Shire of Glenelg: History
The formally recognised traditional owners for the area in which Glenelg Shire sits are the Gunditjmara People who are represented by the Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation.
Although a shire of the same name existed before the amalgamations of the mid-1990s, the current Shire was formed in 1994 from the amalgamation of most of the former Shire of Glenelg with the Shire of Heywood and City of Portland.
During the local government review process in 1993 and 1994, all three former municipalities made submissions to the Local Government Board arguing that the City of Portland should continue to stand alone, even if Glenelg and Heywood were to be merged. However, the Board considered that, despite Portland's industrial character, the city's role as a service and export centre gave it a sufficiently strong connection to its rural hinterland, and proposed to merge the three LGAs into a "Shire of Henty". The name "Glenelg" was substituted later.