Council & Business
8 November, 2024
Three new faces to join Central Goldfields Shire Council as results are announced
Four of the seven elected councillors will soon return to the decision-making table, where they will be joined by three new peers to mark the conclusion of a frenzied election period.
The future of some hotly contested seats is no longer in question after the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) announced the much-awaited results of the Central Goldfields Shire Council elections on Wednesday.
Winning-positions of a number of candidates became clear early on, including that of Liesbeth Long and Gerard Murphy who will accompany Grace La Vella and Anna De Villiers in making their way back to the fold for another four years.
Set to serve alongside the incumbents are first-time councillors Geoffrey Bartlett, Jacob Meyer and Ben Green.
Mr Green won the Paddys Ranges Ward after defeating former councillor Chris Meddows-Taylor by 39 votes following preference distribution.
Based on first preference vote counts, Mr Meddows-Taylor was originally leading the race by a single vote.
At the start of the election, the Paddys Ranges seat had three contenders — Mr Green, Mr Meddows-Taylor, and Greg Corcoran.
Mr Corcoran then attempted to withdraw from the race but since the decision was made after the VEC’s deadline his name still appeared on the ballot.
He received a total of 212 votes, out of which 126 voters put down Mr Green as their second preference, while the remaining 86 picked Mr Meddows-Taylor as their next preferred choice.
Elsewhere, in the Maryborough East Ward competition was also notably tight — with only 50 votes standing between Mr Meyer and opponent Trevor Stevens who received 531 votes.
The same ward also reported the lowest participatory rate in the shire, while recording the highest number of informal votes.
On the opposite end, the most active voters came from the Maryborough North Ward which saw 84.40 percent of enrolled residents cast their vote.
Overall, across the shire, nearly 1400 people did not return their postal ballot packs.
If the VEC were to issue the appropriate fines where relevant, it could see close to $139,000 being spent on penalties.