Her request was denied, only because of one last formality - Melbourne’s 10 other city councillors also had to sign the newly-introduced code.

Once that was out out the way she was free to talk, and immediately made light of her eagerness. “Over-enthusiasm will be a common theme for my time as lord mayor,” she said.

As Melbourne’s 104th lord mayor, Cr Capp said she would work hard to represent all Melburnians.

Cr Capp is a lawyer who has previously worked as chief executive of the Committee for Melbourne and as Victoria’s Agent-General in Europe and Israel.

As Property Council boss she led the charge for higher density development in the CBD, and those interested in planning will be watching closely her views on skyscraper applications from developers to either the city council or Planning Minister Richard Wynne.

Cr Capp replaces former lord mayor Robert Doyle, who resigned amid a #MeToo firestorm, facing multiple allegations of sexual harassment from fellow councillors and other women.

He denied the allegations, but an investigation commissioned by Melbourne City Council made four findings of misconduct against him – including that he grasped the breast of former councillor Tessa Sullivan.

Cr Capp thanked deputy lord mayor Arron Wood - elected alongside Mr Doyle in 2016 - for his leadership during the months since the allegations surfaced.

She also thanked her supporters and - almost choking up as she did so - her family.

At the traditional welcome to country that preceded the swearing-in on the Town Hall balcony, Indigenous elder Carolyn Briggs welcomed Melbourne’s first “mayoress”.

Cr Capp is the first woman to be directly elected lord mayor of Melbourne (two women have been lord mayor, although they were elected to the position by fellow councillors).

Ms Briggs’ welcome was followed by a smoking ceremony, a cleansing ritual in which smoke from eucalyptus and wattle waft through an area, to “leave the bad energies behind and open up anew”.

Ms Briggs said the ceremony traditionally took three to five days, but there was only about three to five minutes to spare before Thursday's swearing-in.

It was left to Ms Capp to note that the occasion was an “opportunity to cleanse from what has been a troubled and difficult six months, and an opportunity for all of us to look forward”.

Asked if she had spoken with Mr Doyle, Cr Capp said she had not had any communication with the former lord mayor.

The first item on the agenda now she is lord mayor?

Cr Capp said she planned to work with Melbourne City Council chief executive Ben Rimmer and councillors about waste collection in the city, with 34 garbage and recycling companies descending on the CBD daily to collect refuse.

Cr Capp said this was having a direct impact on congestion, noise and inefficiencies. “My first meeting today is on that,” she said.

She also said the city was destined to keep growing - and would face serious issues as a result.

“We’ve certainly got some growing pains,” she said. “Because we know we are going to have growth, we can have either good growth or bad growth.”

She said she was confident the council could be “be proactive in creating ‘good growth’ … as opposed to feeling that it’s overtaking us in some ways.”