City of Orange

Orange City Council is composed of twelve Councillors elected proportionally as a single ward. 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 8 September 2012, and the makeup of the Council is as follows:^[3]

Party		Councillors
	Independents and Unaligned	11
	Greens	1
	Total	12

The current Council, elected in 2012, in order of election, is:^[3]

	Party	Notes
Russell Turner	Unaligned
John Davis	Independent	Mayor^[4]
Reg Kidd	Independent
Glenn Taylor	Unaligned
Neil Jones	Greens
Scott Munro	Unaligned	Elected on Russell Turner's ticket
Jason Hamling	Independent	Elected on John Davis' ticket
Ash Brown	Unaligned	Elected on Russell Turner's ticket
Ron Gander	Independent
Kevin Duffy	Unaligned
Chris Gryllis	Independent
Jeff Whitton	Unaligned	Deputy Mayor;^[4] Elected on Glenn Taylor's ticket

A referendum was held on 8 September 2012 and an absolute majority of voters resolved in favour to directly elect the Mayor.^[5] By consequence, the number of Councillors will increase from twelve to thirteen. The change will take effect at the next elections, due to be held in September 2016.

Proposed amalgamation

A 2015 review of local government boundaries recommended that the City of Orange merge with the Cabonne Shire and Blayney Shire Councils to form a new council with an area of 7,833 square kilometres (3,024 sq mi) and support a population of approximately 63,000.^[6] The outcome of the independent review is expected to be completed by mid–2016.

Water resources

Orange has several water sources used for domestic consumption, both currently in use and formerly used. Currently Suma Park Dam and Spring Creek Reservoir are used for domestic water consumption. Two other dams were previously used for domestic water consumption however are now used for recreational purposes, these being Lake Canobolas and Gosling Creek Reservoir. Orange was on Level 5 Water restrictions, however after heavy rain increased capacity from around 20% to 100% restrictions were eased back to level 2.

Orange City Council has undertaken a number of strategies to supplement its supply, including stormwater harvesting.

A 14-megalitre (3,100,000 imp gal; 3,700,000 US gal) batch of harvested stormwater was released into Suma Park Dam on 21 April 2009. The harvested stormwater was tested by Analytical Laboratory Services, an independent laboratory based in Sydney. ALS tested for potential pollutants. The tests revealed that the water quality met all targets, believed to be an Australian first for harvesting stormwater for potable use.

The hardware is in place, operating rules have been developed and environmental factors and impacts on downstream users have been considered. A three-month trial will ensure all these elements are working together to ensure high water quality and environmental standards are met. There are several phases involved in the commissioning period. The hardware, which includes three separate pumping stations, creek flow monitoring points and advanced electronics including fibre optic cables, will undergo further operating tests.

The other elements of the scheme include a weir on Blackmans Swamp Creek, which creates a 3-megalitre (0.66×10^⁶ imp gal; 0.79×10^⁶ US gal) pool and the site for the first pump station, a 200-megalitre (44×10^⁶ imp gal; 53×10^⁶ US gal) dam and two 17-megalitre (3.7×10^⁶ imp gal; 4.5×10^⁶ US gal) batching ponds. The pumps on the creek transfer stormwater to the 200-megalitre (44×10^⁶ imp gal; 53×10^⁶ US gal) dam at a rate of up to 450 megalitres per second (950×10^⁶ cu ft/min) and are designed to rapidly extract peak storm flows from the creek. The operating rules require that a base flow immediately downstream in the creek must be maintained. The creek flow monitoring points ensure these standards are met. The monitoring station also measures when harvesting can commence. The trigger is flows passing the monitor in Blackmans Swamp Creek exceeding 1,000 litres per second (13,000 imp gal/min).

The local mine, Cadia Valley Operations, uses the city's treated effluent to supplement its water supply.

References

↑ "3218.0 – Regional Population Growth, Australia, 2014–15". Australian Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 29 September 2016.
↑ "Orange City Council". Division of Local Government. Retrieved 24 November 2006.
1 2 "Orange City Council: Summary of First Preference and Group Votes for each Candidate". Local Government Elections 2012. Electoral Commission of New South Wales. 15 September 2012. Retrieved 17 October 2012.
1 2 Woodburn, Joanna (21 September 2012). "Sole candidate for Orange City Council's top job". ABC News Central West. Australia. Retrieved 17 October 2012.
↑ "Orange City Council – Referendum". Local Government Elections 2012. Electoral Commission of New South Wales. 13 September 2012. Retrieved 17 October 2012.
↑ "Merger proposal: Blayney Shire Council, Cabonne Shire, Orange City Council" (PDF). Government of New South Wales. January 2016. p. 7. Retrieved 4 March 2016.

Local government areas of New South Wales

Metropolitan Sydney

Inner Sydney	Bayside Hunter's Hill Inner West Lane Cove Mosman North Sydney Randwick Sydney Waverley Willoughby Woollahra

Outer Sydney	Blacktown Burwood Camden Campbelltown Canada Bay Canterbury-Bankstown Cumberland Fairfield Georges River The Hills Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Liverpool Northern Beaches Parramatta Penrith Ryde Strathfield Sutherland

Sydney Surrounds	Blue Mountains Central Coast Hawkesbury Wollondilly

Mid North Coast

Murray

Murrumbidgee

Hunter

Illawarra

Richmond Tweed

Southeastern

Northern

Central West

North Western

Far West

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