The first elections to the new Council were held in the parochial school at Longbottom, with John Flavelle acting as returning officer.
Alfred Llewellyn Bray was elected as mayor and the remaining aldermen were Alfred’s younger brother, Henry David Bray, William Chapman, Thomas Correy (the younger), H.A. Goddard, Frederick Oatley, John Shipley, Herbert Thompson and Daniel Zoeller.
John Candlish was the first Council clerk.
The municipality’s first aldermen were all established businessmen in the Concord-Burwood district and all took their turn as mayor over the next twenty years or so.
Many of the first aldermen were among the district’s wealthier citizens and lived in large homes and estates.
Alfred Llewellyn Bray resided at Braygrove in the north of the municipality; his brother Henry lived at Clermont; Thomas Correy’s home was near his popular Correy’s Gardens pleasure grounds, whilst William Chapman, an ironmonger, lived at Hawthorne House in Patterson Street from 1888.
Henry Goddard, for some years, resided in the still standing stone cottage on the corner of Ada Street and Forster Street. Frederick Oatley’s Gladwyn home was on the eastern side of Concord Road; John Shipley also lived, for some time, along Concord Road but moved to Homesdale, Cabarita Point Road (now Cabarita Road) in 1900. Herbert Thompson lived in Mermaid Street, now Park Avenue.
Daniel Zoeller was a prominent figure in the district. He was able to turn his hand to many crafts, including building, and was responsible for a good deal of the early construction work in the district. The Zoeller home, Pine Cottage, was in Ada Street.
Henry Goddard was my grandfather- according to my mother Coral Cecily RoseMary Goddard, My grandfather Alvin Henry and my great grandfather Henry Alvin were both Mayors of Concord NSW- I have some old photos of my mother at some Government event as a child, she believed it to be the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I would love to know more about my grandfathers- I also understand that I have some aboriginal blood in me- but not sure from which side.
Chris P