A scandalous front-page headline in the Albany Advertiser and a cheeky phone call to a friend set Greg Stocks on the path to becoming mayor of Albany in Western Australia.
Stocks, a former footballer, teacher and businessman, had not set out to build a political career. But the newspaper story prompted him to consider standing for council — a decision that eventually led to his election as the City of Albany’s mayor.
He first joined the council in 2011 as a representative for Frederickstown Ward. Two years later, he became deputy mayor, a position he held until 2021.
His route to the mayoralty was shaped by a career spent in education and business as well as local government. Stocks returned to Albany Senior High School, where he had been a pupil, and taught there for 17 years.
He later became chairman of the board overseeing the school’s transition to independent public status and worked for the Western Australian Department of Education, developing workplace skills and learning programmes for disadvantaged students.
The framework he helped create for structured workplace learning was adopted across Australia, according to the City of Albany. Stocks subsequently co-founded the employment and training company Skill Hire, which expanded to 18 offices across two states and one territory.
Greg Stocks’ unlikely route to the Albany mayoralty
When long-serving mayor Dennis Wellington announced he would not seek re-election in 2023, Stocks entered a crowded contest involving seven candidates.
He won 34.51 per cent of the vote and was formally confirmed as mayor at the council’s October meeting. He remains the city’s popularly elected mayor, serving alongside a council whose members represent the wider Albany community.
Stocks’ political journey began with what appeared to be an offhand reaction to a newspaper headline. More than a decade later, that moment has become the origin story of his time in public office.
