high proportion (77.9 per cent) where English only was spoken at home (national average was 72.7 per cent). Council Composition and election methods Current composition and election method Mosman Council comprises seven Councillors, including the Mayor, for a fixed four-year term of office. The Mayor has been directly elected since 2012 while the six other Councillors are elected proportionally as one ward. The Deputy Mayor is elected annually by the councillors. From the 2008 elections to the 2012 elections, the area was divided into three wards (Mosman Bay, Middle Harbour, Balmoral), each electing three councillors and the mayor was elected by the councillors annually. The most recent election was held on 4 December 2021, and the makeup of the Council, including the Mayor, is as follows: The current Council, elected in 2021, in order of election, is: History Mosman was first incorporated in 1867 as the "Mossmans Ward" of the Municipality of St Leonards, which lasted until 1890 when the boroughs of Victoria, St Leonards and East St Leonards merged to form the Borough of North Sydney, with the Mosman ward renamed as the "Mossman Ward". Following a petition submitted by residents in 1892, on 11 April 1893 the ward's separation as the Borough of Mosman was proclaimed by Lieutenant-Governor Sir Frederick Darley. The first nine-member council was elected on 9 June 1893, with the first mayor, Richard Hayes Harnett Jr., elected on the same day. From 28 December 1906, following the passing of the Local Government Act, 1906, the council was renamed as the "Municipality of Mosman". With the passing of the Local Government Act, 1993, the Municipality of Mosman was legally renamed as Mosman Council and aldermen were renamed councillors. A 2015 review of local government boundaries by the NSW Government Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal recommended that the Municipality of Mosman merge with adjoining councils. The government considered two proposals. The first proposed a merger of Manly and Mosman Councils and parts of Warringah Council to form a new council with an area of and support a population of approximately 153,000. The alternative, proposed by Warringah Council on 23 February 2016, was for an amalgamation of the Pittwater, Manly and Warringah councils. As a consequence of Warringah's proposal, the New South Wales Minister for Local Government Paul Toole proposed that the North Sydney, Willoughby and Mosman Councils be merged. In July 2017, the Berejiklian government decided to