Anita Aspinall was a migrant from England in the 1950s. As a journalist she was the Mount Barker Courier’s Stirling correspondent for 20 years. She joined the District Council of Stirling in 1987, during the controversy over the first Ash Wednesday Bushfire, and in 1991 became its first ever female Chair.
She became the Council’s first Mayor in 1993. She retained that position until the amalgamation of districts, which she promoted, to form the Adelaide Hills Council in 1997. She was then inaugural Mayor of that Council till 2000.
Anita served on an extraordinary array of boards, often at high positions. For instance, she was a member of the first (1995) board of SA’s Environment Protection Authority, and was President of the National Trust of SA from 2003 to 2010. She was awarded an AM in 2009 ‘for service to local government and the community through environmental, aged care and historical organisations’, and she received various other awards.
In 2007 she said: ‘I believe volunteering is a way to give something back to the community and in a small way is an effort to make the world a better place’.
Sources: Courier, 25 July 2007; Wikipedia: 2009 Queen’s Birthday Honours (Australia); MLDHS Collection.
If you have recollections, knowledge or further information that you would like to share about the people, places or events described here, then please contact us at mldhs@mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au
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