The votes are in!

It’s been an eventful election.

Former lord mayor Gordon Bradberry announced he would step away after 13 years in the role, and a Liberal Party snafu resulted in a number of candidates being ineligible to stand for mayoral or councillor roles.

That, in turn, led to a record number of informal votes.

Now the votes that count have been counted, we can introduce you to the new Wollongong City Council.

Unsurprisingly the new council is dominated by Labor candidates. Eight were voted in, including Lord Mayor Tania Brown.

The Greens had a strong showing with one candidate making it onto each ward, and the positions were rounded out with two independent candidates.

Lord Mayor: Tania Brown

For the first time in history Wollongong’s Lord Mayor is a woman – Labor’s Tania Brown.

Tania was first elected to Wollongong City Council in 2017 and was elected as deputy mayor in 2019.

Her priorities this term are to tackle the housing crisis, improve walking and cycling infrastructure and free up the budget to spend more on flood mitigation.

Ward 1:

Ward 1 has elected its first Greens councillor in Jess Whittaker.

Jess ran in 2021, but Ward 1 was hotly contested – it was the home of popular former lord mayor Gordon Bradbery.

Two Labor councillors also made it over the line – Richard Martin and Dan Hayes.

Richard was returned to his council seat. Dan has not been a councillor in Wollongong before, but this isn’t his first foray into politics.

Dan moved to Wollongong in 2023 from Wagga, where he stood for state parliament in 2015, again in the 2018 by-election and the subsequent poll in 2019.

He was first elected to Wagga City Council on a Labor Party ticket in 2016.

Independent candidate, and newcomer to politics, Ryan Morris, is the fourth candidate for Ward 1. He beat out Martin Cubby to secure the final spot by 2122 votes.

A nudge under 85 per cent of voters in this ward turned out, and 10 per cent of those submitted informal votes.

Ward 2:

In Ward 2 the first councillor elected was also a member of The Greens – Kit Docker.

Returning councillor, Labor’s David Brown (no relation to incoming Lord Mayor Tania Brown) received the next highest number of votes.

Independent councillor Andrew Anthony came in third. It’s been a while since he was elected as a councillor – more than a decade, in fact.

Newcomer, Labor’s Thomas Quinn was the fourth councillor elected for Ward 2 – 7727 votes clear of James Caldwell, who failed to secure a seat.

About 82 per cent of voters submitted a ballot paper in Ward 2, and about eight per cent of those were informal votes.

Ward 3:

The Greens were top of the pops again in Ward 3, with Deirdre Stuart.

Labor councillor Ann Martin was reelected, as was Labor’s Linda Campbell.

The final spots on Ward 3 also went to Labor, with Tiana Myers making her debut as a councillor. She beat The Greens’ Jamie Dixon for the final spot by 6205 votes.

Eighty-five per cent of voters turned out in Ward 3, but an enormous 15 per cent of those submitted informal votes.