In a ceremony at the Dubbo Civic Administration Building, Jane Diffey, Vicki Etheridge, David Grant, Dayne Gumley, Anne Jones, Stephen Lawrence, Greg Mohr, Kevin Parker, John Ryan and Ben Shields took the oath/ affirmation of office in front of family and friends.

Councillor Ben Shields said it was good “that we’ve got democracy back”.

“We’ve had this unprecedented thing where we haven’t had democracy in Dubbo for 17 months,” Cr Shields said.

“It's certainly good for the community that they’ve got people who they can go to to discuss issues involving local government … about the very basic services which are roads, rates and rubbish.”

The oath/ affirmation ceremony – a new requirement under the Local Government Act – saw each councillor promise to undertake their duties in the best interests of the people of the Dubbo Regional Council area.

Cr Jane Diffey said it was “a huge honour and privilege” to be a Dubbo Regional councillor, and she was confident the 10 new councillors were the right people to make the amalgamated council work.

“I’m really looking forward to working with the rest of the councillors … working as a cohesive group and taking the local government area forward,” she said.

“I think we’ve got a really good mix of people in there. There’s a good mix of old and new councillors, which I think is important and significant to helping us, the ‘newbies’, through the council … fresh ideas and also [people] coming from different backgrounds … so I think it will be a great council.”

She was especially proud to have taken her oath as a councillor in front of her loved ones – including her 93-year-old grandfather.

“I just feel so proud to be able to have him there to witness that,” she said.

Council administrator Michael Kneipp facilitated the ceremony and offered his congratulations to the new councillors.

The councillors would now undertake meetings, training and workshops with council staff to prepare them for their new roles as civic leaders, Mr Kneipp said.

The councillors will meet for the first time for at 5.30pm on Thursday, for an extraordinary meeting which will see the election of the mayor and deputy mayor, and the formation of the standing committees and other committees and working parties.

The first committee meetings and ordinary meetings will be held in October.