AGY-4015 | Roads and Bridges Branch [II] (1907-1914) National Works and Local Government Branch (1914-1926) [Department of Public Works]

Full description

The Roads and Bridges Branch [II] of the Department of Public Works was established on 1 January 1907. The branch was responsible for roads, bridges, public watering places, ferries and punts in the Western Division of the State, similar structures or services in unproclaimed areas (those where there was no Local Government authority or those known as 'National'. The latter were those with considerable maintenance costs beyond the means of the municipality or shire in which they were situated. However most roads, bridges, public watering places and ferries had been transferred to the relevant local council by the Local Government Act 1906. Some of the artesian wells were transferred to the relevant irrigation or bore water trust under the Water and Drainage Act or otherwise made available for town water supply. (1)

By 1910 works within or providing access to Crown Lands or situated on land proposed to be made available for closer settlement were also noted to be within the ambit of the Branch. (2)

In 1914 the branch appears to have been re-named ‘National Works and Local Government'. At this date 273 bridges, 53 wharves (apart form those in Sydney and Newcastle) and 13 ferries which would have been administered by the local government authorities were proclaimed national works. (3) Steel and ferro-concrete bridge construction replaced timber bridges from about this date initially because of a shortage of suitable timber. The adoption of standard designs and the increased permanency of the new material somewhat offset the higher cost of the materials. (4)

A separate branch was established for the design and construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the City railway and related works. This was Sydney Harbour and City Transit Branch (1912-1913) / Metropolitan Railway Construction Branch (1913-1916) succeeded by the Sydney Harbour Bridge Branch (1921- 1932).

The establishment of the Main Roads Board on 1 January 1925 again re-defined the role of the Department of Public Works in relation to road and bridge construction and management. At the end of February 1926 the National and Local Government Works and the Harbours and Drainage Branches were amalgamated to become the Harbours, Roads and Bridges Branch. (5)

Endnotes:
(1) Report of the Department of Public Works for the year ended 30 June 1907 p. 71 in NSW Parliamentary Papers Second Session 1907 Vol. 2 p.633.
(2) Report of the Department of Public Works for the year ended 30 June 1910 p. 11-12 in NSW Parliamentary Papers Second Session 1910 Vol 2 pp.343-344.
(3) Report of the Department of Public Works for the year ended 30 June 1914 p. 8 in NSW Parliamentary Papers 1914-1915, Vol. 5, p.312.
(4) ibid., p.9.
(5) Report of the Department of Public Works for the year ended 30 June 1926 p. 2-3 in NSW Parliamentary Papers 1926-1927, Vol. 1, pp.739-740.