Mayor facts

The first Mayor of Strathfield was George Hardie in 1885. Hardie only served less than a year as Councils were forced to remove two Alderman by picking a name from a hat each year. Hardie’s name was chosen from the hat and he stepped down from Council. He, however, acted as the Returning Officer for the next election.

Longest Serving Mayors

The longest serving Mayor was Thomas Mackenzie who served 2575 days, from 14 February 1898 to 4 February 1902 and 11 January 1908 to 7 February 1911.

Clarrie Edwards is the longest serving Mayor  in terms of successive sequential terms.  He served from 28 September 1976 to 4 October 1983, servicing seven successive yearly terms.   He served a total of 2563 days. Edwards managed the Homebush Newsagency in Rochester Street Homebush.

The next longest was Colin Hudson, Master Builder of firm Loveridge & Hudson.  Hudson served 2226 days from 7 December 1943 to 12 January 1950.

John Robert Firth served 2204 days as Mayor.  Served from 18 January 1916 to 20 January 1917 and 6 February 1927 to 13 December 1932.

Parliamentary Service

  • Thomas Mackenzie was an Alderman on Strathfield Council (1892-1911), Mayor of Strathfield (1898-1901, 1908-10) and Member for the Electorate of Canterbury in NSW Parliament (1901-07).
  • Virginia Judge was a Councillor on Strathfield Council (1995-2004), Mayor (2000-2003) and elected to NSW Parliament as Member for the Electorate of Strathfield (2003-2011).

First Females

The first female Mayor was Eve Dutton in 1992. The first female Alderman was Eileen Stirk in 1967.

Family involvement

Strathfield Mayor Harvey Ford (1965-66) was grandson of Ebenezer Ford, long serving Mayor of Enfield Council, which later amalgamated with Strathfield Council.

Multiple Council Involvements

  • George Thompson, Alderman on the first Strathfield Council was later Mayor of Albury.
  • John Elvy, Mayor of Strathfield, also was an Alderman on the City of Sydney Council.
  • Frank Zions, Mayor of Strathfield, was later an Alderman on Burwood Council.
  • Guiana Vaccari, Mayor of Strathfield, previously served as a Councillor on Ashfield Council.
  • Antoine Doeuhi, Mayor of Strathfield, previously served as a Councillor on Burwood Council.

Street and Park Naming

Most parks and many streets in Strathfield are named after former Mayors. Some streets and parks are named for Alderman usually because they died while in office eg Boden Reserve, Humphries Reserve and Edwards Park.

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