AGY-514 | Marine Board of New South Wales

Full description

Under the Navigation Act, 1871 (35 Vic. Act No.7) the Steam Navigation Board and the Pilot Board were abolished and in their stead the Governor incorporated the Marine Board of New South Wales by Letters Patent under the Seal of the Colony. The Board consisted of a President, three wardens appointed by the Governor, and three wardens elected by owners of foreign going or coast-trade ships registered at Sydney or another port in the Colony. The Board came into being on 2 April 1872 (1) and under the Act was empowered "to undertake the general superintendence of all matters within its jurisdiction relating to the issue, suspension and cancellation of certificates of competency and service, the framing of harbour regulations, the preservation of ports, harbours and navigable creeks and rivers within the jurisdiction; the licensing, appointment and removal of pilots, the regulation of lighthouses, the superintendence of lights and other sea, harbour and river marks; the placing or removal of moorings, the granting and regulation of licences to ballast lighters, the licensing and regulation of watermen's boats and boats plying for hire, steam and other ferry boats and harbour and river steamers." (2)

The Board thus took over the functions of the Superintendent of Lighthouses, Harbours and Pilots, which had been carried out previously by the Harbour Master. The provisions of the Act relating to steam navigation were concerned mainly with ensuring safety and good order aboard steam vessels and the Board had full powers to investigate breaches of the Act or its regulations under the Act. In general shipping transactions the Marine Board acted in conjunction with the British Board of Trade and had jurisdiction over all British Ships. The Marine Board held inquiries into shipping casualties in all cases where a port of the State was the first entered after the occurrence or when survivors landed in New South Wales. (3)

In 1897 the Public Service Board, sitting as a Royal Commission to inquire into the management of the Marine Board, recommended that its judicial and administrative functions be separated.(4) This was carried out by the Navigation (Amendment) Act, 1899 (Act No.32 1899), which received assent on 17 March 1900. (5)

The Navigation Department, along with the Court of Marine Inquiry was set up following the recommendation of the Royal Commission into the Marine Board 1897, that the administrative and judicial functions of the Board be separated. Under the Navigation (Amendment) Act, 1899 the powers and duties of the Marine Board were conferred on the Superintendent of the Navigation Department, acting under the Colonial Treasurer, except that enquiries and appeals under the Navigation Acts, 1871-96 were to be heard by the Court of Marine Inquiry and that the Governor was permitted to make regulations under the Act, and appoint staff in accordance with the provisions of the Public Service Act, 1895. Under the Sydney Harbour Trust Act, 1900, which came into operation on 1 November of that year, the responsibilities of the Navigation Department, and formerly the Marine Board, which were related to Sydney Harbour, were taken over by the Trust.

Endnotes
1. New South Wales Government Gazette No.99, 3 April 1872, Vol.2, pp.915-16.
2. Act 35 Vic. No. 7, New South Wales Statutes, (1862-74).
3. Shaw, A.B. 'Port Jackson - Its Romantic Growth' Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, Vol. XXXV, Part VI, 1949 p.318.
4. Report of the Royal Commission to inquire into the management of the Marine Board of New South Wales, Votes and Proceedings, 1897, Vol.7, p.500.
5. New South Wales Government Gazette No.239, 19 March 1900, Vol.2, p.2233.