AGY-3083 | Sydney District Council

Full description

Sydney District Council was established on 24 August 1843 by a Charter of Incorporation issued by Governor Gipps under the Constitution Act 1842 (5 and 6 Victoria, c.76, ss 41 to 44).(1) Prior to this ‘Act for the Government of New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land’, there had previously been abortive attempts to establish local government bodies by passing relevant Bills in the New South Wales Legislative Council.(2) The establishment of District Councils represented the first general system of local government in Australia and they were the result of a number of political and economic pressures both at the local and imperial levels.(3) Under the Constitution Act 1842, the Governor was empowered to appoint the Warden and Councillors when establishing a District Council. Gipps appointed Thomas Barker as the first Warden and the twelve appointed Councillors were: Thomas Wilford, James Holt, Francis Kemble, and Frederic Wright Unwin who would all retire from office on 1 May 1844; David Jones, Felix Wilson, Robert Bourne, and Archibald Little who would all retire on 1 May 1845; John Betts, George Allen, William Carr, and Robert Johnstone who would all retire on 1 May 1846.(4) The first meeting of the Council was held on 5 September 1843 in the new Court House at Woolloomooloo. Under a Bye-Law, council meetings were to be open to the public unless the Warden or Chairman presiding in his absence deemed it necessary to have a closed meeting.(5) The Council appointed committees to oversee or investigate matters related to the Council’s functions and these included the following committees: Assessment, Finance, Education, Public Works, Audit, Bye Laws, and a committee to prepare petitions.(6) On 14 October 1844, the Governor on the advice of the Executive Council, disallowed a Bye-Law passed by the Sydney District Council authorising improvements to the South Head Road.(7) Under the Charter, a district with less than seven thousand inhabitants could not elect more than nine councillors. A third of the councillors retired each year and elections were held in May to elect their successors. Council decisions required a vote from the majority of councillors and the Warden had a casting vote. General meetings were held quarterly, although special general meetings could be convened by the Warden or at the request in writing of any three Councillors. The Council could appoint committees and a copy of the audited accounts was to be sent to the Governor and published in the Government Gazette. The boundaries of the Sydney District Council were those: "Embracing a North Eastern portion of the County of Cumberland, consisting of the Hundreds of Sydney, and Pakenham, except the parish of Concord, bounded on the North and North-West by Broken Bay, and Crown Creek; on the West, by lines bearing South-Westerly, and South, dividing Hynde’s Grant to Lane Cove River, thence by Lane Cove and its Bays, to the Western point of Balls Head Bay, crossing the Parramatta River to Long Nose Point, thence by Long Cove to the junction of the Parramatta and Liverpool Turnpike Roads, and by the Liverpool Road to the Village Reserve, at Irish Town, and from thence by a line bearing South to and by the Salt Ponds; on the South by George’s River, and the South Shore of Botany Bay, to Cape Solander, the Sea Shore which forms the Eastern Boundary to the South Head crossing the entrance of Port Jackson, to the North Head, and continued to Barrengerry Head, at the entrance of Broken Bay." The description includes the City of Sydney.(8) At the first meeting of Council, members resolved to seek clarification on the question of their jurisdiction over the City of Sydney because the boundaries of the District Council described in the Charter included the City. The Charter was subsequently altered to exclude the City of Sydney which was governed by the Sydney City Council established the previous year under the Sydney Corporation Act 1842.(9) On 7 June 1845 a Select Committee was appointed by the District Council to inquire into the validity of the Charter used to incorporate the District Council. The Committee argued the Charter was made void by unlawful alterations when left at the Colonial Secretary’s Office in 1843.(10) There was considerable opposition to District Councils largely from the belief of many residents that they would be subject to increased taxation.(11) Clause 49 of the Constitution Act (5 and 6 Vic., c.76) made each resident in a district individually liable for the entire expenditure of the district and police costs were to equally provided by the general colonial revenue and the district councils.(12) In 1850, the British Government made local government voluntary through the Australian Colonies Act 1850 (13 and 14 Vic., c.49). Under the Act, District Councils were to be brought into operation only upon the petition of the inhabitants of a district, and the colonial parliament was to have full power to legislate on all matters concerning municipal government. This voluntary system developed in a piecemeal way during the 1850s, culminating in the passage of the Municipalities Act of 1858 (22 Vic., no.13).(13) This Act provided for a voluntary system of incorporating a local government area by allowing local residents (at least fifty) to petition for its establishment. Section 93 of the Act repealed all the enactments contained in sections 41 to 50 of chapter 7 of the Constitution Act 1842 relating to New South Wales. The failure of District Councils was due to a combination of "faulty understanding of colonial conditions in the Colonial Office, bad drafting both in the Imperial Act and in the Charters creating the Councils, and inept administration of the system by the Colonial Government".(14) Many of the District Councils became insolvent and it would appear the Sydney District Council ceased to exist by 1858. ENDNOTES
1. Minutes of proceedings of committees, Sydney District Council, State Records reference number 4/1269; Charter was issued by Governor Gipps on 24 August 1843 and Published in the Government Gazette on 29 August 1843.
2. Concise Guide to the NSW archives, District Councils.
3. Lambley, D.B., A Key to the Historical Geography of Local Government Areas in New South Wales, Geographical Society of New South Wales and the NSW Department of Local Government, 1989, pp2-3; See F.A. Larcombe, The Origin of Local Government in New South Wales 1831-58, for a detailed account of why District Councils were established.
4. Minutes of proceedings of committees, Sydney District Council, State Records reference number 4/1269.
5. Standing orders and bye-laws of the Sydney District Council, State Records reference number 4/1272.
6. loc. cit.
7. Government Gazette, 15 October 1844, p1259.
8. Minutes of proceedings of committees, Sydney District Council, State Records reference number 4/1269.
9. Sydney Corporation Act 1842 (No.3), passed 20 July 1842.
10. Minutes of proceedings of committees, Sydney District Council, State Records reference number 4/1269.
11. Historical Records of Australia (HRA), series 1, vol. 24, p252 and p745; Gipps expressed concerns over the Legislative Council having control over local government authorities, HRA, series 1, vol. 24, p252.
12. HRA, series 1, vol. 24, p853.
13. Concise Guide to the NSW archives, District Councils.
14. Lambley, op. cit., pp2-3.