Six of seven councillors were in attendance at the statutory meeting at Stawell on Monday night to vote on the position. Cr Rob Haswell was an apologoy for the meeting.

Cr Erwin was voted in unanimously, running opposed. 

He takes over from Cr Tony Driscoll who served the last two terms as mayor.

It will be Cr Erwin’s fifth term as mayor, having previously served in 2005-06, 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2013-14.

“It is a great privilege and honour to serve as mayor once again,” he said.

“Tony has done a great job and hopefully I can continue on the great work which he has laid the groundwork for.”

Cr Erwin said transport and roads is something he will have a keen focus on improving in his term as mayor.

“I am very passionate about transport. We need to keep things going in the western part of the state,” he said.

“We have a federal election coming up, we are very grateful for the road to recovery funding which we need to keep going.”

In his opening address as mayor, Cr Erwin also indicated the need to maintain small towns within the shire such as Navarre and Marnoo to prevent them from becoming ghost towns.

"We need to help small towns however we can,” he said.

Cr Driscoll also spoke on Monday evening as he handed over the reins. 

"It has been a pleasure to lead the Northern Grampians Shire,” he said.