area was significantly higher than the national average. Council Final composition and election method Manly Council was composed of nine Councillors, including the mayor, for a fixed four-year term of office. The mayor was directly elected from 1995 to 2016 while the eight other councillors were elected proportionally as one ward. The last election was held on 8 September 2012, and the final makeup of the council, including the mayor, was as follows: Council seal Manly was the first council on the northern beaches, being incorporated in 1877, but it is not known when it adopted the council seal. The image of two indigenous men standing by the shore watching the approach of the first Europeans to visit Manly in 1788, has been modified several times over the decades, with the earliest found version dating from 1905. This image is a direct reference to the naming of "Manly" by the first Governor of New South Wales, Arthur Phillip, who visited on 21 January 1788, who noted that the "[Manly aboriginals'] confidence and manly behaviour induced me to give the name Manly Cove to this place". In 1952 the new Mackellar County Council commissioned the President of the Manly and Warringah District Historical Society, Percy Walter Gledhill, to design a council seal and Gledhill's design included this image. A later Manly council seal from 1913 omitted the approaching Europeans, but they returned in the last version, which was designed by Susan Hammond and introduced in 1990. Sister cities Manly had sister city relationships with a number of cities around the world: Taito, Tokyo, Japan Jing'an, China Bath, England, United Kingdom Oecusse, East Timor Huntington Beach, California, United States of America Manly also had three friendship cities: Odawara, Kanagawa, Japan Yeongdo-gu, Busan, South Korea Gunnedah, New South Wales References External links Manly Council (Archived) Manly Manly, New South Wales 1877 establishments in Australia 2016 disestablishments in Australia Northern Beaches