I had a bit of fun redesigning Sydney's local council areas. The idea was not "how do we improve on the current", but rather from a localised psychological point of view. I have never met a person who said "I live in the Bayside LGA", but a lot who would say "I live in the St George area". People who live east of Old Northern Road but west of Berowra Creek, or in Northmead still say "I live in the Hills District" (different to the Hills Shire or Northern Parramatta).
I'm guessing no one says that they live in Bradfield, but the current aspirations is for a lot of people to call it home, separate to Liverpool.
On the map I put the current LGAs in grey. There is no lore or convention about the naming, I was just having fun.
Posted by ScoutyDave
35 Comments
Fuck Burwood. Canada Bay represent
Fuck strathfeild. All my homies hate strathfeild /s
Putting Cabramatta, Canley Vale and Bonnyrigg in the Liverpool LGA is insane work tbh. Those three suburbs could not be further from the Liverpool identity
Nice try OP but as someone who has lived in Carlingford for yonks, its much better being part of Parramatta as I feel that you get a bit more for your rates, plus its closer to Parra anyway than Baulko or Castle Hill.
Never took notice of LGAs til covid and we found out the new invisible boundaries.
Lots of sensible moves I reckon. Always thought it was shameful the way they created a rich man’s Parramatta and a poor man’s Parramatta (a.k.a. Cumberland) in the last reshuffle.
I do say I live in the St George area instead of Georges Rivers Council (even though people tell me I live in the Shire) (Oatley)
Bradfield Aerotropolis… Wut. That’s kinda hilarious.
OP woke up this morning and chose violence.
No, that would make too much sense.
nah seems silly, the ones out west need to be similar size to the ones in the city… population density is coming very close to parity these days.
Royal borough? lol
I mean the borders make more sense than bayside does now. Mascot has nothing to do with Rockdale.
Why did you call Randwick a Royal Borough?
[What’s a Borough?](https://youtu.be/_T_0FYHn0I0?si=w8LreQSmmrEG4YUZ&t=527)
The Royal Borough of Randwick giving off Winnie the Pooh Tuxedo meme vibes.
Sutherland Council doesn’t need some arbitrary amount of the Holsworthy Army Base. That western line makes little sense
In favour of this as it gets me out of the ineptitude and corruption of Liverpool. Hopefully we’d get a separate postcode too!
Realigning Blacktown Councils western borders to line up with Wianamatta/South Creek is quite a bold move, that would absolutely add more population on the Blacktown side more than anything
It really could be cut down even further. Sydney, Bondi, Randwick and Inner West and even Burwood and Bayside could all just be City of Sydney. Brisbane is just one massive LGA
I also don’t like the erasure of Ku-Ring-Gai as a name in favour of just North Shore. There has previously been a proposal for Ku-Ring-Gai and Hornsby to merge.
It could just be Sydney, a North Sydney, a Parramatta, a South Sydney, a Cumberland, a Penrith/Bradfield and a Campbelltown LGA
Ryde here, Hunters hill would never have us 🥲
They sit under Lane Cove electorate now which is much more their vibe
This is mostly how I see it!
Though there’s no “North Shore”, give Lane Cove and Willoughby to North Sydney and give Kuring-Gai to Hornsby
St Mary’s, Oxley Park and Colyton belong with Penrith and throw Erskine Park over to Bradfield
And give Cabra West, Cabra, and Canley back to Fairfield hahaha
As a Burwood resident I am frankly delighted you named it City of Burwood and not City of Strathfield
There are just far too many councils with duplicated job roles. Surely some amalgamations would assist reducing cost of living pressures.
Lane Cove so clearly geographically belonging to Ryde and being out in North Shore anyway is very good.
I’m in favour so long as a wall is built between the Northern Beaches and the rest.
Get busy OP, you’ve got a city to redistribute.
Nice map! Now can you rename suburbs to put all the following together: Field (Strathfield, Belfield, Ashfield, Lindfield, Fairfield etc.), Wood (Burwood, Villawood, Eastwood, Earlwood), Hill (Bellevue Hill, Beverly Hills, Bass Hill, etc.), Hills, Park (Croydon Park, Beverly Park, etc.), Point (Picnic Point, Breakfast Point), Town (Blacktown, Bankstown, Campbelltown, Newtown, etc.), Ham (Cheltenham, Sydnenham, etc.), Heights (Dover Heights, Lucas Heights), Forest (Frenches Forest, Duffys Forest), Matta (Cabramatta, Parramatta, etc.), Dale (Rockdale, Mortdale, etc.), More (Enmore, Stanmore, etc.), Ville (Hurstville, Daceyville, etc.), and so on. So then it is easier to know regions of Sydney, eg you are entering the Villes, the Heights regions etc.
Happy to take lobbying from those in Dover Heights to be the centre of the Heights region. Unsure about the reaction of those in Vaucluse who then find out they now live in Lucas Heights 😂
Still too many councils imo. I see a few that could be consolidated easily.
Obviously the name makes people feel like loss of identity, but really the council role is so uniform that having these many is just unnecessary.
If we could have this kind of reshuffle/amalgamation but not have the limit of 15 councillors per council (ie a reduction in representation for everyone whenever amalgamation occurs)… then sure!
The biggest problem is Blacktown city. It’s the largest city in New South Wales and way too big and disorganised. The part in the north east of Blacktown city by the Hills has multi million dollar homes and the west has ghettoes. Blacktown city is almost 50 times the size of Sydneys smallest LGA, and almost has as many people as the state of Tasmania – thats insane.
Good idea to split prospect reservoir in half.
The only feedback I have is to hand out more fun names like ‘Bradfield Aerotropolis’.
Bastard put me into Blacktown LGA.
Which is impossible because I still have my front teeth.
The bin collection blokes are not going to like you OP
As someone in ku ring gai, I think the boundary with willoughby is currently well made. It marks a real transition from the denser stuff around Chatswood to the leafy burbs and I don’t think that’s a sensible change.
Absolutely loving the naming of all these LGA’s. Bradfield Aerotropolis is fire, The Royal Borough of Randwick is suitably Victorian and overly pretentious, as the area has become. St George is pure and simple, and unifies an area that has realistically only been divided on paper.
It’s very funny that The Sutherland Shire has barely changed at all. Personally I think it would be very funny to give Sandy Point to the City of Liverpool. It’s so disconnected from even the westernmost Shire suburbs of Menai, Barden Ridge, and Alfords Point, and not that far from Holsworthy. The people that live there would crash out so hard at this very reasonable change.
Royal borough of Randwick and Coogee. (used to live in the Royal borough of Kensington and Chelsea.)