What looked like a clear-cut victory on election night for Uralla Shire Council candidate Bruce McMullen turned into a dramatic upset after preferences were distributed, with newcomer Stephen Wright securing the final result by just 12 votes.
The Ward A by-election, held following the passing of councillor Lone Petrov, was formally declared by the NSW Electoral Commission on Tuesday, confirming Wright had won the seat 590 votes to 578.
On election night, McMullen had emerged as the frontrunner, prompting many supporters to publicly congratulate him on what appeared to be a certain victory. However, the final preference count delivered a late swing in Wright’s favour.
Uralla Shire Mayor Robert Bell congratulated the successful candidate following the declaration.
“On behalf of Council, I congratulate Stephen Wright on his election as Councillor for Ward A and welcome Councillor-elect Wright, who will be sworn in at the Ordinary Council meeting on Tuesday 26 May,” Cr Bell said.
“We also acknowledge all candidates who nominated for the by-election and thank residents who participated in the democratic process.”
Wright, who only permanently moved to Uralla earlier this year, described the result as “miraculous” after entering the race following encouragement from friends in the community.
“My wife Lindsay and I moved permanently to Uralla effectively in the last week of January, but first week of February,” Wright said.
“We’ve had a place in Uralla since 2017 so I’ve been paying rates for a while now we’d always been going to come to Uralla.”
Wright said the move to Uralla had originally been planned several years ago before work opportunities delayed the relocation.
“We were sort of aiming to be in Uralla in the second half of 2022 I got an offer to go and work for a couple of years in Queensland which was an exciting opportunity for late career adventure,” he said.
“Then through complete happenstance, we ended up spending all of last year in the caravan, just being cadet grey nomads.”
Despite only recently settling in town full-time, Wright said he had longstanding connections to the area.
“One of my very best friends who’s in the farming community just out of town, have known him since, you know, we were in our early 20s in Sydney together,” he said.
“So I’ve been coming to the town for a very long time.”
Wright said the by-election came after what he described as “a terrible tragedy for the whole of the town” following the death of Cr Petrov.
“When Mrs Petrov passed away, it was a terrible tragedy for the whole of the town, but it was a bit of a sliding door moment,” he said.
“Some friends said, look, we think you could contribute.”
Among his priorities on council will be planning matters linked to the New England Renewable Energy Zone and the review of Uralla’s Local Environmental Plan.
“Uralla is a little bit overdue on reviewing its LEP,” he said.
“It’s very important Uralla protects its citizens and ratepayers as much as possible with a nice, straightforward planning regime.”
Wright also said managing growth associated with renewable energy development would be a key challenge for the shire.
“I think managing growth is probably one of the most interesting things for me,” he said.
“It’s very much about making sure the Uralla environment remains as beautiful as it can be, but at the same time, there’s going to be growth.”
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