The Local Government Boundaries Commission is an independent statutory authority constituted under section 260 of the Local Government Act 1993 (the Act). 

The Commission has several functions including:

  • to examine and report on any matter referred to it by the NSW Minister for Local Government, in relation to the boundaries of local Government areas and the areas of operation of county councils
  • where a matter has been referred to the Chief Executive of the Office of Local Government for examination and report, to review that report and provide comments to the Minister.

Read the Local Government Boundaries Commission – Frequently asked questions.

Commissioners

The Commission’s 4 members are appointed by the Governor for a 5-year term.

One commissioner is nominated chair by the Minister for Local Government; while one is an officer of the Office of Local Government nominated by the Chief Executive. The remaining 2 are appointed from a panel nominated by Local Government NSW.

Current proposals

There no current proposals currently under review.

Past proposals (2016-25)

Cootamundra Gundagai Regional Council (2025)

The Minister for Local Government appointed commissioners to hold a Public Inquiry under section 438U of the Local Government Act 1993 into Cootamundra – Gundagai Regional Council.

View proposal resources:

Snow Valleys Council (2024)

View proposal resources:

Inner West Council (2022)

View proposal resources:

Cootamundra Gundagai Regional Council (2021)

View proposal resources:

Snowy Valleys Council and Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council boundaries (2021)

On 25 February 2020 the Minister for Local Government referred to the Commission two elector initiated proposals that would affect boundaries in relation to Snowy Valleys Council and Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Councils. Documents relating to these two proposals are available below:

Cootamundra/Gundagai

View proposal resources:

Snowy Valleys

View proposal resources:

Merger proposals (2016)

For the 2016 merger proposals, the then Minister for Local Government elected to refer the proposals to the Chief Executive of the Office of Local Government (rather than the Boundaries Commission) for examination.

The Chief Executive then delegated the function of examining and reporting on each of those proposals to a number of people, known as 'Delegates’. Delegates were required to examine and report upon each merger proposal rigorously and fairly. The examination process included Delegates calling for submissions, holding a public inquiry on each proposed council merger, assessing the proposals against the factors in section 263(3) of the Act, and providing a report to the Minister. Delegates were also required to provide their report to the Boundaries Commission.

The Boundaries Commission then reviewed each Delegate’s report and sent its Comments to the Minister.

Once the Minister received the report from the Delegate and the comments from the Boundaries Commission, the Minister decided whether or not to recommend the implementation of the proposal to the Governor of NSW. 

The comments from the Boundaries Commission in relation to those 2016 reports are available in the proposed mergers:

Media releases

More information

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