Council Chairmen/Mayors of Burnside

Council Chairmen/Mayors since 1856 have been as follows:^[14]
Prior to 1935, the head of the Elected Members was the Chairman of the District Council.

Politics

For State Government Burnside is part of the Electoral Districts of Adelaide, Bragg, Morialta, Hartley, Heysen, Norwood and Unley. Bragg takes in most of the city; it is the strongest Liberal Party district in the Adelaide Metropolitan Area and the third strongest in the state. Liberal strength is strongest in the wealthy hills suburbs to the south-east around Beaumont and weakest around Norwood in the north where the Labor Party dominates. Before their catastrophic collapse in recent years, the Democrats polled impressive results in the western near-city suburbs. The Greens gained much of the previous Democrats vote in recent elections. Bragg has been held by Jack Batty of the Liberal Party, since the 2022 by-election following Vickie Chapman's resignation.

Burnside forms the southern part of the Federal Division of Sturt, which takes in much of Adelaide's eastern suburbs, stretching from Paradise to Glen Osmond. Up until the 2007 Federal Election, it was a safe Liberal seat for over thirty years. At the election, on a two-party preferred basis, the Liberal Party gained 50.94% of the vote and the Labor Party 49.06%, a difference of only 1,712 votes. Christopher Pyne held the seat for the Liberal Party from 1993 to 2019 when he retired. He was followed by James Stevens who was elected in the 2019 Australian federal election. Stevens previously served as the chief of staff to Steven Marshall, the premier of South Australia, and prior to that as the general manager of Michell Australia.

An inquiry was launched in 2009 by the then state Local Government Minister Gail Gago into allegations of "harassment, bullying and misconduct" by then members of the City Council.^[15] After about $200,000 of expenditure by the council and $1.3 million by the state government, legal action by former councilors prevented the release of the report.^[16] A Supreme Court ruling on 27 May 2011, found that the report could be partially released, after material related to parts of the terms of reference deemed inappropriate was redacted.^[17]

Library

Burnside Library, established in 1961, is the only public library in the city of Burnside. The present library building was built in 2000,^[18] and is situated adjacent to the Council offices and is part of the civic centre at 401 Greenhill Road, Tusmore. As of 2022^[update] the library is open seven days a week, from 9.30am-6pm on weekdays, except Thursday when it closes at 9pm, and on the weekend from 10am-4pm on Saturday and 2pm-5pm on Sunday.^[19]

Town Hall

The Burnside Town Hall, designed by prolific South Australian architect Charles Rutt^[20] (father of Bevan Rutt; died 17 February 1932^[21][22]). It was built in 1927,^[20] was identified as one of South Australia's 120 most significant 20th-century buildings by the Australian Institute of Architects.^[23] There is a large hall providing 260 m² (2,800 sq ft) of floor space, with wooden floors, decorative windows, and a high ceiling. The building underwent modifications after Burnside Ballroom was built, and it became used for storage, office space, and as a rehearsal room for the Burnside Symphony Orchestra and Burnside Youth Concert Band. In 2019 it was fully refurbished, with ongoing work in the following two years to upgrade adjacent amenities. Situated right on the corner of Greenhill and Portrush Roads, its entrance is from the Portrush side.^[24]

Ballroom

Burnside Ballroom, adjacent to the civic centre, is also an architecturally significant building, built in 1954 by Greg Bruer and Jack Bruer, of Evans, Bruer, & Hall, who were also responsible for the Piccadilly Cinema in North Adelaide as well as several other notable buildings in Adelaide.^[25][26] It is heritage-listed on the South Australian Heritage Register, described as "an excellent example of a 1950s interior demonstrating characteristics of a modernist design", and it is noted that "There are no other known examples of this style of civic interior intact". It has a large ground floor as well as a mezzanine, totalling 500 m (1,600 ft) of floor space. It also has an entrance foyer, ladies' powder rooms and gentlemen's cloak rooms, bars, and a kitchen. It is available for hire.^[27]

The Burnside Symphony Orchestra is based in the council area, and performs up to four concerts annually in the Burnside Ballroom.^[28]

Health

The Burnside War Memorial Hospital is the only community hospital in Burnside. Otto Georg Ludwig van Rieben offered his Attunga property for use as a community hospital free of charge in 1944. The council had first suggested building a community hospital in August 1943 as part of its Post-War Reconstruction and Development Committee; it was to cost no more than 100,000 pounds and be a memorial to honour Burnside's war dead. In April 1949 the first conversion of van Rieben's home was complete and the hospital was caring for 21 patients. The hospital closed for a month in 1956 and when it reopened was given its present name: The Burnside War Memorial Hospital. The hospital is not-for-profit and reinvests all surplus into upgrading facilities, equipment and services.^{[citation needed]}

The Queen Victoria Hospital on the corner of Fullarton Road and Grant Avenue in Rose Park opened in 1902 with a grant of 2,550 pounds. It was originally known as "The Queen's Home" as it opened on the birth day of Queen Victoria, (24 May). It was renamed in 1939 to the "Queen Victoria Maternity Hospital" and under the Hospital Benefits Act of 1946 became a public hospital. It operated until 1995 when it was amalgamated with the Women's and Children's Hospital and the original building was sold and converted into apartments. Over 250,000 South Australians began their lives at the hospital.^{[citation needed]}

Transport

The area was originally served by horse-drawn buses and trolleys but it was electric trams and trolley buses that led to the development of Burnside as a suburban residential area.^[29]

Burnside is located at a transport crossroads for national freight movements. Freight traffic from Victoria diverges down Glen Osmond and Portrush Roads upon entering the metropolitan area via the South Eastern Freeway (formerly Mount Barker Road). Both roads carry an almost equal amount of freight traffic, Glen Osmond leads to Adelaide Airport and Outer Harbor while Portrush Road connects to the northern industrial suburbs, the state's north, Western Australia and the Northern Territory. In addition, they act as major commuter arteries for the Adelaide Hills and form the eastern part of Adelaide's outer bypass route. The current South Eastern Freeway was completed in 1999 and Portrush Road saw an extensive upgrade throughout 2003–2004.

Other major commuter roads include Kensington, Magill and Greenhill Roads, which run east–west. Glynburn and Fullarton Roads provide secondary north–south corridors, the former runs close to the foothills and alleviates congestion on Portrush while the latter forms part of Adelaide's inner bypass route. Maintenance of the extensive road network is a State Government responsibility; the Federal Government provides funding for nationally important AusLink routes. Council provides recommendations to projects and participates in the upkeep of the curbs, frontage, footpaths and minor signage.

Burnside residents rely overwhelmingly on cars as a means to travel to work; 64.3% drive their own vehicle and 5.6% are a regular passenger in one. 5.8% use public transport, in the form of Adelaide Metro buses, for their commute; 1.2% bicycle and 2.3% walk. Non-vehicular travel is on the rise, with usage higher than the Adelaide average and an increase in persons doing so between 1996 and 2001. 38% of Burnside households own one vehicle, 26.8% own two and 12.3% own three vehicles or more. Burnside and suburbs east of the city were served by an excellent tramway system that was shut down in the 1950s.

With the advent of widespread automobile travel in the mid-20th century there was a tendency for motorists to use local roads in suburbs adjacent to the CBD for their commute home. 'Rat trails' of cars sneaked through narrow side-streets, presenting traffic bottlenecks. This was a particular problem for some western Burnside suburbs because of their location. Various traffic control methods were put in place (closing streets, speed bumps, lowered speed limits, roundabouts) to counter these problems; this forced the re-routing of traffic onto major thoroughfares.

Utilities

Burnside is connected to the Adelaide water, power and gas mains. Until recently, many of the foothills suburbs did not have access to sewage systems and used septic tanks. This had been rectified in the last decade in a partnership between SA Water and the Burnside Council.

SA Power Networks is the Electricity Distributor, with approximately 10 retailers. Burnside derives its electricity via the Adelaide grid from a gas-fired plant at Torrens Island. Burnside's water supply is gained from the Adelaide area reservoirs: Mount Bold, Happy Valley, Myponga, Millbrook, Hope Valley, Little Para and South Para. Further water demands result in the pumping of water from the River Murray. The provider of water services is by the government-owned SA Water. In early times, Burnside's creeks contributed to Adelaide's water supply. With enlarged market gardens upstream in the Adelaide Hills the water level and quality dropped and this was no longer feasible.

Council maintenance services are located at the Council Depot on Glynburn Road in the suburb of Burnside.