NRS-22452 | Settled Claims Files (Appropriations and Resumptions)

Full description

Documents contained in the files are correspondence between the Crown Solicitor and the Secretary for Public Works authorising the issuance of vouchers for claims and confirmation of title.

There are, in the majority of files, valuers' reports, claims and abstracts from claimants, notification of valuation, sometimes certificate of identity, generally a plan of the area resumed. Occasionally there is correspondence between the claimant and the constructing authority.

The majority of the files reflect the procedures for compensation prescribed in the Public Works Act, 1912, part VII.

The historical value of these files is considerable, particularly in terms of their coverage of land resumption throughout NSW. Among other historic items are files relating to the resumption of land in the city necessitated by the construction of the Harbour Bridge, the City Railway, and the Eastern Suburbs Railway.

The series is arranged by annual single number. There are various file codes: MR, RT, RA, and RC preceding the file number.

Custody History

From 1955 until 2000 the State Rail Authority of New South Wales maintained an 'in house archives' consisting of the archival records of the Authority, its predecessor agencies and the private railway companies taken over by the government. The date ranges of the records were from 1849 until 2000. When the decision was made to close the 'State Rail Archives' the parts of the collection that were required as State archives were transferred to the State Records Authority of NSW. Those record series were incorporated into the State Records series system of archives control and were re-numbered.

This series was formerly part of the State Rail Archives collection where it was identified as series R116. It may have been viewed in the State Rail Archives as series R116 and could have been previously cited as such in notes by researchers at State Rail Archives or in publications or unpublished works.