council.

In Novem­ber 1989, Mr Trevor Reid passed away.

Trevor had been with Coun­cil for 13 years and was sec­ond-in-charge to Dave Per­ry in the Parks Division.

In Novem­ber 1989, Coun­cil intro­duced par­tial bans on smok­ing in the Admin­is­tra­tion area, Coun­cil Cham­bers, and the Library. Total bans were intro­duced from 1 July, 1990.

Coun­cil pro­ceed­ed with the con­struc­tion of a con­crete cycle track in Schwarz Crescent.

Grants were made to a num­ber of com­mu­ni­ty organ­i­sa­tions, includ­ing, Migrant Resource Cen­tre, Cen­tral Aus­tralian Com­mu­ni­ty Toy Library, Alice Springs Kinder­gym, YMCA, and Alice Springs Big Band.

1990 – 1991

Coun­cil con­tributed major finan­cial assis­tance towards the light­ing of Anzac Oval. Light­ing was to be of a low inten­si­ty suit­able for the Cork­wood Fes­ti­val, social sport and sports train­ing, and sim­i­lar events.

Coun­cil assist­ed finan­cial­ly towards the re-sur­fac­ing of the ten­nis courts at Traeger Park.

The Coun­cil agreed not to pur­sue the acqui­si­tion of Panora­ma Guth and asso­ci­at­ed land and busi­ness, but decid­ed to active­ly sup­port any rezon­ing appli­ca­tion which would have the effect of ensur­ing that the Panora­ma Guth build­ing, and its con­tents, could not be defaced or demol­ished by any future owners.

Coun­cil assumed respon­si­bil­i­ty for the prepa­ra­tion and main­te­nance of the Traeger Park turf cen­tre wicket.

May­or Old­field was nom­i­nat­ed as a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Coun­cil on the Alice Springs TALC Committee.

The Char­ter of the Todd Mall Mar­ket­ing Com­mit­tee was adopt­ed enabling the for­ma­tion of a Man­age­ment Com­mit­tee to car­ry out func­tions relat­ing to the man­age­ment and oper­a­tion of the Todd Mall Precinct.

With changes to the loca­tion of the rail­way sta­tion, Coun­cil saw no need to rename Rail­way Ter­race as its name was of his­tor­i­cal significance.

Coun­cil pro­ceed­ed with the recon­struc­tion of Gap Road intersections.

Towards the end of June, 1991, Coun­cil paid trib­ute to the late Jock Nel­son who died on 20 June 1991, aged eighty-two years. Jock Nel­son was the inau­gur­al May­or of Alice Springs.

He worked as a jackeroo and a drilling contractor.

He enlist­ed in the sec­ond Aus­tralian Impe­r­i­al Force in 1942 and served in the Roy­al Aus­tralian Engi­neers in Aus­tralia and over­seas until 1945. In 1947 he was elect­ed as the Mem­ber for Stu­art in the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Leg­isla­tive Council.

He went on to be elect­ed to the Fed­er­al Par­lia­ment in 1949 and was re-elect­ed in 1951, 1955, 1958, and 1963.

He was the first Ter­ri­to­ri­an to hold the post of Admin­is­tra­tor of the North­ern Territory.

The for­ma­tion of the Alice Springs Town Band was sup­port­ed. The band would be a means of assist­ing with pro­vi­sion of musi­cal devel­op­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties for musi­cians and enjoy­ment and enrich­ment expe­ri­ences for the wider community.

A Char­ter of the Alice Springs Town Band Man­age­ment Com­mit­tee was drawn up.

1991 – 1992

Mar­tin Gar­diner was award­ed the Council’s Com­mu­ni­ty Ser­vice Award, Indi­vid­ual Category.

The Award was pre­sent­ed at the Cit­i­zen­ship Cer­e­mo­ny on 1 July, 1991.

The Coun­cil intro­duced the Annu­al Report giv­ing details of achieve­ments through­out the year and the finan­cial situation.

At the end of Jan­u­ary, 1992, Town Clerk Roy Mitchell retired after ten years’ ser­vice and was replaced by Allan McGill in March 1992.

Coun­cil approved, in prin­ci­ple, a five-year reha­bil­i­ta­tion pro­gram for the roads in the indus­tri­al area, start­ing in the ¹⁹⁹¹⁄₉₂ year.

Coun­cil assist­ed a num­ber of com­mu­ni­ty organ­i­sa­tions with grants, includ­ing, RSL Works Crick­et Club, Holyoake Insti­tute, Cen­tralian Res­i­den­tial Ser­vices, Dis­abil­i­ty Infor­ma­tion Group, and Cen­tral Aus­tralian Eisteddfod Council.

High­lights of the year included:

The imple­men­ta­tion of the series of tele­vi­sion com­mer­cials pro­mot­ing bet­ter com­mu­ni­ty rela­tions was a great achieve​ment​.It was made pos­si­ble through the efforts of the Coun­cil, Tan­gen­tyere Coun­cil, and the Com­mon­wealth Government.The adop­tion of the sports par­tic­i­pa­tion levy as rec­om­mend­ed by the Sports Facil­i­ties Advi­so­ry Com­mit­tee changed the approach to the plan­ning and fund­ing of facil­i­ties .The new ani­mal con­trol bylaws were intro­duced along with the rev­o­lu­tion­ary new microchip implant­i­ng method of registration.The new bylaws pro­vid­ed greater abil­i­ty to deal with dog com­plaints and allowed for the issue of infringe­ment notices.The upgrad­ing of the Council’s com­put­er facil­i­ties took place through­out the year and now pro­duces a mod­ern and ver­sa­tile com­put­erised infor­ma­tion facil­i­ty that replaces the old equip­ment after ten years of service.