Ku-ring-gai Council is a local government area in Northern Sydney (Upper North Shore), in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The area is named after a fictional Aboriginal language group.

Major transport routes through the area include the Pacific Highway and North Shore railway line. Because of its good soils and elevated position as part of the Hornsby Plateau, Ku-ring-gai was originally covered by a large area of dry sclerophyll forest, parts of which still remain and form a component of the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. There are also many domestic gardens in the residential parts of Ku-ring-gai.

The mayor of Ku-ring-gai Council is Sam Ngai, an independent politician, elected on 19 September 2023.

The council comprises an area of 86 square kilometres (33 sq mi), and as at the 2021 census, had an estimated population of 124,076. Ku-ring-gai is the most advantaged area in Australia to live in, at the top of the Index of Relative Socio-economic Advantage and Disadvantage (IRSAD).

Suburbs and localities in the local government area

Suburbs and localities serviced by Ku-ring-gai Council are:

Demographics

At the 2021 census, there were 124,076 people in the Ku-ring-gai Council local government area, of these 48.2 per cent were male and 51.8 per cent were female. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 0.2 per cent of the population, significantly below the national average of 3.2 per cent. The median age of people in the Ku-ring-gai Council area was 42 years; slightly above the national average of 38 years. Children aged 0 – 14 years made up 19.5 per cent of the population and people aged 65 years and over made up 19.3 per cent of the population. Of people in the area aged 15 years and over, 60.7 per cent were married and 7.2 per cent were either divorced or separated; a rate that is more than half the national average.

Population growth in the Ku-ring-gai Council area between the 2001 census and the 2006 census was 0.93 per cent and in the subsequent five years to the 2011 census, population growth was 8.13 per cent. At the 2021 census, the population in the Ku-ring-gai Council area increased by 5.1 per cent. When compared with total population growth of Australia for the same period, being 8.6 per cent, population growth in the Ku-ring-gai local government area is slower than the national average. The median weekly income for residents within the Ku-ring-gai Council area was significantly higher than the national average.

At the 2021 census, the area was linguistically diverse, with Asian languages spoken in more than 20 per cent of households; more than four times the national average.

Selected historical census data for Ku-ring-gai Council local government area
Census year		2001	2006	2011	2016	2021
Population	Estimated residents on census night	100,152	101,083	109,297	118,053	124,076
	LGA rank in terms of size within New South Wales			21st	22nd	23rd
	% of New South Wales population			1.58%	1.58%	1.58%
	% of Australian population	0.53%	0.51%	0.51%	0.50%	0.50%
Cultural and language diversity
Ancestry, top responses	English			34.2%	32.5%	29.6%
	Australian			28.8%	25.0%	23.0%
	Chinese			11.9%	17.7%	23.5%
	Irish			10.3%	10.3%	8.7%
	Scottish			9.6%	9.3%	8.6%
Language, top responses (other than English)	Cantonese	4.8%	4.7%	4.9%	5.0%	5.5%
	Mandarin	1.7%	2.3%	3.8%	8.7%	13.1%
	Korean	1.3%	1.5%	2.1%	2.5%	2.5%
	Persian (excluding Dari)	n/c	n/c	0.7%	1.0%	1.3%
	Japanese	0.9%	0.7%	0.7%	0.8%	0.8%
	Hindi				0.7%	0.9%
Religious affiliation
Religious affiliation, top responses	No religion, so described	13.7%	16.3%	21.8%	31.0%	40.8%
	Catholic	20.9%	21.7%	21.1%	18.9%	16.6%
	Anglican	28.9%	27.1%	23.9%	18.8%	15.2%
	Not stated	n/c	n/c	n/c	7.7%	4.1%
	Uniting Church	8.7%	7.7%	6.3%	4.7%	3.7%
Median weekly incomes
Personal income	Median weekly personal income		A$716	A$814	A$942	A$1,117
	% of Australian median income		153.6%	141.1%	142.3%	138.8%
Family income	Median weekly family income		A$2,147	A$2,679	A$3,046	A$3,447
	% of Australian median income		209.1%	180.9%	175.7%	162.6%
Household income	Median weekly household income		A$2,530	A$2,508	A$2,640	A$3,038
	% of Australian median income		216.1%	203.2%	183.6%	174.0%

Council

Current composition and election method

Ku-ring-gai Council is composed of ten councillors elected proportionally as five separate wards, each electing two councillors. All councillors are elected for a fixed four-year term of office, but due to delays as a result of amalgamation processes, the current term will only run for three years. The mayor is elected bi-annually by the councillors at the first meeting of the council, while the deputy mayor is elected annually. The most recent full council election was held on 4 December 2021, and the makeup of the council is as follows:

The current council, elected in 2021, in order of election by ward, is:

Ward	Councillor		Party	Notes
Comenarra Ward		Jeff Pettett	Independent	Elected 2012 (as Liberal Democrat), Independent from 2017; Deputy Mayor 2018–2019; Mayor 2022–2023.
		Greg Taylor	Independent
Gordon Ward		Barbara Ward	Independent	Deputy Mayor 2022–2023.
		Simon Lennon	Independent Liberal
Roseville Ward		Sam Ngai	Independent	Elected 2017; Deputy Mayor 2021–2022; Mayor 2023–present.
		Alec Taylor	Independent
St Ives Ward		Martin Smith	Independent	Elected 2017.
		Christine Kay	Independent	Elected 2017; Deputy Mayor 2023–present.
Wahroonga Ward		Cedric Spencer	Unaligned	Elected 2017; Deputy Mayor 2020–2021; Mayor 2021–2022.
		Kim Wheatley	Independent

Election results

2021

Council history

Ku-ring-gai was first incorporated on 6 March 1906 as the "Shire of Ku-ring-gai" and the first Shire Council was elected on 24 November 1906. The first leader of the council was elected at the first meeting on 8 December 1906, when Councillor William Cowan was elected as Shire President. There would not be a Deputy President until the council election on 1 March 1920.

On 22 September 1928, the Shire of Ku-ring-gai was proclaimed as the "Municipality of Ku-ring-gai" and the titles of 'Shire President' and 'Councillor' were retitled to be 'Mayor' and 'Alderman' respectively. In 1993, with the passing of a new Local Government Act, council was retitled as simply "Ku-ring-gai Council" and aldermen were retitled as councillors.

A 2015 review of local government boundaries by the NSW Government Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal recommended that Ku-ring-gai Council and parts of the Hornsby Shire north of the M2 merge to form a new council with an area of 540 square kilometres (210 sq mi) and support a population of approximately 270,000. The Ku-ring-gai Council took the NSW Government to court and, on appeal, the NSW Court of Appeal found that the council had been denied procedural fairness. The proposed merger was stood aside indefinitely. In July 2017, the Berejiklian government decided to abandon the forced merger of the Hornsby and Ku-ring-gai local government areas, along with several other proposed forced mergers.

Planning and development

During the term of former Planning Minister, Frank Sartor, planning law reforms were passed that gave development approval to a panel and away from local government. These new laws were controversially implemented in Ku-ring-gai, with immense opposition from the local population who claim that their suburbs, with nationally recognised heritage values in both housing and original native forest, are being trashed by slab-sided apartment developments with no effective protection provided by either the Ku-ring-gai Council or the state government. This has been termed "The Rape of Ku-ring-gai".

The laws are intended to take development approval power away from local councils and to the Planning NSW, via the development panels. Planning panels are about to be introduced across New South Wales under recently passed planning reforms. In 2005–06, Ku-ring-gai had the second highest reported total development value in the state – A$1.7 billion, more than Parramatta, second only to the City of Sydney.

Shire Clerks, Town Clerks and General Managers

Name	Term	Notes
Edward Astley	21 June 1906 – 31 August 1911
James A. Gilroy	1 September 1911 – March 1925
Arthur Havelock Hirst	March 1925 – 18 November 1947
Norman L. Griffiths	18 November 1947 – 22 September 1969
Frederick E. Newton	22 September 1969 – 5 October 1970
Graham Joss	5 October 1970 – 16 August 1971
Lyndhurst Evelyn Whalan	16 August 1971 – 12 November 1973
Warren Taylor	12 November 1973 – 1993
Joseph Robert Diffen	1993–1997
Rhonda Bignell	1997–2002
Brian Bell	2002 – February 2006
John McKee	1 March 2006 – present

Heritage listings

Ku-ring-gai Council has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:

• Gordon, 17 McIntosh Street: Eryldene, Gordon
• Gordon, Middlemiss Street: Gordon railway station, Sydney
• Gordon, 691 Pacific Highway: Iolanthe, Gordon
• Gordon, 707 Pacific Highway: Tulkiyan
• Gordon, 799 Pacific Highway: Gordon Public School (former)
• Killara, 13 Kalang Avenue: Harry and Penelope Seidler House
• Killara, 1 Werona Avenue: Woodlands, Killara
• Lindfield, 33 Tryon Road: Tryon Road Uniting Church
• Pymble, Pacific Highway: Pymble Reservoirs No. 1 and No. 2
• Pymble, 982-984 Pacific Highway: Pymble Substation
• Pymble, 29 Telegraph Road: Eric Pratten House
• Turramurra, 17 Boomerang Street: Ingleholme
• Turramurra, 43 Ku-Ring-Gai Avenue: Cossington (Turramurra)
• Wahroonga, 62 Boundary Road: Jack House, Wahroonga
• Wahroonga, 69-71 Clissold Road: Rose Seidler House
• Wahroonga, 61-65 Coonanbarra Road: St John's Uniting Church, Wahroonga
• Wahroonga, 16 Fox Valley Road: Purulia, Wahroonga
• Wahroonga, 69 Junction Road: Evatt House
• Wahroonga, North Shore railway: Wahroonga railway station
• Wahroonga, 1526 Pacific Highway: Mahratta, Wahroonga
• Wahroonga, 1678 Pacific Highway and Woonona Avenue: Wahroonga Reservoir
• Wahroonga, 23 Roland Avenue: Simpson-Lee House I
• Wahroonga, 14 Woonona Avenue: The Briars, Wahroonga

See also

• Local government areas of New South Wales
• WildThings, a 2004 urban fauna translocation program