Neilrex resident Ray Lewis is back on the Warrumbungle Shire Council, and all he had to do was fill out the forms.

The shire won't hold elections this year because no more than nine candidates put their hat in the ring for the nine council seats up for grabs.

Under election rules, that means all the candidates went through without contest.

A similar situation occurred further west in Cobar Shire.

Mr Lewis, who had been a councillor since the shire was established in 2004 but missed out in the 2021 local government elections, said it shows a disillusionment in his community.

"What I came up against, and didn't even start to campaign, was 'what's the point, they don't take any notice of one anyway," he said.

Fellow councillor, Coonabarabran's Zoe Holcombe, said she was unsure why the shire didn't field the numbers this election year.

The Warrumbungle Shire Council office in Coonabarabran. PHOTO: Warrumbungle Shire Council

"Maybe just people are busy and don't have the time for it. I mean, all of us have full-time jobs so that's a pretty poor excuse really," she said.

"You don't go in it to get paid, the pay is terrible. So if you think you're going to earn a lot of money, that's not true- and you shouldn't be doing the job if you're thinking of the money.

"Maybe people this time have thought, 'well, the ones that are there are doing a good job, maybe I don't need to have a go.

"Or you can look at it another way and say 'well, maybe local government isn't easy and what's the point in going on. You don't achieve anything.' But I think it's the first one."  

Nominations for local council elections closed at 12pm on 14 August, although the NSW Electoral Commission's online candidate list may not immediately display everyone who put in their election forms on time.

For example, the Coonamble Shire list updated with at least one more candidate on 15 August. 

Voters will go to the polls on 14 September. 

Cobar Shire also won't have a contest, where 12 candidates put their hand up for 12 seats.

Incoming first-time Cobar councillor Michael Haines said he would have preferred to be elected.  

"Yeah, well, it saves money anyway," he laughed.

"There's not much you can do, is there? You can't force people.

"If they don't want to do it, they don't want to do it."

Asked why he thought Cobar didn't meet the numbers for a contest, he said there's "a lot of people in this town that want things done but aren't prepared to do anything about it."

"A lot of people winge, and carry on, and have their say and everything like that, but aren't prepared to step up," the more than 40-year local said.

"And there's a lot of fly-in-fly-outers here too, so the population is transient."

Among the councillors re-elected unopposed is current mayor Jarrod Marsden and deputy mayor Michael Prince.

The members of Cobar's next council may have walked in without a fight, although Michael Haines said they are still there to better the town.

"They put their hand up and said 'I'm prepared to have a go.' So I think they'll do just as good a job as if they were elected."