David Head leads the polling as Shire of Dumbleyung welcomes three new faces

Dumbleyung voters were required to cast their ballots in the shire’s local elections for the first time in 20 years after five nominations were received for four seats.

Of the 486 electors, 193 votes were cast, or 39.71 per cent, which was well above the WA average of 27.5 per cent.

Three new faces will sit on the council after David Head, who topped the polling with 137 first preferences, Ben Stangoni, and Freyja Melling were all elected for four-year terms.

Incumbent Marilyn Haselby was re-elected while Sue-Ellen Lax was the unsuccessful candidate but will be the first to backfill.

The shire’s deputy president Grant Lukins was one of three retirees before the election so that post will remain open until the shire’s swearing-in process at its November meeting.

Councillors Bevan Doney and Kevin Powell also stood down.

Shire president Cr Amy Knight said previous elections had been uncontested and that running an election had been a good process for the residents.

“It was awesome for the community because many of the younger members would not have had a local election in their lifetimes,” she said.

“It was good for them to get some insight into how it all works at a local level.”

She said she was not tempted to run an in-person election independently from the WA Electoral Commission, as the shires of Wagin and Cuballing had done.

Those areas said they saved money, but they had much lower turnouts than Dumbleyung achieved.

“It worked out well for us; we are a large shire in terms of land but few in numbers so it was easier for people to pop their ballot in the postbox,” Cr Knight said.