The original elements of Portland mayoral chain were presented to the Town of Portland by Mrs K. E. Mellblom and her brother, then Portland Town Clerk, Mr E. Noel T. Henry on 17 December 1955.
The occasion was the centenary of Municipal Government in Portland, and a ceremony was held at the entrance to Portland Town Hall, the administrative hub of the Town Council.
The central drop of the mayoral chain was donated by Mrs Mellblom and Mr Henry in recognition of their parents’ (Mr and Mrs T. E. C. Henry) for their public service to the municipality.
Mr T. Edward C. Henry was Portland’s Town Clerk from 1888 to 1938. Between them, the father and son duo, Edward and Noel, served as concurrent Town Clerks, working for the Portland municipality for a combined 107 and a half years.
The centre piece of the mayoral chain comprises the Royal Coat of Arms from the Town’s Seal, and on the drop which hangs below, the raised enamel shield bears the various designs included in the Town of Portland Seal. These elements are a whale, a lighthouse, a sailing ship and a hanging sheep (a reference to the Thomas Borthwick & Sons abattoir which operated in Portland for nearly a century).
At the time the chain was created, past living Mayors and the descendants of deceased past Mayors each contributed to a link in the chain. The oval links included the monogrammed initials of each past Mayor and are inscribed with the Mayor’s name and dates of service.
When Portland was proclaimed a City in 1985 the “Town of Portland” ribbon banner on the central drop was replaced with “City of Portland”. From 1955 to the formation of the current Glenelg Shire in the mid 1990s, a link was added to the chain with the election of each new Mayor. As with the original links, the additional links included the Mayor’s monogrammed initials, and were engraved with their name and years of service. Since the Council amalgamations and the formation of the Glenelg Shire, the gold mayoral chain is no longer worn for official ceremonies and events, yet serves as a valuable record of Portland’s past civic leaders.