Upper Hunter Shire

The Upper Hunter Shire is a local government area in the Upper Hunter Valley of New South Wales, Australia. The Shire was formed in May 2004 from the Scone Shire and parts of Murrurundi and Merriwa shires.

The mayor of the Upper Hunter Shire Council is Cr. Maurice Collison, following the sudden resignation of Wayne Bedggood as mayor and as a councillor on 9 June 2020. No reason has been given for the sudden resignation.

Council's General Manager is Greg McDonald.Template:Citation needed

Towns

The towns of the Upper Hunter are Scone, Parkville, Aberdeen, Murrurundi, and Merriwa, as well as several villages, including Bunnan, Gundy, Moonan Flat, Ellerston, Wingen, Blandford and Cassilis. Of the towns, only Aberdeen on the Shire's southeastern border is situated on the Hunter River.

Heritage listings

The Upper Hunter Shire has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:

• Ardglen, Main Northern railway: Ardglen Tunnel<ref name=nswshr-1021>Template:Cite NSW SHR</ref>
• Merriwa, Bow Street: Colonial Cottage Museum<ref name=nswshr-259>Template:Cite NSW SHR</ref>
• Murrurundi, Main Northern railway: Murrurundi railway station<ref name=nswshr-1205>Template:Cite NSW SHR</ref>
• Murrurundi, Mount Street: Rosedale Cottage<ref name=nswshr-421>Template:Cite NSW SHR</ref>
• Scone, 144 Kelly Street: Scone Civic Theatre<ref name=nswshr-1660>Template:Cite NSW SHR</ref>Scone, New South Wales
• Scone, 41 Kingdon Road: Old Court Theatre<ref name=nswshr-340>Template:Cite NSW SHR</ref>
• Scone, Main Northern railway: Scone railway station<ref name=nswshr-1242>Template:Cite NSW SHR</ref>
• Wingen, Raglan Street: Mountain House, Wingen<ref name=nswshr-311>Template:Cite NSW SHR</ref>

Demographics

At the Template:CensusAU, there were 14,229 people in the Upper Hunter Shire local government area, of these 50.0 percent were male and 50.0 percent were female. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 7.0 percent of the population, which was higher than the national and state averages of 3.4 and 3.2 percent respectively. The median age of people in the Upper Hunter Shire was 42 years, which was marginally higher than the national median of 38 years. Children aged 0 – 14 years made up 18.6 percent of the population and people aged 65 years and over made up 21.2 percent of the population. Of people in the area aged 15 years and over, 47.3 per cent were married and 13.1 per cent were either divorced or separated.<ref name=abs2011pop>Template:Census 2011 AUS</ref>

Population growth in the Upper Hunter Shire between the Template:CensusAU and the Template:CensusAU was 6.00 percent. When compared with the total population growth of Australia for the same period, at 8.32 percent, population growth in the Upper Hunter Shire local government area was slightly lower than the national average.<ref name="Census2006"/> The median weekly income for residents within the Upper Hunter Shire was marginally lower than the national average.<ref name=abs2011pop/>

At the Template:CensusAU, the proportion of residents in the Upper Hunter Shire local government area who stated their ancestry as Australian or English exceeded 85 percent of all residents (the national average was 62.9 percent). In excess of 29% of all residents in the Upper Hunter Shire nominated a religious affiliation with Anglican at the Template:CensusAU, which was considerably higher than the national average of 9.8 percent. Meanwhile, as at the Template:CensusAU date, compared to the national average, households in the Upper Hunter Shire local government area had a significantly lower than average proportion (5.3 percent) where two or more languages are spoken (the national average was 24.8 percent); and a significantly higher proportion 89.5 percent where only English was spoken at home (the national average was 72.0 percent).<ref name=abs2011pop/><ref name="Census2021" />

Selected historical census data for the Upper Hunter Shire local government area
Census year			2006<ref name="Census2006">Template:Census 2006 AUS</ref>	2011<ref name=abs2011pop/>	2016<ref name="Census2016">Template:Census 2016 AUS</ref>	2021<ref name="Census2021" />
Population		Estimated residents on Census night	12,976	Template:Gain 13,754	Template:Gain 14,112	14,229
		LGA rank in terms of size within New South Wales
		% of New South Wales population	0.19%	Template:Gain 0.20%	Template:Decrease 0.18%	Template:Decrease 0.17%
		% of Australian population	0.07%	Template:Steady 0.07%	Template:Decrease 0.06%	Template:Decrease 0.05%
Cultural and language diversity
Ancestry, top responses		Australian	Template:Ndash	36.6%	Template:Decrease 35.7%	Template:Increase 45.3%
		English	Template:Ndash	32.4%	Template:Decrease 30.5%	Template:Gain 42.7%
		Irish	Template:Ndash	8.2%	Template:Gain 8.7%	Template:Gain 11.7%
		Scottish	Template:Ndash	7.9%	Template:Decrease 7.6%	Template:Gain 10.5%
		German		2.8%	Template:Steady 2.8%	Template:Ndash
		Australian Aboriginal	Template:Ndash	Template:Ndash	Template:Ndash	6.4%
Language, top responses (other than English)		Mandarin	n/c	0.2%	Template:Gain 0.3%	Template:Gain 0.7%
		Portuguese	n/c	0.2%	Template:Ndash	Template:Steady 0.2%
		Filipino	0.3%	Template:Decrease 0.2%	Template:Gain 0.3%	Template:Steady 0.3%
		Cantonese	0.2%	Template:Loss 0.1%	Template:Gain 0.2%	Template:Steady 0.2%
		Arabic	n/c	Template:Gain 0.1%	Template:Ndash	Template:Ndash
		Tagalog	0.1%	Template:Steady 0.1%	Template:Gain 0.2%	Template:Ndash
		French	Template:Ndash	Template:Ndash	Template:Ndash	0.2%
Religious affiliation
Religious affiliation, top responses		Anglican	41.3%	Template:Loss 39.3%	Template:Loss 35.1%	Template:Loss 29.9%
		Catholic	27.2%	Template:Loss 26.9%	Template:Loss 25.9%	Template:Loss 22.9%
		No Religion	9.7%	Template:Gain 13.4%	Template:Gain 16.7%	Template:Gain 28.8%
		Uniting Church	6.5%	Template:Loss 5.6%	Template:Loss 4.4%	Template:Loss 3.7%
		Presbyterian and Reformed	3.2%	Template:Loss 3.3%	Template:Ndash	Template:Ndash
Median weekly incomes
Personal income		Median weekly personal income	$438	Template:Gain $552	Template:Gain $630	Template:Gain $751
		% of Australian median income	94.0%	Template:Gain 95.7%	Template:Loss 95.1%	Template:Loss 93.2%
Family income		Median weekly family income	Template:AUD1,090	Template:Gain Template:AUD1,392	Template:Gain Template:AUD1,589	Template:Gain Template:AUD1,914
		% of Australian median income	93.1%	Template:Gain 94.0%	Template:Loss 91.6%	Template:Loss 90.2%
Household income		Median weekly household income	Template:AUD882	Template:Gain Template:AUD1,071	Template:Gain Template:AUD1,242	Template:Gain Template:AUD1,429
		% of Australian median income	85.9%	Template:Gain 86.8%	Template:Loss 86.3%	Template:Loss 81.8%

Council

Current composition and election method

Upper Hunter Shire Council is composed of nine councillors elected by Optional Preferential Voting 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 4 December 2021 and the makeup of the council is as follows:<ref name=ABCLG21>Template:Cite news</ref>

Party		Councillor
Template:Australian party style|	Independents	Allison McPhee
Template:Australian party style|	Independents	Maurice Blackburn
Template:Australian party style|	Independents	James Burns
Template:Australian party style|	Independents	Tayah Clout
Template:Australian party style|	Independents	Ron Campbell
Template:Australian party style|	Independents	Elizabeth Flaherty
Template:Australian party style|	Independents	Belinda McKenzie
Template:Australian party style|	Independents	Lee Watts
Template:Australian party style|	Independents	Adam Williamson
Template:Australian party style|	Greens	Sue Abbott
	Total	9

Attractions

The Upper Hunter is the largest horse-rearing region in Australia.

The Burning Mountain Nature Reserve, near Wingen, is the site of a subterranean coal seam fire that has been burning for several thousand years.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

The council also owns several FM rebroadcasters of Radio National and SBS Radio, under the self-help schemes run by those broadcasters.