Sunday, 10:16am – Blackall-Tambo Regional Council
Blackall grazier Lindsay Russell has captured an impressive 10 per cent of the councillor vote, or 721 votes, and will be one of six councillors sitting in the boardroom come April.
It is likely that local police sergeant Ben Holdcroft will be joining him, with 473 votes, just ahead of former Tambo Shire and Blackall-Tambo Regional councillor Graham “Slip” Jarvis on 472 votes.
Tambo grazier Pam Pullos has 464 votes so far, followed by Blackall solicitor Boyd Johnstone on 445 votes, and Blackall’s Hector Heumiller with 423 votes.
Just behind him is Grahame “Foot” Schluter with 419 votes.
With 77 per cent of the vote counted, the four sitting councillors running again all have a little ground to make up – Terry Brennan has 398 votes, Neville Dolinski 318 votes, Jeremy Barron 326 votes, and Richelle Curnow 309 votes.
12:10am – Richmond Shire Council
With mayor John Wharton elected unopposed, interest today has centred on the poll for councillors.
Three current councillors – Patsy-Ann Fox, Kevin Bawden and June Kuhl – were leading at the close of counting with 334, 308 and 252 votes respectively.
Two new candidates, Bethea Pattel and Clay Kennedy were next in the counting, on 239 and 210 votes.
Next was current councillor Scott Geary with 173 votes.
11:49pm – Flinders Shire Council
As reported by Lea Coglan, sitting mayor Greg Jones has finished the night ahead of his rival Jane McNamara with 53 per cent of the vote.
Only two of eight booths had been counted and the Local Government Association of Queensland has said it is still too close to call.
11:00pm – Longreach Regional Council
Electoral Commission of Queensland mayoral voting results have finally been posted – Ed Warren has 65 per cent of the vote there, defeating incumbent mayor Joe Owens.
At the close of counting on Saturday night, Stonehenge’s Leonie Nunn had shot to the lead on 526 votes in the councillor poll.
Current deputy mayor Tony Emslie has polled well all evening, sitting on 448 votes, closely followed by Qantas Founders Museum CEO and passionate tourism advocate Tony Martin on 446 votes.
RAPAD employment services manager Tony Rayner was on 439 votes, whille sitting councillor Trevor Smith had 412 votes, followed by Trevor Harris on 408 votes.
Three current councillors – Rae Bowden, Jocelyn Avery and Tony Neilsen – are well down in the polling.
10:43pm – Maranoa Regional Council
Roma businessman Tyson Golder has maintained his 58 per cent support throughout the evening as further voting results are announced.
As Penelope Arthur reports, he holds a steady lead over sitting mayor Rob Loughnan with 61 per cent of the vote counted tonight.
10:37pm – Somerset Regional Council
With 72 per cent of the vote counted in Somerset, sitting mayor Graeme Lehmann is likely to be returned, with 53 per cent of the vote in his favour.
Standing against him was councillor Kirsten Moriarty, who has 30 per cent of the vote, and new candidate Leo Talty, polling 14 per cent of the vote.
10:22pm – Longreach Regional Council
Ed Warren has claimed victory in the mayoral race for the Longreach Regional Council.
Although no official results have been posted to the ECQ website, Mr Warren, who has served as Winton mayor until 2012, has thanked those who voted for him and asked those who didn’t to “come aboard”.
Unconfirmed reports indicated that Mr Warren was leading incumbent mayor Joe Owens 2:1.
Also unconfirmed were very early councillor voting statistics, showing that sitting councillor Tony Emslie was ahead on 52 votes, followed by Stonehenge grazier Leonie Nunn on 48 votes.
Tony Rayner and Trevor Harris each had 41 votes, while Tony Martin and Trevor Smith had 40 votes each.
10:17pm – Murweh Shire Council
Another booth has added its numbers in Murweh’s counting, putting sitting councillor Annie Liston in the lead with 43 per cent of the vote there so far, overtaking John Jones’ early lead.
Incumbent mayor Denis Cook trails Liston on 33 per cent, while Jones is now sitting on 24 per cent of the vote.
9:40pm – Western Downs Regional Council
With only a very small portion of Western Downs mayoral votes counted so far, Paul McVeigh has taken an early lead with 37 per cent of the vote there.
His nearest rivals are sitting councillors Charlene Hall and George Moore, each with 25 per cent.
Another sitting councillor, Ray Jamieson, had 6 per cent along with new candidate Mandy Krause.
Only 4 per cent of the vote had been counted, as the referendum vote was counted first.
8:08pm – Murweh Shire Council
With four booth results available in Murweh, current councillor Annie Liston is just behind in the count there, polling 120 votes to John Jones’ 129 votes.
Sitting mayor Denis Cook has 95 votes.
There are a total of 12 booths to be counted in the Murweh shire.
7:57pm – Blackall-Tambo Regional Council
Tambo grazier Andrew Martin has captured 39 per cent of votes in counting tonight in the Blackall-Tambo Regional Council mayoral poll.
His nearest rival is former Blackall-Tambo councillor and solicitor Peter Skewes, who has 21 per cent of the vote.
Tom Johnstone is next in the poll tonight with 17 per cent.
Current Blackall-Tambo mayor Barry Muir has 14 per cent of the vote and Tambo contender Max Barlow has 9 per cent.
7:40pm – Paroo Shire Council
Incumbent mayor Lindsay Godfrey has a strong lead in counting, with 509 votes or 63 per cent.
His nearest rival is Karen Ticehurst, on 178 votes, or 72 per cent.
Jackson Shillingsworth has 86 votes and Peter Seckold has 74 votes.
7:23pm – Maranoa Regional Council
Current Maranoa Regional Council mayor Rob Loughnan is behind in counting, polling 750 votes.
His rival, Roma businessman Tyson Golder has 1050 votes, or 58 per cent.
There are 8762 electors in Maranoa.
7:14pm – Diamantina shire
Current Diamantina shire mayor Geoff Morton has captured 71 per cent of the vote in that shire and looks like being returned.
He has 60 votes to Don Rowlands’ 24 votes.
The shire has 160 electors.
5pm: Election day has arrived for local governments in Queensland with a number of tight races expected.
A total of 76 councils are being contested across the state and voters will also decide in a referendum on whether or not to give state parliamentarians fixed four-year terms, rather than three-year terms.
Of the 34 regional and rural councils in the state, 19 of them offer a choice of men and women for mayor while another one, Isaac Regional Council already has a female at the helm, thanks to Anne Baker being returned unopposed.
With many rural local government areas offering postal voting only, some results are expected to be known early tonight.
Take part in the conversation by tweeting using #bushvotes.
