AGY-3624 | Department of Sport and Recreation [I]

Full description

On 14 May 1976, responsibility for cultural activities was transferred to the Premier(1) and the Department of Culture, Sport and Recreation was renamed the Department of Sport and Recreation some time later. The Department of Sport and Recreation became a Department of the Crown in its own right.(2) In 1978, the Department of Sport and Recreation’s main functions included: promotion of physical and mental health and wellbeing through the provision of facilities and programs suitable for all sections of the community; assist, advise and support sporting and recreational organisations to develop the widest possible community participation in leisure activities; liaise with community sporting bodies on developing sport and recreation policies, facilities, and programs; act as a channel for State Government financial assistance for the development of sporting and recreational services and facilities; maintain a network of Regional Offices and Sport and Recreation Centres; organise and administer school outdoor education programs, and field study programs.(3) The Department’s functions also included: the control and regulation of horseracing, trotting, greyhound, and speedway racing and the licensing of race courses and speedways; and the issue of exemptions for public entertainment on Sunday mornings.(4) The Department’s Sport and Recreation Centres provided facilities for school children during the school term and for the community at weekends and during school holidays. Field study centres provided secondary and tertiary institution curricula relating to sporting, recreational, and outdoor environmental studies. In 1978, the Department was responsible for the following Sport and Recreational Centres: Borambola, Broken Bay, Lake Burrendong, Lake Jindabyne, Lake Ainsworth, Lake Keepit, Little Wobby, Myuna Bay, Narrabeen Lakes, Point Wolstoncraft.(5) The Department’s eleven Regional Offices covered the following regions: Metropolitan, Central Metropolitan, North Sydney, St George/Sutherland, Liverpool, Western, Hunter, Riverina, South Coast, North Coast, North West.(6) The Department was also responsible for the Sydney Cricket and Sports Ground Trust and the Greyhound Racing Control Board. The Department of Sport and Recreation assumed responsibility for the collection of revenue from bookmakers and totalizator operations in 1978. This had previously been handled by Treasury.(7) The Department of Sport and Recreation was abolished on 21 July 1982 and all branches of the former Department, along with all branches of the Department of Tourism, were transferred to the newly created Department of Leisure, Sport and Tourism.(8) ENDNOTES
1. NSW Government Gazette No.67, 17 May 1976, p2139.
2. Department of Sport, Recreation and Racing Annual Report for 1987-1988, p7.
3. NSW Government Directory, 1977-78, p323.
4. loc. cit.
5. NSW Government Directory, 1977-78, p326.
6. ibid., p327.
7. Department of Sport, Recreation and Racing Annual Report for 1987-1988, p7.
8. NSW Government Gazette No.99, 23 July 1982, p3349 and p3389.