This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.Find sources: "Wagait Shire" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (May 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
| Wagait Shire Northern Territory | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Location of Wagait Shire | |||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 12°27′00″S 130°44′24″E / 12.4501°S 130.7401°E | ||||||||||||||
| Population | 508 (2018)[1] | ||||||||||||||
| • Density | 90.7/km2 (234.9/sq mi) | ||||||||||||||
| Established | 1995 | ||||||||||||||
| Area | 5.6 km2 (2.2 sq mi)[1] | ||||||||||||||
| President | Peter Clee | ||||||||||||||
| Council seat | Wagait Beach | ||||||||||||||
| Region | outer Darwin | ||||||||||||||
| Territory electorate(s) | Daly | ||||||||||||||
| Federal division(s) | Solomon | ||||||||||||||
 | |||||||||||||||
| Website | Wagait Shire | ||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
The Wagait Shire is a local government area in the Northern Territory of Australia. The council was established as the Cox Peninsula Community Government Council on 28 April 1995 and renamed with effect from 1 July 2008.[2] The shire is located west of Darwin, as a 15-minute ferry ride, or a 138 kilometres (86 mi) drive on fully sealed roads.
The council derived its previous name from the Cox Peninsula. It was named after Matthew Dillon Cox, regarded as the Northern Territory's first pastoralist, who applied for a lease over the peninsula in 1869, just after the establishment of Darwin. The current name is derived from the name of the township located near Wagait Beach.