Cr. Rob Haswell was elected Mayor of Northern Grampians Shire Council for a twelve-month term at a Statutory Council meeting held on Monday, November 6. 

This will be his first term serving the shire as mayor.

Mayor Haswell is currently serving his second term as a councillor for Stawell Ward, having first been elected to council on October 22, 2016, and re-elected on October 24, 2020.

Originally from Sydney, Cr. Haswell spent twenty years in Canberra and has a background in commercial furniture design.

He is passionate about maintaining the heritage of buildings and streetscapes throughout the Northern Grampians Shire, and currently owns and manages a luxury short stay heritage accommodation business in Stawell, located at Langford House, a building that Cr. Haswell restored and refurbished, as well as a successful online furniture business.

Cr. Haswell relocated to Stawell following a twenty-year career in Canberra and is a student of music, the arts and design, boasting a love for furniture sketching that dates back to his early childhood.

He is looking forward to further representing the wider shire community in his role as Mayor, having represented council on StawellBiz and the Wimmera Regional Library Corporation during his first term as a councillor.

“I believe that I will make a good mayor, I will be responsible and have an ear to my community at all times and proceed exactly as they want me to proceed,” he said in his pre-election speech on Monday evening.

In addition to his role as Mayor, Cr. Haswell also represents the council on the Stawell Harness Racing Club Community Grants Panel.

• Major towns in Northern Grampians Shire are Stawell and St. Arnaud. Other communities include Great Western, Halls Gap, Glenorchy, Navane, Marnoo and Stuart Mill.

This article appeared in The Buloke Times, 10 November 2023.