NRS-21793 | Land acquisition and resumption working plans [Roads and Maritime Services]

Full description

This series consists of plans relating to the resumption or acquisition of land either by negotiation and an agreed sale or compulsorily. The plans also include information relating to disposal of land.

The plans consist of drawings of areas designated for infrastructure projects and were used to chart proposed acquisitions and proposed project alignments and then updated to show the acquisitions, disposals, dedications/declarations as they occurred. They contain references to the corresponding file numbers of all the acquisition files relating to each project.

The power of the Australian parliament to make laws regarding the acquisition of property on ‘just terms’ is enshrined in the Australian Constitution (1901) in Section 51(xxxi).

NSW established compulsory acquisition and resumption requirements to encompass cases where private property was directly affected by construction plans for roads in NSW. The Commissioner of Main Roads was authorised to acquire property for the Department of Main Roads as part of road construction, under the Main Roads Act (Act No 24 of 1924). NSW could also resume, withdraw or vest land for roads under the Public Works Act (Act No 45 of 1912) and the Public Roads Act (Act No.95 of 1902).

Department of Main Roads and Roads and Traffic Authority Land Acquisition plans were maintained in conjunction with groups of State Highway files or Freeway files for land acquisitions and progress with acquisitions files. The Department's Head Office (H.O.) created these files to manage land acquisitions across the State. Divisional Offices (D.O.s) created their own files to manage acquisitions in their regions. Additional records were placed on the Divisional Office files and separate working plans were created to track progress of the multiple acquisitions for infrastructure projects.

They were numbered merely for reference purposes with their Divisional Office (D.O.) Roll numbers. E.g. D.O. Roll 115. Some of the plans contain a Charting Schedule, which was a summary table of related acquisitions for the given stretch of road undergoing land acquisitions. This summary table provides Lot and Deposited Plan numbers, file numbers, owner names and purchase dates.

The plans provide references to the land acquisition files, which were classified numerically according to the locations of construction works.