[2] The council comprises an area of 1,681 square kilometres (649 sq mi) and is bounded to the east by the Tasman Sea, to the south by Broken Bay and the Hawkesbury River, and to the west by the Yengo National Park northwards to Bucketty before heading eastward along George Downes Drive, encompassing the Olney State Forest and crossing the Pacific Motorway, meeting the southern edge of Lake Macquarie at Mannering Park and eventually reaching the coast north of Moonee.

Lawrie McKinna who is part of the Independent Team Central Coast political party since 8 October 2024, and the Deputy Mayor of the council is Cr.

[3] The local government area includes a moderately densely populated coastal strip that extends from the Hawkesbury River in the south and is bounded by the Watagan Mountains to the west and north to Lake Macquarie and the Pacific Ocean to the east.

The makeup of the council, is as follows: The traditional Aboriginal inhabitants of the lands now known as the Brisbane Water were the Guringai people of the Eora nation.

In 1811, the Governor of New South Wales, Lachlan Macquarie, gave the first land grant in the region to William Nash, a former marine of the First Fleet.

[25] In 1840, the Brisbane Water Police District was proclaimed covering the area from the Hawkesbury River to Lake Macquarie and which administered local government under the control of magistrates.

[29] This experiment in local government was not very successful, with much public opposition focused on the issue of increased taxation, and a lack of oversight and faulty administration led to the collapse of many of these District Councils.

[30] However, no petition was ever sent from the residents of Brisbane Water to the government under this act, and local matters reverted to the police magistrates for determination.

In July 1907 a petition from the Municipality of Gosford was published in the Government Gazette requesting to merge with Erina Shire, the first Council to do so under the 1906 act.

[45] Despite objections, the commissioner returned a recommendation for the merger and a proposal for a six-ward model was considered and accepted at a conference held on 30 September 1907.

[25] On 22 April 1939, the Gosford Council Chambers on Mann Street, designed in the Inter-war Art Deco style by architects Loyal Figgis and Virgil Cizzio and built by A. E. Catterall at a cost of £5,785, was officially opened by the Minister for Local Government, Eric Spooner.

[73][74][75] Following significant debate about the provision of electricity undertakings across the Central Coast, including over the split between Erina Shire and Gosford,[76] on 16 October 1942 Gosford Municipality combined with the Shires of Erina and Woy Woy to form the Brisbane Water County Council to provide electricity to the combined area of the three councils.

[80] The formal government inquiry subsequently supported the proposal and in April 1946, Cahill notified the councils of his intention to proceed.

[95] The Wyong Library Service eventually expanded to five branches at Toukley, The Entrance, Tuggerah (1995), Lake Haven (2002), and Bay Village.

[100][101] In 2015 a review of local government boundaries by the NSW Government Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal recommended that Wyong Shire and Gosford City Councils should merge to form one single council to cover the whole Central Coast region with an area of 1,681 square kilometres (649 sq mi) and support a population of approximately 331,007.

[115][117][118] While acknowledging that most staff were "working hard to deliver services to their community [and] what has occurred is not their fault", Persson also noted the hardship and impact that "previous financial mismanagement will have on all residents and ratepayers of the Central Coast", "they don't expect to see things go from what seemed to be okay to what I'm calling the greatest financial calamity in the history of local government in New South Wales".

[120] On 21 January 2021, the Minister for Local Government announced the extension of Persson's term for an additional three months to 29 April 2021, noting: "There is no doubt that [Persson] needs more time to develop and implement his recovery strategy to restore stability and address the significant reputational, financial and organisational issues.

Mr Persson and acting general manager Rik Hart have done an outstanding job to date and I thank them for their efforts in these very challenging circumstances.

[123] The following day on 3 March, Persson also announced that he had approved a referendum to be held at the next local government elections, scheduled for September 2021, to request the reduction of the number of councillors from 15 to 9, with the option of a no-ward or three-ward models.

[124] On 15 April, Persson sent his final report to Minister Hancock expressing his view that "by far the greatest reason CCC became insolvent was due to mismanagement of their budget over the years following the merger and leading up to their suspension" and recommending that the Local Government Minister, "take whatever action necessary to prevent the return of the currently suspended councilors, and to delay the September 2021 election to allow a formal Inquiry to determine what is needed to achieve the successful merger of the two previous Councils.

[12][128][13] On 10 February 2022, Commissioner McCulloch handed down her report into the council, which was tabled in Parliament by the Minister (now Wendy Tuckerman) on 17 March 2022.

The government supported in principle all eight recommendation of the report, including that "civic offices at Central Coast Council be declared vacant, effective immediately".

[129][130] Other recommendations included mandatory financial and company director level management training for local councillors, that the Local Government Act 1993 be amended "to make it clear that money received as a result of levying rate or charges under any other Act may not be used otherwise than for the purpose for which the rate or charge was levied", and that Central Coast Council be removed as a water authority under the Water Management Act 2000 "to enable it to administer its water supply and sewerage services in the same way as other NSW councils".