Cr Beard, who has been Corangamite mayor for three terms, said she would not seek the role again because she believed it was time to hand it over to another.

She said the past year had required a big commitment because of the impact of the St Patrick’s Day fires on the shire. A big commitment had been required not only by herself but also by that of her family, she said.

She wanted to step down to be a councillor and concentrate more on her family, Cr Beard said.

Deputy mayor Neil Trotter said he intended to “throw his hat into the ring” at the mayoral election on November 27.

Cr Trotter, who has been a councillor for six years, said effective councils were a team effort and he intended to continue the team approach if elected.

He said growing the economies and populations of the shire’s towns would be among his priorities.

The shire had been debt-free for the past few years and he hoped to continue that, Cr Trotter said.

Other issues he hoped to address around Port Campbell were the Port Campbell national park management plan and the Port Campbell streetscape.

He was also interested in how local dairy farmers could gain a better return.

Cropping was becoming a bigger issue in the shire and was raising a number of planning issues, Cr Trotter said.

Plans for more exploration in the shire for energy resources and the likely impact on shire roads of the forthcoming construction of the Berrybank wind farm would also need to be addressed, he said. 

The mayoral election might be followed later in the year by the appointment of former councillor Wayne Oakes to fill a councillor vacancy that will be created if Cr Bev McArthur is elected as a Liberal Upper House Member for Western Victoria in the November 24 state election.

Mr Oakes, who served on the council for four years until the 2016 election, will be offered the councillor position under the countback system that offers the vacated position to the candidate who got the second highest number of votes at the previous election for the position.