It was gazetted on 2 June 1853, on the same day as
Onkaparinga and
Hindmarsh. Local government had only been introduced in South Australia in 1852, and only the
City of Adelaide (1852) and
District Council of Mitcham (12 May 1853) had been created earlier. At the time of establishment the East Torrens council covered including almost half of the
Hundred of Adelaide and a large western portion of the
Hundred of Onkaparinga. Excepting the six sections of the Hundred of Adelaide that would constitute the
Town of Norwood and Kensington days later, the East Torrens council was bounded by the
River Torrens to the north, the
Adelaide Parklands to the west, the
Great Eastern Road (now the South Eastern Freeway) to the south, and included most of the modern
Adelaide Hills localities of
Mount George,
Carey Gully,
Forest Range,
Montacute and
Castambul on the eastern boundary. The council's first five members were Dr David Wark, James Cobbledick,
Charles Bonney, Daniel Ferguson and George Müller, as appointed by the Governor alongside the proclamation under the
District Councils Act 1852 pending subsequent elections. It was subsequently divided up into five wards: St Bernards, Uraidla, Norwood, Glenunga and Stepney. The councillors met for the first time at the World's End Hotel in
Magill on 12 June 1853.
Henry Septimus Clark was Secretary and Engineer with the council, and
Joseph Crompton of
Stonyfell was employed by him and took over much of his work when he fell ill. In 1855 the population of the council area was 3,705, higher by a thousand than the adjacent Town of Kensington and Norwood. The huge area of East Torrens was not to prove as stable as Kensington and Norwood. Ratepayers were frustrated as to where their money was going; councillors did not have the administration or funds to operate effectively and the interests of the area were hugely varied. On 14 August 1856, the district councils of
Payneham and
Burnside were separated, respectively, from the north west and south west, city-side parts of East Torrens. East Torrens council was further divided in 1858 with the secession of the
District Council of Crafers. The original East Torrens council had broken up into eight separate councils or partial councils (including the remainder East Torrens itself) by 1930. The main population centre at the heart of the remaining area was
Norton Summit which was host to council meetings from 1897 and had become the official seat of the council by 1903. ==Chairmen of the District Council of East Torrens==