Former local government area of South Australia from 1932 to 1988
The District Council of Laura was a
local government area in
South Australia. It was created on 1 May 1932 with the amalgamation of the
Corporate Town of Laura and the
District Council of Booyoolie.[1] It reunited the whole cadastral Hundred of Booyoolie within the same district council, as had previously been the case when the Booyoolie council was first proclaimed in 1876.[2][1] The Laura merger had occurred after a much broader 1931 merger proposal, which would have seen the Corporate Town of Laura,
District Council of Gladstone,
Corporate Town of Gladstone and
District Council of Caltowie merge into a drastically enlarged District Council of Booyoolie, was abandoned after meeting strong opposition from both the Laura and Gladstone communities.[3]
The council chambers were initially located in the Laura Town Hall, which had formerly been the Laura Institute.[3] It was divided into six wards, each electing one councillor: East Laura, North Laura and West Laura Wards in Laura itself, and South (later Pine Creek), Stone Hut and Whyte Cliff Wards in the rural areas.[4][3] The council area had a total population of 1,062 persons in 1936.[2] The earlier town hall was replaced by a new Civic Centre in 1968. Amongst the council's later projects was a 1980s-era collaboration with the South Australian Housing Trust to build a number of pensioner cottages in the town.[3] The council ceased to exist on 1 May 1988 when it merged with the
District Council of Georgetown and the
District Council of Gladstone to form the short-lived
District Council of Rocky River.[5]