76-647: 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
152-481: A landfill that was in proximity to abandoned coal mines, including the much-publicized Centralia, Pennsylvania , fire, which has been burning since 1962. Of the hundreds of mine fires in the United States burning today, most are found in the state of Pennsylvania . Some fires along coal seams are natural occurrences. Some coals may self-ignite at temperatures as low as 40 °C (104 °F) for brown coal in
228-577: A unitary authority , but the Australian Bureau of Statistics refers to the whole of the ACT as an unincorporated area. The ACT Government directorate Transport Canberra & City Services handles responsibilities that are under the purview of local government in other parts of Australia, such as local road maintenance, libraries and waste collection. Many Canberra districts have community organisations called "community councils", but these are not part of
304-458: A database (AMLIS), which in 1999 listed 150 fire zones. In mid-2010, according to OSM, more than 100 fires were burning beneath nine states, most of them in Colorado, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Utah and West Virginia. Some geologists say that many fires go unreported, so that the actual number of them may be nearer to 200, across 21 states. In Pennsylvania, 45 fire zones are known, the most famous being
380-423: A fire requires fuel, oxygen, and heat . As underground fires are very difficult to reach directly, fire fighting involves finding an appropriate methodology which addresses the interaction of fuel and oxygen for the specific fire in question. A fire can be isolated from its fuel source, for example through firebreaks or fireproof barriers. Many fires, particularly those on steep slopes, can be completely excavated. In
456-586: A geographic or historical interpretation. The council board members are generally known as councillors , and the head councillor is called the mayor . As of August 2016, there were 547 local councils in Australia. Despite the single tier of local governance in Australia, there are a number of extensive regions with relatively low populations that are not a part of any established LGA. Powers of local governments in these unincorporated areas may be exercised by special-purpose governing bodies established outside of
532-535: A larger workload. The growth of the Regional Organisations of Councils has also been a factor in local government reform in Australia. In 1995, there were 50 such agreements across the country. A 2002 study identified 55 ROCs with the largest involving 18 councils. Local government powers are determined by state governments, and states have primary responsibility for funding and exclusive responsibility for supervision of local councils. Local government
608-555: A minuscule fraction of the country has been surveyed for coal fires. The best data available come from a study based on systematic, on-the-ground observation. In 1998, a total of 125 coal fires were located and mapped within a 2-kilometre strip either side of a 100-kilometre stretch of road north of Balikpapan to Samarinda in East Kalimantan, using hand-held Global Positioning System (GPS) equipment. Extrapolating this data to areas on Borneo and Sumatra underlain by known coal deposits, it
684-414: A near-surface coal-seam fire, its location and underground extent should be determined as precisely as possible. Besides studying the geographic, geologic and infrastructural context, information can be gained from direct measurements. These include: Underground coal mines can be equipped with permanently installed sensor systems. These relay pressure, temperature, airflow and gas composition measurements to
760-473: A number of heritage-listed sites, including: At the 2021 census , 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
836-459: A once-quenched fire as the area dries. Accordingly, more energy must be removed than the fire generates. In practice these methods are combined, and each case depends on the resources available. This is especially true for water, for example in arid regions, and for covering material, such as loess or clay, to prevent contact with the atmosphere. Extinguishing underground coal fires, which sometimes exceed temperatures of 540 °C (1,000 °F),
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#1732884478617912-488: A part of the city of Zwickau , a coal seam that had been burning since 1476 was only quenched in 1860. In Dudweiler , Saarland, a coal-seam fire ignited around 1668 and is still burning. This so-called Burning Mountain (" Brennender Berg ") soon became a tourist attraction and was even visited by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe . Also well-known is the so-called Stinksteinwand ( stinking stone wall ) in Schwalbenthal on
988-872: A problem which has gained international attention. In Saint-Etienne coal basin, five burning hills (montagnes de feu) have been described from the early 17th Century to the early 19th century around the city of Saint-Etienne. Some of these fires were reported burning for 3 centuries. Most of them were extinguished in 1785 These old burning hills correspond today to the Mont Salson , Bois d'Avaize and Cote Chaude in Saint-Etienne, la colline du Brûlé in la Ricamarie and Le mont du Feu (Mount of fire) in Genilac. The fire in Genilac lasted 30 years from 1740. Outcrops of pyrometamorphic rocks generated by these fires are visible today on Mont Salson and bois d'Avaize . In Planitz, now
1064-407: A serious health and safety hazard, affecting the environment by releasing toxic fumes; reigniting grass, brush, or forest fires; and causing subsidence of surface infrastructure such as roads, railways, pipelines, electric lines, bridge supports, buildings, and homes. Whether started by humans or by natural causes, coal-seam fires continue to burn for decades, centuries, or even millennia, until one of
1140-403: A shift from 'services to property' towards 'services to people'. Community expectations of local government in Australia have risen in the 21st century partly as a result of wider participation in decision-making and transparent management practices. Recent years have seen some State governments devolving additional powers onto LGAs. In Queensland and Western Australia LGAs have been granted
1216-405: A spark of static electricity to ignite the gas and start a coal explosion and fire. The same gas static is well known in ships and care has to be taken to ensure no such static sparking can occur. Two basic factors determine whether spontaneous combustion occurs or not, the ambient temperature and the grain size: Wildfires (lightning-caused or others) can ignite the coal close to the surface or
1292-492: Is both highly dangerous and very expensive. Near-surface coal-seam fires are routinely extinguished in China following a standard method basically consisting of the following phases: Efforts are underway to refine this method, for example with additives to the quenching water or with alternative extinguishing agents. Underground coal-seam fires are customarily quenched by inertisation through mine rescue personnel. Toward this end
1368-522: 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: The Upper Hunter is the largest horse-rearing region in Australia. The Burning Mountain Nature Reserve, near Wingen ,
1444-517: Is mentioned in the annotated Australian constitution, as a department of the State Governments, and they are mentioned in the constitutions of each of the six states. Under the Constitution, the federal government cannot provide funding directly to local governments; a 1974 referendum sought to amend the Constitution to authorise the federal government to directly fund local governments, but it
1520-447: Is part of a local government area. Unincorporated areas are often in remote locations, cover vast areas, or have very small populations. Queensland and Tasmania are entirely partitioned into LGAs and have no unincorporated areas. The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) has no municipalities. The ACT government is responsible for both state-level and local-level matters. In some countries, such an arrangement would be referred to as
1596-504: Is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state/territory it belongs to. The functions and practices of local councils are mostly centered around managing public services and land uses at the community level, and are similar throughout Australia, but can vary to some degree between jurisdictions. State departments oversee the activities of local councils and may intervene in their affairs when needed, subject to relevant legislation. For more details in each state and territory, see
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#17328844786171672-631: Is the City of Brisbane , the most populous LGA in the country, which administers a significant part of the Brisbane metropolitan area . In most cases, when a city's population statistics are used, it is the statistical division population rather than the local government area. The following table provides a summary of local government areas by states and territories by local government area types as of December 2023: The Australian Classification of Local Governments (ACLG) categorises local governing authorities using
1748-480: Is the site of a subterranean coal seam fire that has been burning for several thousand years. The council also owns several FM rebroadcasters of Radio National and SBS Radio , under the self-help schemes run by those broadcasters. Local government in Australia [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Local government is the third level of government in Australia , administered with limited autonomy under
1824-566: Is virtually certain these fires ignited new coal-seam fires. In 1944, Longyearbyen Mine #2 on Svalbard was set alight by sailors from the German battleship Tirpitz on its final sortie outside of Norwegian coastal waters. The mine continued to burn for 20 years, while some of the areas were subsequently mined from the reconstructed Mine #2b. Many coalfields in the US are subject to spontaneous ignition. The federal Office of Surface Mining (OSM) maintains
1900-410: The 2006 census and the 2011 census 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. The median weekly income for residents within the Upper Hunter Shire was marginally lower than the national average. At the 2021 census ,
1976-421: The 2021 census 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). Upper Hunter Shire Council
2052-598: The Centralia mine fire in the Centralia mine in the hard coal region of Columbia County, which has been burning since 1962. Burning Mine, near Summit Hill , caught fire in 1859. In Colorado, coal fires have arisen as a consequence of fluctuations in the groundwater level, which can increase the temperature of the coal up to 300 °C, enough to cause it to spontaneously ignite . The Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana contains some 800 billion tons of brown coal, and
2128-550: The Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804 to 1806) reported fires there. Fires have been a natural occurrence in this area for about three million years and have shaped the landscape. For example, an area about 4,000 square kilometres in size is covered with coal clinker , some of it in Theodore Roosevelt National Park , where there is a spectacular view of fiery red coal clinker from Scoria Point. The novel Germinal by
2204-639: The Local Government Act does not mandate adopting a designation, some local government areas are legally known simply as "council", such as Port Macquarie-Hastings Council , Inner West Council and Federation Council . Some rural areas in South Australia are known as "district council", and all the LGAs in Tasmania that were previously municipalities have been renamed "council". Almost all local councils have
2280-593: The Outback Communities Authority . Victoria has a number of unincorporated areas which are not part of any LGA: Western Australia has two unincorporated areas: Coal seam fire A coal-seam fire is a burning of an outcrop or underground coal seam . Most coal-seam fires exhibit smouldering combustion, particularly underground coal-seam fires, because of limited atmospheric oxygen availability. Coal-seam fire instances on Earth date back several million years. Due to thermal insulation and
2356-703: The Pastoral Unincorporated Area in South Australia . Local governments are subdivisions of the six federated states as well as the Northern Territory . The Australian Capital Territory has no separate local government, and municipal functions in Canberra and the surrounding regions (normally performed by local governments in other states) are performed by the ACT territorial government. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), however, considers
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2432-759: The Top End region, the Northern Territory Rates Act Area and Darwin Waterfront Precinct within Darwin , Nhulunbuy on the Gove Peninsula , Alyangula on Groote Eylandt , and Yulara in Central Australia . In South Australia , 63% of the state's area is unincorporated. Residents in this area – less than 0.2% of the state's population – receive municipal services provided by a state agency,
2508-645: The United States , there is only one tier of local government in each Australian state/territory, with no distinction between counties and cities . The Australian local government is generally run by a council , and its territory of public administration is referred to generically by the Australian Bureau of Statistics as the local government area or LGA , each of which encompasses multiple suburbs or localities (roughly equivalent to neighborhoods) often of different postcodes ; however, stylised terms such as "city", " borough ", " region " and " shire " also have
2584-527: The states and territories , and in turn beneath the federal government . Local government is not mentioned in the Constitution of Australia , and two referendums in 1974 and 1988 to alter the Constitution relating to local government were unsuccessful. Every state/territory government recognises local government in its own respective constitution . Unlike the two-tier local government system in Canada or
2660-535: The French novelist Emile Zola describes a fictional coal fire called Le Tartaret . The 1991 film Nothing but Trouble , directed and co-written by Dan Aykroyd , features a town, Valkenvania, that has an underground coal fire that has been burning for decades. The judge of the town references the constantly burning coal-mine fire as the source of his hatred of financiers. In the TV show Scorpion , Season 3, Episode 23 ,
2736-422: 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. Population growth in the Upper Hunter Shire between
2812-514: The affected area is isolated by dam constructions in the galleries. Then an inert gas, usually nitrogen, is introduced, usually making use of available pipelines. In 2004, the Chinese government claimed success in extinguishing a mine fire at a colliery near Urumqi in China's Xinjiang province that had been burning since 1874. However, a March 2008 Time magazine article quotes researcher Steven Q. Andrews as saying, "I decided to go to see how it
2888-503: The avoidance of rain/snow extinguishment by the crust, underground coal-seam fires are the most persistent fires on Earth and can burn for thousands of years, like Burning Mountain in Australia. Coal-seam fires can be ignited by self-heating of low-temperature oxidation, lightning, wildfires and even arson. Coal-seam fires have been slowly shaping the lithosphere and changing atmosphere, but this pace has become faster and more extensive in modern times, triggered by mining. Coal fires are
2964-456: The case of near-surface coal-seam fires, the influx of oxygen in the air can be interrupted by covering the area or installing gas-tight barriers. Another possibility is to hinder the outflow of combustion gases so that the fire is quenched by its own exhaust fumes. Energy can be removed by cooling, usually by injecting large amounts of water. However, if any remaining dry coal absorbs water, the resulting heat of absorption can lead to re-ignition of
3040-698: The climate in parts of Indonesia becomes exceptionally dry from June to November due to the El Niño–Southern Oscillation off the west coast of South America. Since 1982, fire has been a recurring feature on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, burning large areas in 1987, 1991, 1994, 1997–1998, 2001 and 2004. In October 2004 smoke from land clearing again covered substantial portions of Borneo and Sumatra, disrupting air travel, increasing hospital admissions, and extending to portions of Brunei, Singapore and Malaysia. Coal outcrops are so common in Indonesia it
3116-518: The country as well as the surrounding areas due to land subsidence and pollution. Coal and peat fires in Indonesia are often ignited by forest fires near deposits at the surface. It is difficult to determine when a forest fire is started by a coal-seam fire, or vice versa. The most common cause of forest fires and haze in Indonesia is intentional burning of forest to clear land for plantation crops of pulp wood, rubber and palm oil. No accurate count of coal-seam fires has been completed in Indonesia. Only
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3192-576: The eastern slope of the Hoher Meißner , where several seams caught fire centuries ago after lignite coal mining ceased; combustion gas continues to reach the surface. In India, as of 2010, 68 fires were burning beneath a 58-square-mile (150 km ) region of the Jharia coalfield in Dhanbad, Jharkhand . Mine fires started in this region in 1916 and are rapidly destroying the only source of prime coking coal in
3268-450: The entire ACT as an " unincorporated " local government area, even though it is technically a state-level administrative region . Although all essentially identical in functions and jurisdictions, Australian local governments have a variety of different titles. The term "local government area" (LGA) is used by the ABS to collectively refer to all local government administrative zones regardless of
3344-497: The entrance of a mine, and the smouldering fire can spread through the seam, creating subsidence that may open further seams to oxygen and spawn future wildfires when the fire breaks to the surface. Prehistoric clinker outcrops in the American West are the result of prehistoric coal fires that left a residue that resists erosion better than the matrix, leaving buttes and mesa . It is estimated that Australia's Burning Mountain ,
3420-504: The first half of the 20th century was the provision of physical infrastructure such as roads, bridges and sewerage. From the 1970s the emphasis changed to community facilities such as libraries and parks, maintenance of local roads, town planning and development approvals, and local services such as waste disposal. Child care, tourism and urban renewal were also beginning to be part of local governments' role. These are financed by collection of local land taxes known as "rates", and grants from
3496-448: The first time. Significant reforms took place in the 1980s and 1990s in which state governments used metrics and efficiency analysis developed within the private sector in the local government arena. Each state conducted an inquiry into the benefits of council amalgamations during the 1990s. In the early 1990s, Victoria saw the number of local councils reduced from 210 to 78. South Australia, Tasmania and Queensland saw some reductions in
3572-432: The following occurs: either the fuel source is exhausted, a permanent groundwater table is encountered, the depth of the burn becomes greater than the ground's capacity to subside and vent, or humans intervene. Because they burn underground, coal-seam fires are extremely difficult and costly to extinguish, and are unlikely to be suppressed by rainfall. There are strong similarities between coal fires and peat fires . Across
3648-415: The following: The Australian Capital Territory is not divided into local government areas, so it is regarded as a single "unincorporated" local government area during censusing . Unlike many other countries, Australia has only one level of local government immediately beneath state and territorial governments. Aside from very sparsely populated areas and a few other special cases, almost all of Australia
3724-496: The government (though they generally receive government funding). They do not have the power to change laws or policies, and their role is limited to advising government. They are effectively residents' associations . New South Wales has three unincorporated areas: In the Northern Territory , 1.47% of the total area and 3.0% of the population are in unincorporated areas. These include the Cox-Daly and Marrakai-Douglas Daly areas in
3800-608: The local legislation, as with Victoria 's alpine resorts ; or directly administered by state/territory governments, such as the entirety of the Australian Capital Territory . The administrative area covered by local government councils in Australia ranges from as small as 1.5 km (0.58 sq mi) for the Shire of Peppermint Grove in the Perth metropolitan region , to as big as 624,339 km (241,059 sq mi) for
3876-425: The market, including heat-resistant grouts and a fire-smothering nitrogen foam , with other innovative solutions on the way. Some of the more notable mine fires around the world are listed below. In China, the world's largest coal producer with an annual output around 2.5 billion tons, coal fires are a serious problem. It has been estimated that some 10–200 million tons of coal uselessly burn annually, and that
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#17328844786173952-540: The mayor is elected by the board of fellow councillors . The powers of mayors vary as well; for example, mayors in Queensland have broad executive functions, whereas mayors in New South Wales are essentially ceremonial figureheads who can only exercise power at the discretion of the council. Most of the capital city LGAs administer only the central business districts and nearby central suburbs . A notable exception
4028-618: The names of LGAs, and today the stylised titles of " town ", " borough ", " municipality ", " district ", " region ", "community government", " Aboriginal council/shire" and "island" are used in addition. The word "municipality" occurs in some states with differing meanings: in New South Wales it is typically used for older urban areas, and the word is used for some rural towns in South Australia . Larger towns and small metropolitan exurban centres in Queensland and Western Australia simply use
4104-649: The number of local governments while Western Australia and New South Wales rejected compulsory mergers. New South Wales eventually forced the merging of some councils. The main purpose of amalgamating councils was for greater efficiency and to improve operations, but forced amalgamation of councils is sometimes seen as a dilution of representative democracy . An increase in the range of services offered by councils, but only minor cost savings of less than 10% have been noted by academics as outcomes after mergers. The council mergers have resulted in widespread job losses and lingering resentment from some whose roles have experienced
4180-432: The oldest known coal fire, has burned for 6,000 years. Globally, thousands of inextinguishable mine fires are burning, especially in China where poverty, lack of government regulations and runaway development combine to create an environmental disaster. Modern strip mining exposes smouldering coal seams to the air, revitalizing the flames. Rural Chinese in coal-bearing regions often dig coal for household use, abandoning
4256-597: The part of local governments. There is no mention of local government in the Constitution of Australia , though it is mentioned several times in the Annotated Constitution of Australia. "Municipal institutions and local government" appears in Annotation 447, and "Power of the Parliament of a Colony" appears under "Residuary Legislative Powers" on pages 935 and 936. The first official local government in Australia
4332-581: The pits when they become too deep, leaving highly combustible coal dust exposed to the air. Using satellite imagery to map China's coal fires resulted in the discovery of many previously unknown fires. The oldest coal fire in China is in Baijigou ( 白芨沟 , in Dawukou District of Shizuishan , Ningxia ) and is said to have been burning since the Qing Dynasty (before 1912). Before attempting to extinguish
4408-812: The population, the population density and the proportion of the population that is classified as being urban for the council. The classification, at the two-digit level, is: All local governments are approximately equal in their theoretical powers, although LGAs that encompass large cities such as Brisbane and the Gold Coast command more resources due to their larger population base. Unlike local governments in many other countries, services such as police, fire protection and schools are provided by respective state or territory governments rather than by local councils. However, local governments still maintain some responsibility for fire service functions within Queensland and Western Australia. The councils' chief responsibility in
4484-414: The power to independently enact their own local subsidiary legislation , in contrast to the previous system of by-laws . Councils also have organised their own representative structures such as Local Government Associations and Regional Organisations of Councils . Doctrines of New Public Management have shaped state government legislation towards increased freedoms aiming to allow greater flexibility on
4560-470: The presence of plants or animals that are aided by the coal fire. The prevalence of non-native plants can depend upon the fire's duration and the size of the affected area. For example, near a coal fire in Germany, many Mediterranean insects and spiders were identified in a region with cold winters, and it is believed that elevated ground temperatures above the fires permitted their survival. In order to thrive,
4636-433: 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 2021 census , which was considerably higher than the national average of 9.8 percent. Meanwhile, as at
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#17328844786174712-526: The purpose of raising money to build roads in rural and outer-urban regions. Council representatives attended conventions before Federation , however local government was unquestionably regarded as outside the Constitutional realm. In the 1970s, the Whitlam government expanded the level of funding to local governments in Australia beyond grants for road construction. General purpose grants become available for
4788-433: The right conditions of moisture and grain size. The fire usually begins a foot or two inside the coal at a depth in which the permeability of the coal allows the inflow of air but in which the ventilation does not remove the heat which is generated. Self-ignition was a recognised problem in steamship times. One well known source of fires is mining breaking into a high pressure cavity of methane gas which on release can generate
4864-484: The safety monitoring personnel, giving them early warning of any problems. Besides destruction of the affected areas, coal fires often emit toxic gases, including carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide . China's coal fires, which consume an estimated 20 – 200 million tons of coal a year, make up as much as 1 percent of the global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels . One of the most visible changes will be subsidence . Another local environmental effect can include
4940-408: The same administrative functions and similar political structures, regardless of their naming, and retain a particular designation ("shire", "borough", "town", "city") for historical reasons only. They will typically have an elected council and usually a mayor or shire president responsible for chairing meetings of the council. In some councils, the mayor is a directly elected figure, but in most cases
5016-487: The same amount again is made inaccessible to mining. Coal fires extend over a belt across the entire north China , whereby over one hundred major fire areas are listed, each of which contains many individual fire zones. They are concentrated in the provinces of Xinjiang , Inner Mongolia and Ningxia . Beside losses from burned and inaccessible coal, these fires contribute to air pollution and considerably increased levels of greenhouse gas emissions and have thereby become
5092-493: The state and Commonwealth governments. They are caricatured as being concerned only with the "three Rs": Rates, Roads and Rubbish. However, the roles of local government areas in Australia have recently expanded as higher levels of government have devolved activities to the third tier. Examples include the provision of community health services, regional airports and pollution control as well as community safety and accessible transport. The changes in services has been described as
5168-576: The sudden resignation. Council's General Manager is Greg McDonald. 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 . The Upper Hunter Shire has
5244-450: The surface and the oxygen required for their ignition comes from the atmosphere, and fires in deep underground mines, where the oxygen comes from ventilation. Mine fires may begin as a result of an industrial accident, generally involving a gas explosion. Historically, some mine fires were started when bootleg mining was stopped by authorities, usually by blowing the mine up. Many recent mine fires have started from people burning trash in
5320-606: The term "town", while in Victoria they are designated as "rural city". Historically, the word "borough" was common for small towns and suburban centers in Victoria, but nowadays only the Borough of Queenscliffe remains as the one and only borough in the entire country. New South Wales and Queensland have also introduced a new term "region" for outback LGAs formed by the amalgamation of smaller shires and rural cities. In New South Wales, where
5396-501: The varying designations, whilst the local governing legislature itself is generally known as a council . In general, an urban / suburban LGA is called a " city ", as in the City of Melbourne , City of Canada Bay and City of Bunbury ; while an exurban / rural LGA covering a larger agricultural / natural area is usually called a " shire ", as in Shire of Mornington Peninsula , Shire of Banana and Lachlan Shire . Sometimes designations other than "city" or "shire" are used in
5472-421: The world, thousands of underground coal fires are burning at any given moment. The problem is most acute in industrializing, coal-rich nations such as China. Global coal fire emissions are estimated to cause 40 tons of mercury to enter the atmosphere annually, and to represent three percent of the world's annual CO 2 emissions. Coal-seam fires can be divided into near-surface fires, in which seams extend to
5548-539: Was defeated. A 1988 referendum sought to explicitly insert mention of local government in the federal constitution but this was comprehensively defeated. A further referendum was proposed in 2013 , but was cancelled due to the change in the election date . Federal government interaction with local councils happens regularly through the provision of federal grants to help fund local government managed projects. Local government in Australia has very limited legislative powers and no judicial powers , and executive -wise
5624-580: Was estimated that more than 250,000 coal-seam fires may have been burning in Indonesia in 1998. Land clearing practices which use fire, often starting forest fires, may be the cause of coal-seam fires in Indonesia. In 1982 and 1983 one of the largest forest fires in this century raged for several months through an estimated 5 million hectares of Borneo's tropical rainforests. Goldammer and Seibert however concluded that there are indications that coal-seam fires already occurred between 13,200 and 15,000 BP . A fire season usually occurs every 3 to 5 years, when
5700-545: Was extinguished, and flames were visible and the entire thing was still burning. ... They said it was put out, and who is to say otherwise?" A jet engine unit, known as Gorniczy Agregat Gasniczy (GAG), was developed in Poland and successfully used for fighting coal fires and displacing firedamp in mines. Time magazine reported in July 2010 that less expensive alternatives for extinguishing coal-seam fires were beginning to reach
5776-600: Was the Perth Town Trust , established in 1838, only three years after British settlement. The Adelaide Corporation followed, created by the province of South Australia in October 1840. The City of Melbourne and the Sydney Corporation followed, both in 1842. All of these early forms failed; it was not until the 1860s and 1870s that the various colonies established widespread stable forms of local government, mainly for
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