AGY-6401 | Opera House Committee (1954-1957) Opera House Executive Committee (1957-1961)

Full description

At a conference of persons and organisations interested in the establishment of an Opera House in Sydney held on 30 November 1954 the Premier J.J. Cahill announced the formation of a committee to examine sites and plans. (1) On 2 December 1954 Mr Philip Hampden Roper, Undersecretary of the Premier's Department wrote to Mr Stanley Haviland, Undersecretary of the Department of Local Government naming the committee members. The Opera House Committee was to comprise: Mr Stanley Haviland as Chairman; Mr Roy Hendy, Town Clerk, as nominee of the Sydney City Council; Mr Eugene Goossens, Director of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music; Colonel Charles Joseph Alfred Moses, General Manager of the Australian Broadcasting Commission; Professor Henry Ingham Ashworth, Professor of Architecture, University of Sydney; and, Mr Ronald John Thomson, Department of Local Government to act as Secretary and Executive Officer of the Committee. The Committee had the power to consult with any body or persons able and willing to give advice and to co-opt individual representatives. (2)

The first minutes of the Opera House Committee were recorded on 7 December 1954. The Committee considered 14 proposed sites for an Opera House, including Fort Macquarie (Bennelong Point), the issue of public subscription to fund the Opera House and the design competition. On 16 July 1957 at its 17th meeting the name of the Committee was changed to the Opera House Executive Committee. The following members then joined the Committee: Dr Nicolai Malko, Musical Director of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra; Sir Bernard Heinze, Director of the New South Wales Conservatorium; and, Mr Hugh Hunt, Executive Director of the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust. (3)

In 1956 an International Competition under which architects were invited to submit designs for a National Opera House at Bennelong Point, Sydney was held. The competition& and the engagement of the author of the designs placed first in the competition, Mr Jørn Utzon, was ratified and validated by the Sydney Opera House Act, 1960 (Act No.29, 1960). (4)

The Act also established the Opera House Account to which the proceeds of any lottery conducted for the purpose of raising funds for the construction of the Sydney Opera House and associated work were to be paid and amended the State Lotteries Act, 1930 (Act No.51, 1930). The 1960 Act's purpose was also to amend the Public Works Act, 1912 empowering the Minister for Public Works as the constructing authority from 1 January 1957. It also ratified and validated all contracts, agreements and undertakings entered into before the Act by the Government or Premier of New South Wales or the Sydney Opera House Executive Committee or any Minister of the Crown and any person body or corporation relating to or concerning the Sydney Opera House. (5)

According to the 1960 Act the work was to comprise:
(1) A large hall with a seating capacity for an audience of two thousand eight hundred persons.
(2) A smaller hall with a seating capacity for an audience of one thousand one hundred persons.
(3) A restaurant with a seating capacity for two hundred and fifty persons.
(4) A small experimental theatre in the basement with a seating capacity for an audience of four hundred persons.
(5) A chamber music hall with a seating capacity for an audience of three hundred persons.
(6) Meeting rooms, offices, library, canteen, kitchen, bars, lounges, foyers, clock rooms and public amenities, rehearsal rooms, dressing rooms, broadcasting and television control centre, projection boxes, storerooms and workshops.
(7) Air conditioning plant and equipment, lifts, stages, stage machinery, and stage facilities.
(8) Concourse, car park, road works and paving, land-scaping and planting.
(9) All works necessary or incidental to the preparation and development of the site, including site investigations, clearing, the construction of foundations, reconstruction of sea-walls and other marine works adjacent to the site, and the provision, removal or re-arrangement of any water or sewerage or drainage or electricity service or other public utility service.
(10) Other ancilliary works or buildings as deemed necessary or desirable by the constructing authority.
The whole of this work was subject to such modifications as were deemed necessary or desirable by the constructing authority. (6)

The Sydney Opera House Trust Act, 1961 (Act No.9, 1961) effectively replaced the Opera House Executive Committee with the first Sydney Opera House Trust, which included as nominated trustees many of those who had served on the Committee. (7)

Endnotes
1. Sydney Morning Herald, 1 December 1954, p.5.
2. Copy of letter from Premier's Department File No. 53/444, 2 December 1954 in NRS 17738/1/1 [1]; Public Service List, 1955, pp.1, 114.
3. NRS 17738/1/1 [1].
4. Sydney Opera House Act, 1960 (Act No.29, 1960) s.3.
5. Ibid. ss.2, 4-5.
6. Ibid. Schedule.
7. Sydney Opera House Trust Act 1961 (Act No.9, 1961) s.6(3).