City of Brimbank
Local government area
Map of Melbourne showing City of Brimbank
Country	Australia
State	Victoria
Region	Greater Melbourne
Established	1994
Council seat	Sunshine
Government
• Mayor	Ranka Rasic (Labor)
• State electorate	*Kororoit Laverton Niddrie St Albans Sunbury Sydenham
• Federal divisions	Fraser Gorton Hawke Maribyrnong
Area [1]
• Total	123 km2 (47 sq mi)
Population
• Total	196,046 (2023)[1] (25th)
• Density	1,594/km2 (4,128/sq mi)
Website	City of Brimbank
LGAs around City of Brimbank Hume Hume Merri-bek Melton City of Brimbank Moonee Valley,Maribyrnong Wyndham Wyndham Hobsons Bay

TheCity of Brimbank is alocal government area located within the metropolitan area ofMelbourne,Victoria,Australia. It is located 10 kilometres west of the Melbourne city centre and is the gateway to Melbourne’s western suburbs.

The city has an area of 123 km² and in 2021, Brimbank had a population of 194,618.

With more than half of its residents born overseas and more than 160 languages spoken, Brimbank is one of Australia’s most multiculturally diverse municipalities.

TheWurundjeri people have been the custodians of the land in thePort Phillip Bay region, including the current City of Brimbank, for over 40,000 years before European settlement. Brimbank lies within the area occupied by the Kurung-Jang-Balluk and Marin-Balluk clans of the Wurundjeri people (also known as theWoiwurrung language group) who form part of the largerKulin Nation. Other groups who occupied land in the area include the Yalukit-Willam and Marpeang-Bulluk clans.

Brimbank was founded on 15 December 1994 during the amalgamations of local councils by the state government. It was formed from the merger of the western portions of the former Cities ofKeilor andSunshine. It was named afterBrimbank Park in Keilor, which itself was named for the practice of local farmers driving livestock "around the brim of the bank" of theMaribyrnong River.^[2]

The municipality has thirteenplaces listed on the Victorian Heritage Register.^[3]

In 2008 and 2009, the Brimbank City Council was the subject of several investigations into alleged misconduct by councillors.

On 30 July 2008, the stateMP forKeilor,George Seitz, invokedparliamentary privilege in theLegislative Assembly to accuse former Brimbank mayor CrNatalie Suleyman ofbranch stacking, describing her as the "Robert Mugabe of Brimbank". Seitz alleged that Suleyman had 'retaliated' by directing Council to block funding for capital works projects after she was defeated in Labor Party preselection for the2008 Kororoit state by-election.^[4][5] Following disclosures made under theWhistleblowers Protection Act 2001, the VictorianOmbudsman,George Brouwer, commenced an investigation into the Council in September.^[6]

Brouwer's report was presented to Parliament on 7 May 2009, and found councillors were "generally dysfunctional",^[7] "lacked awareness of their role",^[8] and were "influenced" by unelected third parties.^[9] The report asserted that between 2005 and 2008, decisions were reached by a majority (or 'ruling') faction of councillors who would vote on decisions as a bloc.^[7] Of the 6 members of the 'ruling faction', only two were re-elected to council in 2008.

The report concluded that:

• External parties, including state MPs George Seitz andTheo Theophanous, and former federal MPAndrew Theophanous, had unduly influenced council business,^[10]
• The 'ruling faction' "did not exercise reasonable care" in directing Brimbank CEO Marilyn Duncan to remove funding for theKeilor Lodge Reserve project,^[11]
• The 'ruling faction' intended to "worry" Seitz by calling for expressions of interest on the Keilor Lodge Reserve site,^[12]
• Cr Suleyman acted "with inappropriate partiality" in prioritising works atCairnlea Park in the Council's 2008–09 budget,^[13]
• Cr Eriksson contravened the Council's Code of Governance by releasing confidential information to theSunshine Advocate,Brimbank Leader andBrimbank Star newspapers,^[14]
• TheLabor Party had appeared to breach theElectoral Act by distributing prohibited material to Cr Capar,^[15]
• Councillors had misused council-owned laptops andBlackBerry devices,^[16][17]
• Council had failed to handle the severance package of outgoing CEO Marilyn Duncan "in an open and transparent manner",^[18]
• The 'ruling faction' had determined the election of mayor until 2013,^[19] and
• Local Government Victoria had failed to adequately deal with complaints from residents about Council decision-making.^[19]

In response to the Brouwer report, the Minister for Local Government,Richard Wynne, appointed William Scales to closely monitor the council over a three-month period.^[20] In his second report Scales found that, despite being closely monitored, there remained widespread misconduct amongst councillors, and recommended that councillors should be suspended or dismissed from their positions.^[21] David Walker, a former police detective, was also appointed to investigate possible breaches of theLocal Government Act.^[22]

On 15 September, Wynne announced that Council would be dismissed, with administrators appointed until November 2012.^[23] On 17 November, theVictorian Government appointed Peter Lewinsky, Joanne Anderson and Meredith Sussex as administrators for a three-year period.^[24] Investigations into the conduct of Seitz, along with councillors Suleyman, Kathryn Eriksson and Troy Atanasovski, concluded in December with the Local Government Inspectorate informing those involved that it would take no further action.^[25]

In May 2012, the Victorian Government announced it would extend the tenure of administrators for a further three years,^[26] with Lewinsky reappointed alongside John Watson and former Brimbank commissioner Jane Nathan.^[27]

In October 2016, council elections were held in Brimbank for the first time in eight years. Two former councillors were re-elected: Sam David and Margaret Giudice, the latter having rescinded her Labor Party membership in 2014.^[28]

City of Brimbank Council
Leadership
Mayor	Bruce Lancashire
Structure
Council political groups	Ind. Labor (5)  Independent (4)  Greens (1)  Ind. Liberal (1)
Meeting place
Sunshine, Victoria,Australia

Thecouncillors following theOctober 2024 local elections are:

Selected historical census data for City of Brimbank local government area
Census year			2001[30]	2006[31]	2011[32]	2016[33]	2021[34]
Population		Estimated residents oncensus night	162,931	168,215	182,735	194,319	194,618
		LGA rank in terms of size within Victoria		3rd	3rd	6th	5th
		% of Victoria population	3.53%	3.41%	3.41%	3.28%	2.99%
		% of Australian population	0.87%	0.85%	0.85%	0.83%	0.77%
Cultural and language diversity
Ancestry, top responses		Vietnamese	9.1%	10.7%	12.8%	16.0%	16.9%
		Australian	15.1%	15.1%	12.9%	12.4%	12.6%
		English	12.0%	11.8%	11.8%	11.7%	11.6%
		Chinese	4.5%	5.1%	5.9%	6.5%	6.8%
		Italian	8.3%	7.8%	7.0%	6.5%	6.2%
		Maltese	9.4%	8.1%	6.7%	5.7%	5.2%
Language, top responses (other thanEnglish)		Vietnamese	10.4%	12.6%	14.2%	16.2%	18.5%
		Tagalog/Filipino			2.7%	2.7%	2.5%
		Greek	4.2%	3.7%	3.2%	2.7%	2.4%
		Punjabi			2.3%	2.9%	2.2%
		Arabic			2.3%	2.2%	2.2%
		Macedonian	4.1%	3.5%	2.9%	2.4%	2.2%
		Maltese	5.2%	4.0%	3.3%	2.7%	2.1%
		Italian	4.6%	3.8%	3.2%	2.5%	2.0%
Religious affiliation
Religious affiliation, top responses		Catholic	42.9%	40.1%	36.1%	31.3%	29.6%
		No religion	7.9%	9.3%	11.0%	16.8%	21.0%
		Buddhism	9.1%	10.8%	11.8%	10.8%	11.1%
		Islam			5.6%	5.8%	6.7%
		Orthodox	11.6%	10.5%	9.2%	6.4%	6.0%
		Anglican	5.9%	5.3%	4.5%	3.1%	2.4%
Median weekly incomes
Personal income		Median weekly personal income		A$358	A$429	A$487
		% of Australian median income		76.8%	74.4%	73.6%
Family income		Median weekly family income		A$1029	A$1195	A$1358
		% of Australian median income		87.8%	80.7%	78.3%
Household income		Median weekly household income		A$921	A$1106	A$1263
		% of Australian median income		98.2%	89.6%	87.8%
Dwelling structure
Dwelling type		Separate house	88.7%	82.4%	76.9%	73.2%
		Semi-detached,terrace ortownhouse	4.0%	10.3%	5.0%	13.1%
		Flat or apartment	6.3%	7.0%	7.5%	4.5%

The 2021 census, the city had a population of 194,618 up from 194,319 in the 2016 census^[35]

^ -Territory divided with anotherLGA

In 2021, Brimbank was recognised as Melbourne's smelliest local government area with more than 640 complaints from residents mainly due to the large amount of industries in the area.^[36] This includes theKealbaSunshine Landfill which produced asmell described as "rotting carcasses" for three years. EPA Victoria suspended and then cancelled the license to operate the landfill by Barro Group.^[37]

https://dbr.abs.gov.au/region.html?lyr=lga&rgn=21180

• Media related toCity of Brimbank at Wikimedia Commons
• Official website
• Metlink local public transport map
• City of Brimbank at the Local Government Victoria website
• [1]
• Interactive map of Victorian local government areas (pre-1994 vs present) -Victorian Government - Digital Twin Victoria

37°45′S144°48′E / 37.750°S 144.800°E /-37.750; 144.800

• Populated places established in 1994
• 1994 establishments in Australia
• Local government areas in Melbourne
• City of Brimbank

• Australian Statistical Geography Standard 2001 ID same as Wikidata
• Australian Statistical Geography Standard 2011 ID same as Wikidata
• Australian Statistical Geography Standard 2016 ID same as Wikidata
• Australian Statistical Geography Standard 2021 ID same as Wikidata
• Pages using gadget WikiMiniAtlas
• Use Australian English from August 2019
• All Wikipedia articles written in Australian English
• Use dmy dates from January 2017
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Pages using infobox settlement with no map
• Pages using infobox settlement with no coordinates
• Commons category link from Wikidata
• Official website different in Wikidata and Wikipedia
• Coordinates on Wikidata