AGY-6091 | Darling Harbour Resumption Advisory Board

Full description

The Darling Harbour Resumption Advisory Board first met on 18 May 1900. Its Chairman was Robert Rowan Purdon Hickson (Under Secretary for Public Works). Its other members were Charles Edwin Parkinson (Chief Clerk, Crown Solicitor's Office) and Mr Waller. The first meeting was also attended by Edward Johnstone Sievers (Land Valuer) and Captain Jackson (Manager of Public Wharves) at the request of the Premier. (1)

The first resumptions of the wharves in Darling Harbour, covering an expenditure of some millions of pounds, began in early May 1900. (2) The Darling Harbour Wharves Resumption Act, 1900 (Act No.10, 1900) validated any notifications of resumptions made prior to its assent on 4 September 1900. (3) The Government Land Valuer reported that the 2nd and 3rd resumptions had been notified in 1901. (4) 

By 1904 the Government Valuer reported that 'The Darling Harbour resumptions have occupied a large amount of time of this Branch, and it is satisfactory to note that the original estimate of £4,500,000 will be only 2 1/2 per cent more than the actual cost. In connection with this enormous and important resumption ... it will be seen that the transaction is one of the largest ever attempted in any city in the world.'  The lands resumed 'embraced wharves, mills, churches, manufactories, stores, residences, fifty-eight hotels, businesses of every conceivable class and calling' with the work of the Government Land Valuer involving 'examinations of titles, identification of ownership, adjustment of leasehold interests, [and] life tenancies'. (5)

Related work undertaken by the Department of Public Works included the Darling Harbour Wharf extension with the railway connection undertaken by the Harbour and Rivers Branch and Railway Construction Branch and work on the Darling Harbour Low-level Sewerage by the Sewerage Construction Branch. (6)

The Darling Harbour Resumption Advisory Board advised on issues relating to resumptions of wharves and other Darling Harbour premises such as stores on wharves, fire insurance, ownership of wharves, collection of rents, valuation of wharves and reconstruction of wharves. (7)

It is not clear when the Board ceased to meet although work relating to the Darling Harbour Resumptions in the Department of Public Works' Darling Harbour and Rocks Resumption Branch was ongoing in 1904. (8)

Endnotes
(1) NRS 12549, Minute books, 1900 [6/5091]; Public Service List, 1900, pp. 44, 63, 69 (possibly Frank Waller p.19 and Edward Jackson, p.66).
(2) Darling Harbour Wharves Resumption Act, 1900 (Act No.10, 1900), s.2.
(3) Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Assembly, 1901 Vol.5, pp.1146,1225-1226, Report of the Department of Public Works for the year ended 30 June 1900, pp.48, 127-128.
(4) Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Assembly, 1901 Vol. 5, pp.1262, 1396, Report of the Department of Public Works for the year ended 30 June 1901, pp.2, 136.
(5) Parliamentary Papers, 1904, Vol. 4, pp.133, 575, 618, Report of the Department of Public Works for the year ended 30 June 1904, pp.11, 54, 133.
(6) Votes and Proceedings, 1902, Vol. 5, p.1019, Report of the Department of Public Works for the year ended 30 June 1902, p.63.
(7) NRS 12549, [6/5091].
(8) NRS 12550, Indexes to Minute books, 1900-01 [6/5092]; NRS 12551, Departmental letter book, 21 May 1900-14 Jun 1904 [6/5094]; loc.cit note 5.