Surf Coast Shire: History
=== Formation ===
Before the 1990s local government reforms, the Surf Coast Shire's area was covered by three municipalities: the Shire of Winchelsea, the Shire of Barrabool, and the City of South Barwon. The Barrabool/South Barwon boundary was the Surf Coast Highway. This meant that Jan Juc and part of Torquay were in Barrabool, while the remainder of the Torquay district, including the traditional town centre, was in South Barwon.
When the City of Greater Geelong was created in May 1993, it initially took in the entire Torquay/Jan Juc area as far west as Ghazeepore Road. It also annexed areas on Geelong's fringe (Ceres, Wandana Heights, Waurn Ponds and Mount Duneed) which had previously belonged to Barrabool.
In March 1994, the Surf Coast Shire was formed from the amalgamation of the Torquay/Jan Juc area from Greater Geelong, the remainder of the Shire of Barrabool, and the Shire of Winchelsea (less the Birregurra and Barwon Downs districts, which were lost to the Shire of Colac). The Surf Coast Shire's modern boundaries were settled six months later when the Lake Murdeduke and Mount Gellibrand area, part of the territory lost to Colac, was brought back into the Shire.
Post-2008, following an electoral representation review, the decision was made to re-subdivide the municipality into four wards, the current wards are Torquay, Anglesea, Winchelsea and Lorne. Between 2004 and 2008, the Shire was an unsubdivided municipality and as a result, the entire municipality voted to elect nine councillors. Between 1996 and 2004, the municipality was subdivided into six wards, where three councillors per ward were elected from the Torquay and Anglesea wards, and one councillor per ward was elected from the Lorne, Winchelsea, Moriac and Aireys Inlet wards. A position of Deputy Mayor was created in 2004, but it was abolished for the 2005 mayoral election.