Nine of the 13 councillors will be women after Labor secured four female representatives in wards three and four, Peta Winney-Baartz, Margaret Wood, Deahnna Richardson and Liz Adamczyk, along with lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes and ward two's Carol Duncan.

The Liberals will have female councillors in Jenny Barrie and Katrina Wark, and the Greens' Charlotte McCabe was elected in ward two.

All three ward one councillors, independent John Church, the Greens' John Mackenzie and Labor's Declan Clausen, are men. The only other male councillor will be 20-year-old Liberal Callum Pull in ward four.

The previous council had five women and eight men.

The NSW Electoral Commission is distributing preferences this week and will start declaring results of the December 4 council elections on Tuesday, but the Newcastle ward results appear to be locked in.

Cr Clausen said Newcastle council would be among the most diverse in NSW.

"I think it's fair to say this is the most diverse Newcastle council ever, and not just in women," he said.

"You've got three young people, you've got a First Nations woman in Deahnna Richardson, you've got myself obviously as a gay man."

Before the elections, women accounted for 31 per cent of councillors across NSW.

Ms McCabe said she hoped the fresh council look would encourage more women into politics at all levels.

"I hope other mums and other young women will think, 'Oh, maybe that's an option', because I definitely never thought it was when I was growing up," she said.

The previous council term was marred by toxic flare-ups between the Labor majority and the independents.

Ms Wark wants councillors to sit in ward groupings around the chamber rather than in parties on opposite sides of the room.

"I think it would be better if we're sitting with our other ward people, because then you can talk and work together as a team," she said.

"If you're sitting in political parties, then you are more likely to not agree. Hopefully, we'll be able to start working as a team.

"I won't put up with any infighting. We're all adults. We need to just get on and do the job."

Cr Clausen said after talking to the new councillors that he expected the new term to be less adversarial.

"Obviously, we're going to have political differences and there will be a vigorous debate around policy, but I don't think we'll see the same nasty personality politics we saw during the last term."

Ms Barrie said having more women on councils would provide a "stepping stone" to representation at higher levels of government.

"It's been a long time where females have been under-represented across NSW," she said.

Ms Barrie hoped the new council would be better behaved.

"We've all watched the last term of council deteriorate in the chamber, and I feel it's a positive step moving forward there's so many new and younger females and males to take the council into a new future with more respect for each other."

In contrast to Newcastle, only one woman, Leah Anderson, made it onto the 10-member Port Stephens Council.

In a media statement on Monday conceding defeat in the mayoral ballot, Ms Anderson said she felt "compelled to express a concern" about the lack of women on the council.

"At this election, Port Stephens Council had ten roles to fill and nine men have been elected to fill them," she said.

"As the only woman elected to Port Stephens Council at this election, I'll be working damn hard to make sure this never happens again."

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