Barbara Abley was elected in March 2001 to the Council of the City of Greater Geelong (Victoria) before becoming elected as Deputy Mayor later that year.
2007: She became a member (AM) in the general division of the order of Australia for "service to local government and regional development, particularly through the Geelong Region Alliance, and to the community through a range of aged care, disability, health and service organisations".
Barbara Abley was elected in March 2001 to the Council of the City of Greater Geelong (Victoria) before becoming elected as Deputy Mayor later that year.
In 2002 she became the first woman Mayor of Geelong City Council in the Council’s preceding 134-year history.