AGY-499 | Sydney County Council

Full description

The Sydney County Council was constituted on 17 August 1935 under the Gas and Electricity Act 1935. (1) Its first meeting was held on 28 August 1935. (2) On 1 January 1936 the County Council assumed control of the Electricity Department formerly conducted by the Municipal Council of Sydney. (3) The County Council supplied electricity directly to consumers in the city and in thirty-two other municipalities. It also supplied electricity in bulk to the local councils of ten municipalities and four shires which attended to the distribution in their respective localities, and to a private company for distribution within a municipality and a shire. (4)

From 1 January 1952, the two generating stations and bulk transmission lines operated by the Sydney County Council were transferred to the control of the Electricity Commission of New South Wales. From that date the County Council purchased electricity in bulk from the Commission and continued to distribute electricity to consumers in its area. (5)

The restructuring of the electricity distribution areas in New South Wales to reduce the number of county councils from 39, to 25 was implemented on 1 January 1980. The new areas were based on existing county councils which supplied the main industrial and commercial centres of the State. A result of this was Sydney County Council combining with Brisbane Water, St George and Mackellar County Councils. (6)

The Sydney Electricity Act, 1990 (Act No.117, 1990), which received assent on 18 December 1990 (7), dissolved the Sydney County Council and established Sydney Electricity, which commenced operations on 2 January 1991. (8)

Endnotes
1. Gas and Electricity Act, 1935 (Act No.42, 1935), s.40; New South Wales Government Gazette No.214, 20 December 1935, Vol.4, p.4874; Gordon F. Anderson, Fifty years of electricity supply: the story of Sydney's electricity undertaking. Sydney: Sydney County Council, 1955, p.145.
2. Anderson, op. cit., p.146.
3. New South Wales Government Gazette No.128, 12 July 1935, p.2799; City of Sydney Archives, NSCA-AGY-84, Electricity Department, 16 Sep 1902-31 Dec 1935.
4. Official Yearbook of New South Wales 1936-37, p.51.
5. Official Yearbook of New South Wales No.53, 1950-51, p.654.
6. Report of the Energy Authority of New South Wales for the year ending 30 June 1980, p.29.
7. New South Wales Government Gazette, No. 8, 11 January 1991, p.241.
8. Disposal Recommendation (DR 5246); Sydney Electricity Act 1990, (Act No.117, 1990), Sch. 5 Part II cl. 3; NSW Government Gazette No.174, 21 December 1990, p.11207.