Former Derwent Valley mayor Michelle Dracoulis has walked away from local government, announcing she will not take up the council seat she won at last month’s election.
Dracoulis lost the mayoralty to Casey Farrell on October 29. He won 60.4% of the vote after preferences.
In a social media post on Saturday, Dracoulis said she would not take the oath of office, despite being elected as a councillor.
“The hostility and abuse were exhausting and there were times where I genuinely felt unsafe,” she said.
“That’s not something anyone should have to put up with while in service to their community.”
Dracoulis said she had stood for election because she believed she had more to give.
“I still do,” she said. “Life has taken me down another path, though and I’ve realised local government is no longer where my time and energy are best spent.”
She said she was proud of what she had done in nearly five years as mayor.
That included pushing for the findings of an independent review to be made public and being upfront about the council’s financial problems.
“Not every decision was popular and there are things I’d do differently,” she said.
Farrell held the state seat of Lyons for Labor from March 2025 until the July 2025 election.
He is the son of Legislative Council President Craig Farrell.
The new council was sworn in on Thursday. Dracoulis and deputy mayor Luke Browning sent apologies.
At the ceremony, Farrell thanked Dracoulis for the time and energy she gave to the role of mayor.
Dracoulis said she would now focus on conservation, heritage, archaeology and the arts.
“My voice can be my own,” she said. “I can call things out and have opinions without risking codes of conduct.”
She said she was not stepping away from public life.
“Life’s too short and there’s too much good stuff waiting to be tackled,” she said.
