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Mayor & councillors

Mayor & councillors

Whittlesea has 11 councillors. Each one represents a single ward: Bundoora, Epping, Ganbu Gulinj, Kirrip, Lalor, Mernda, Mill Park, North, Painted Hills, South Morang or Thomastown. Nine were elected in October 2024 for the 2024–2028 term; the Lalor and Thomastown councillors were elected at by-elections since then. Voters don't elect the Mayor directly. The councillors choose one of themselves each year. The next vote is at the Council meeting on Tuesday 17 November 2026.

New to these terms? Read them in plain English
How the mayor is chosen
Either elected directly by voters, or chosen by the councillors.
Ward
A subdivision of a council area that elects its own councillors.
Local Government Area (LGA)
The official area a council governs.
See the full explainer, with formulas →

Who represents you

Mayor
Cr Lawrie Cox (Ganbu Gulinj Ward)Elected Mayor by the councillors in November 2025 for 12 months. The council's councillors page gives the meeting date as Tuesday 18 November 2025. He was previously Mayor in 2018.
Deputy Mayor
Cr Blair Colwell (Mill Park Ward)Elected Deputy Mayor at the same meeting.
Councillors
11 — one per wardMatches the Victorian Electoral Commission's list of current councillors (checked Sep 2026).
Next mayoral election
Council meeting, Tuesday 17 November 2026Listed as 'Election of Mayor and Deputy Mayor' in the council's 2026 meeting dates. This page will be updated after that meeting.
Changes since the 2024 election
Two by-elections: Lalor (2025) and Thomastown (2026)On 8 May 2025 the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) declared the 2024 Lalor Ward result void, and Michael Labrador was elected at the by-election that followed (VEC date 2 August 2025). Cr Nic Brooks resigned as Thomastown Ward councillor on 11 January 2026 for personal reasons, and Chaman Tiwari was elected at the by-election that followed (VEC date 30 May 2026; result declared 12 June 2026). The council's councillors page dates these by-elections to May 2025 and June 2026.
Recent history
Run by administrators from June 2020 to the October 2024 electionThe state appointed a Panel of Administrators on 19 June 2020, and elected councillors returned at the October 2024 election. A Commission of Inquiry into the council was appointed on 19 May 2025, and its report was tabled in Parliament on 14 October 2025. The Minister for Local Government appointed a Municipal Monitor, Steven Kingshott, from 15 October 2025 to 31 December 2026. The council's pages below link to the report and the monitor's terms of reference.About the monitor →

Your representatives

Want to raise something? Contacting your ward councillor or the mayor is one of the most direct ways to be heard between elections.

Victorian council ballot papers and results don't show party affiliation, so we don't label councillors. We list who holds office, with their council email addresses and official profiles, and link to the election results. The council's councillors page also lists a phone number for each councillor. If a seat falls vacant, Whittlesea's single-councillor wards fill it by a by-election, not a countback, as long as more than 6 months of the term remain. For the latest list, see the council's page or the VEC.

Sources — check it yourself

Figures are current as at the dates shown and may change — always confirm with the linked source. See the notice at the bottom of the page for full details and how to report a correction.