Mayor of Geelong

Darryn Lyons (born 19 August 1965) is an Australian media personality, entrepreneur and politician, who rose to prominence in Australia and the United Kingdom as a paparazzo. He held the position of Mayor of Geelong from 2013 to 2016.

DARRYN Lyons says he may have been “vilified and hounded from office”, but Geelong has not heard the last of him.

“I will continue to raise the city’s profile, to broaden its job base to attract investors and to enhance the community’s pride in this great place,” he said in a farewell message as mayor. “Like it or not, you haven’t heard the last of me. I’m not going anywhere else.”

Lyons’ message came as the Geelong council was sacked with ratepayers to go to the polls next year.

A Bill dumping the regional council passed the Legislative Council on Thursday evening, after the Andrews Government agreed to bring an election forward by three years.

The Government had originally wanted to boot the council on Tuesday and keep administrators in place until 2020.

The amended bill to sack the Geelong council tonight returned to the Lower House where it was ticked off.

In 2013, Lyons announced his candidacy for the City of Greater Geelong 2013 mayoral election. At the start of the election he was quoted as saying "As I have learnt from my time in the UK every election needs a comedy candidate and also as I've seen from Tony Abbott's example the electorate respects a man with great abs". Despite this he then campaigned heavily for the position with a "presidential-style mayoral campaign", including having a plane tow a banner across the sky in the city. He was declared elected after the distribution of preferences on 25 November 2013; Lyons garnered almost 30 per cent of the first preference votes, more than double the primary votes than the second-placed candidate. Lyons was sworn into office on 26 November 2013.

As mayor, Lyons has focussed on lobbying for the city, creating publicity and lifting the city's profile in order to attract tourism and investment.

Lyons has advocated for building a cruise ship pier on the Geelong waterfront in order to boost the city's economy with tourism. The pier would also incorporate a convention centre and cultural centre.

Other initiatives introduced by Lyons include improving the city centre by making street parking free on weekends and planting plants in the streets.

On 16 April 2016, the Victorian Government dismissed Lyons along with the rest of the Greater Geelong City Council, following a Commission of Inquiry which found that the council is riven with conflict, unable to manage Geelong's economic challenges, has dysfunctional leadership and has a culture of bullying. The government appointed administrators to run the council until council elections are held in 2017.

Lyons is a member of the Liberal Party of Australia and resides in the Western Beach area of Geelong. His fiancee is Elissa Friday, a former model and a student. He was formerly married to Melanie Whitehead, who left him in 2000. Lyons is a personal friend of Melbourne mayor Robert Doyle, who supported Lyons during his 2013 electoral campaign. Lyons has acknowledged drug abuse, binge drinking and heavy gambling during his life abroad.





Geelong

Geelong, is a port city located on Corio Bay and the Barwon River, in the state of Victoria, Australia, 75 kilometres (47 mi) south-west of the state capital, Melbourne. It is the second largest Victorian city, with an estimated urban population of 184,182 as at June 2014, having grown 1.4 percent since June 2013.

Geelong runs from the plains of Lara in the north to the rolling hills of Waurn Ponds to the south, with Corio Bay to the east and hills to the west. Geelong is the administrative centre for the City of Greater Geelong municipality, which covers urban, rural and coastal areas surrounding the city, including the Bellarine Peninsula.

Geelong City is also known as the 'Gateway City' due to its central location to surrounding Victorian regional centres like Ballarat in the north west, Torquay, Great Ocean Road and Warrnambool in the southwest, Hamilton, Colac and Winchelsea to the west, and the state capital of Melbourne in the north east.

Geelong was named in 1827, with the name derived from the local Wathaurong Aboriginal name for the region, Jillong, thought to mean "land" or "cliffs". The area was first surveyed in 1838, three weeks after Melbourne. The post office was open by June 1840 (the second to open in the Port Phillip District). The first woolstore was erected in this period and it became the port for the wool industry of the Western District. During the gold rush, Geelong experienced a brief boom as the main port to the rich goldfields of the Ballarat district. The city then diversified into manufacturing, and during the 1860s, it became one of the largest manufacturing centres in Australia with its wool mills, ropeworks, and paper mills.

It was proclaimed a city in 1910, with industrial growth from this time until the 1960s establishing the city as a manufacturing centre for the state, and the population grew to over 100,000 by the mid-1960s. During the city's early years, an inhabitant of Geelong was often known as a Geelongite, or a Pivotonian, derived from the city's nickname of "The Pivot", referencing the city's role as a shipping and rail hub for the area. Population increases over the last decade were due to growth in service industries, as the manufacturing sector has declined. Redevelopment of the inner city has occurred since the 1990s, as well as gentrification of inner suburbs, and currently has a population growth rate higher than the national average.

It is known for being home to the Geelong Football Club, the second oldest club in the Australian Football League.

Today, Geelong stands as an emerging health, education and advanced manufacturing hub. The city's economy is shifting quickly and despite experiencing the drawbacks of losing much of its heavy manufacturing, it is seeing much growth in other sectors, positioning itself as one of the leading non-capital Australian cities.