They are Peter Eddy in the North Ward, and Tracey Hargreaves in the South Ward.

The Courier caught with both of them shortly after they learned of their election.

The long-term CEO of Basketball Ballarat until his retirement earlier this year, Mr Eddy was not in town for the results, which he thought took place next week. However, he was following it closely from the high country, where he was on his first break in more than a year with his wife.

He described himself as "excited and a bit daunted" to be elected, and told The Courier he was not counting on being part of council, despite a strong early showing.

"I have been around a fair while - I wanted to contain my excitement and make sure that once they produced the preferences I was in the right space," he said.

"I was very aware the preferences could perhaps go everywhere, and there was a bit of uncertainty as to how that would play out. A bit of that was ignorance on my part."

It was only after messages came in from fellow candidates as well as councillors he has known from his previous work that he relaxed.

He said he believed his background as a top-ranking sports administrator in the city would stand him in good stead in a non-sporting environment.

"I had good knowledge of working with government. It was in a sports field, but a lot of what you do within a business like Ballarat Basketball is no different to running a similar sized business with a similar turnover."

As an independent, Mr Eddy says he wants to ensure the team spirit of the new councillor group functions strongly.

"I don't mind people having political interests if that's their personal style - as long as coming into the council forum we are there to represent the ratepayers of Ballarat.

"I think I am a relatively strong leader and one of the things I would like to do in the council chamber is to really focus people on working together and making team-based decisions.

"As far as alliances go, my alliance is to the whole council.

"I don't support backroom deals - I don't mind people talking about decisions or positions or what might be coming, but I really do feel it's important everyone gets the same information at the same time, be that the election of a mayor or a decision on a major project. I think everyone's entitled to the same information."

He believes the new council is a "good cross-section" of new people and independents, adding: "I am hopeful we can clean the slate a bit and start afresh."

And he is relishing the thought of getting stuck in.

"To me, it's about getting to work quickly. Obviously there's a process to work through to establish a mayor and a deputy mayor and get the council in place.

"But then I think it's important, particularly with the environment we're coming into with COVID, we take a look at all the projects that are on the books and analyse that carefully."

"Whatever we plan to do in the next two to three years we have to make sure it is really going to give value to Ballarat and maximise the opportunities for people to have employment and income generation out of those projects."

As for mayoral ambitions, Mr Eddy has none - for now.

"I have always had the view, whether it's going on to a board or going into a situation like this, I think you need to learn how an organisation works from the inside," he said.

"I certainly don't have any aspiration at this point in time to consider being a mayor or deputy mayor. I just want to be a really effective and good councillor."

The new face on the south ward, Tracey Hargreaves decided to de-stress at the gym rather than go to the Learmonth Street election office for the results.

Instead, her mother went along to see how she would fare in the closest run of all the third place battles. Greens candidate Jackson Snep was leading her by just 18 votes for the first preference count, with incumbents Des Hudson and Ben Taylor already certain of being returned.

She received a text message with ticks and smiling face emojis from her mother, which she struggled to understand. Eventually they spoke and she realised what had happened: she would be representing south ward in on the next council.

Speaking to The Courier at her Winter Valley home a short time after the results came out, Ms Hargreaves still seemed taken aback by the support.

"It was a massive surprise. I still feel like I am a in a little bit of shock, I really wasn't expecting to get over the line."

As an independent candidate, Ms Hargreaves said she would not put herself in any particular box.

Asked if she would ever join a political party, she said: "God, no. Not at all - I'm not afraid to be an outlier in that way."

"A lot of things I lean left on, a lot of other things I would lean right on. Between all of that, I would just say I am right in the middle.

"Indigenous reconciliation is really important, environmental issues are very close to my heart: waste reduction, things of that nature. Small business is where I come from, being a small business owner.

As with Mr Eddy, she said she was focused on building a good working rapport with the eight other people on the council.

"I am not particularly going into it feeling super aligned with anyone, I would just look forward to building good relationships with all councillors across the wards and really working well together to see some progress in Ballarat."

Was she concerned about the sometimes strained council politics of recent months, The Courier asked.

"I am not really nervous about that to be honest. I kind of look forward to the challenge of being able to be that independent voice and stand my ground on things as well."

As a business owner - she has run Absolute Yoga and Pilates for more than 10 years - and a working parent with a young family, Ms Hargreaves said she would make adjustments now her role on council was clear.

"Part of the beauty about having your own business is I have already looked to how I can restructure some of my time and hand over responsibility to some of my staff, who are more than ready to take more on.

"As for family, it's a balance for all working parents. I've got an awesome husband who is really supportive of the whole council thing as well.

"We'll just make it work."

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