City of Darwin

This article is about a local government area in the Northern Territory. For the capital and metropolitan area, see Darwin, Northern Territory.

The City of Darwin is a local government area of the Northern Territory, Australia. It includes the central business district of the capital, Darwin City, and represents two-thirds of its metropolitan population. Located on the traditional land and waterways of the Larrakia people, the city now covers an area of 111 square kilometres (43 sq mi) and in the 2021 census had a population of 80,530 people.

City of Darwin
Local government area
Country	Australia
State	Northern Territory
Region	Metropolitan Darwin
Established	1869
Council seat	Darwin City
Government
• Lord Mayor	Peter Styles (Country Liberal Party)
• Territory electorate	Casuarina, Fannie Bay, Fong Lim, Johnston, Karama, Nightcliff, Port Darwin, Sanderson, Spillett, Wanguri
• Federal division	Solomon
Area
• Total	111 km2 (43 sq mi)
Population
• Total	84,613 (2018)
• Density	762/km2 (1,974/sq mi)
Website	City of Darwin
LGAs around City of Darwin Unincorporated Top End Region Unincorporated Top End Region Unincorporated Top End Region Unincorporated Top End Region City of Darwin Litchfield Unincorporated Top End Region Unincorporated Top End Region Unincorporated Top End Region
Adjoining LGAs

History

The Larrakia people are the traditional owners of the lands and waters in and surrounding the Darwin local government area. Darwin is known as Garramilla in Gulumirrgin, one of the languages of the Larrakia people, but there are many place names within the area.

The first Town and District Council was formed in 1874. The Darwin Town Council was created in 1915. From 1921 the five member Council had been elected on a ratepayer's franchise. In 1930 the Mayor and councillors resigned in protest against the re-introduction of adult suffrage. A caretaker Council was appointed until 1937, when it was abolished at the council's own request.

In 1955 a statement added to the Local Government Ordinance provided for the Constitution of the Municipality of Darwin. In 1957 the council was increased to twelve members and a Mayor.

An annual election providing for the Mayor and half of the Council members to be retired at each election, was also introduced at this time. The first council elections were held on 29 June 1957 and the first elected mayor of Darwin was Lucius (Bill) Richardson. In 1959 an Ordinance provided that the Municipality of Darwin be constituted a city and named 'City of Darwin'.

The first female Mayor of Darwin was Dr Ella Stack, who served as the mayor of Darwin from May 1975 to November 1979, and as Darwin's first Lord Mayor from November 1979.

Wards and councillors

City of Darwin is divided into four wards: Chan, Lyons, Richardson, and Waters (after former Lord Mayors of Darwin, Harry Chan, John "Tiger" Lyons, Lucius (Bill) Richardson, and Ken Waters). These wards are governed by 12 councillors, as well as one directly elected Lord Mayor. Councillors from each ward are elected using a Single Transferable Vote (STV) proportional system.

Wards and councillors
Ward	Councillor	Party		Notes
Chan	Clarence McCarthy-Grogan		Independent
	Julie Fraser		Independent
	Peter Pangquee		Independent
Lyons	Sam Weston		Independent
	Mick Palmer		Independent CLP
	Nicole Brown		Independent
Richardson	Jimmy Bouhoris		Independent Labor
	Shani Carson		Independent
	Edwin Joseph		Independent
Waters	Sylvia Klonaris		Independent
	Patrik Ralph		Independent
	Kim Farrar		Independent

Suburbs

Chan Ward (west)	Lyons Ward (south)	Richardson Ward (north)	Waters Ward (east)	Suburb Map
Coconut Grove Jingili Ludmilla (with Bagot) Millner Moil Nightcliff Rapid Creek	Bayview Charles Darwin (part) Darwin City (part) East Point Fannie Bay Hidden Valley (part) Larrakeyah Parap Stuart Park The Gardens Woolner	Alawa Brinkin Buffalo Creek Casuarina Holmes Leanyer Lee Point Lyons Muirhead Nakara Tiwi Wagaman Wanguri	Anula (with Northlakes) Berrimah (part) Coonawarra Eaton Karama Malak (with Sanderson) Marrara The Narrows Winnellie Wulagi

Most of the suburb of Charles Darwin which is largely occupied by the Charles Darwin National Park reaches outside of the boundaries of the City of Darwin into unincorporated area, as do large parts of Berrimah and Hidden Valley. The last two suburbs, Buffalo Creek and Holmes, were approved in 2007. They are still largely undeveloped, especially Buffalo Creek.

Demographics

Selected historical census data for City of Darwin local government area
Census year		2001	2006	2011	2016	2021
Population	Estimated residents on census night	69,455	66,291	72,930	78,804	80,530
	LGA rank in terms of size within Northern Territory		1st	1st	1st	1st
	% of Northern Territory population	34.26%	34.36%	34.41%	34.44%	34.48%
	% of Australian population	0.37%	0.33%	0.34%	0.34%	0.32%
Cultural and language diversity
Ancestry, top responses	Australian			24.1%	21.2%	24.1%
	English			20.7%	19.8%	25.1%
	Irish			7.2%	7.4%	8.7%
	Australian Aboriginal					7.9%
	Scottish			5.7%	5.6%	7.1%
	Chinese			3.6%	4.1%	6.0%
Language, top responses (other than English)	Greek	3.5%	3.3%	3.4%	3.5%	3.3%
	Tagalog	1.0%		1.6%	2.2%	2.0%
	Cantonese	1.0%	0.9%			-
	Italian	0.8%	0.7%			-
	Hakka	0.8%	0.8%			-
	Indonesian		0.9%	1.0%		-
	Mandarin			1.3%	2.0%	2.2%
	Filipino			1.0%	1.5%	1.4%
	Nepali				1.2%	3.0%
Religious affiliation
Religious affiliation, top responses	Catholic	25.4%	24.7%	24.1%	22.3%	19.0%
	No religion	20.5%	24.0%	25.0%	31.2%	38.9%
	Anglican	14.5%	12.2%	10.6%	7.6%	5.1%
	Uniting	6.5%	5.6%	4.5%		-
	Eastern Orthodox	4.3%	4.1%	4.3%	4.4%	-
Median weekly incomes
Personal income	Median weekly personal income		A$687	A$899	A$1039	A$1111
	% of Australian median income		147.4%	155.8%	157.0%	138.0%
Family income	Median weekly family income		A$1524	A$2063	A$2385	A$2463
	% of Australian median income		130.2%	139.2%	137.5%	116.18%
Household income	Median weekly household income		A$1286	A$1809	A$2164	A$2188
	% of Australian median income		125.2%	146.6%	150.5%	125.32%
Dwelling structure
Dwelling type	Separate house	55.3%	54.9%	54.7%	52.6%	51.8%
	Semi-detached, terrace or townhouse	13.2%	11.9%	15.8%	13.3%	12.9%
	Flat or apartment	23.8%	27.2%	26.7%	31.8%	34.3%

Sister & Friendship cities

The city of Darwin has seven sister cities and four friendship cities. It also has a strategic partnership with Shenzhen, China.

City	State	Country	Year
Kalymnos	South Aegean region	Greece	April 1982
Anchorage	Alaska	United States	July 1982
Ambon	Maluku	Indonesia	October 1988
Haikou	Hainan	China	September 1990
Milikapiti	Northern Territory	Australia	July 1999
Dili	Dili District	East Timor	September 2003
Denpasar	Bali	Indonesia	June 2022

City	State	Country	Year
Honolulu	Hawaii	United States	March 2004
Santa Cruz Island	Galápagos Islands	Ecuador	March 2010
Qingdao	Shandong	China	October 2019
Guangzhou	Guangdong	China	October 2019

External links

• City of Darwin website