AGY-2519 | Trustees of the Birchgrove Estate (1882- 1890?) / Trustees of Birchgrove Park (1890?- )

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Land at Balmain known as the Birchgrove Estate was purchased by the Government for public recreation possibly in 1882. On 21 November, 1882 trustees were appointed to manage the Estate under the Public Parks Act, 1854 (18 Victoria Act no. 23) . The first trustees were Messers Albert Elkington, Quarton Levitt Deloitte, John Booth, George Clubb, Edward Harman Buchanan, Charles Phillips and Jacob Garrard, MP (1) Mr Booth resigned and was replaced by M.A.H. Fitzhardinge in 1883 (2) By August 1890, when Fitzhardinge resigned as a Trustee the Estate had been renamed Birchgrove Park. (3) It is unknown when this change of name occurred. The Trustees were dissolved on 15 April, 1948 when the members of the Trust (Messers Bull, Tanner, Huntly, Provost and Mrs Nesbitt) tendered their resignations to the Minister (4) The Role and Responsibilities of the Trustees The Trustees appointed under The Public Parks Act, 1854 enjoyed perpetual succession to ensure the management and protection of lands set aside as public parks.(5) The powers of the Trustees included making rules for the conduct of their own meetings, (6) for the protection of ‘shrubs trees and herbage’ and ‘regulating the use and enjoyment’ of the park. The Trustees could remove trespassers and nuisances from the parks and impose fines for breaches of their by-laws. (7) By laws however were required to be approved by the Governor and Executive Council, displayed prominently within the park and published in the NSW Government Gazette before they had validity. (8) The Trustees jointly possessed the same rights as property owners except the capacity to alienate the land. (9) Their authority was such that they could enlist the assistance of the police to remove undesirable persons from the land and the lower courts for the recovery of fines (10) The Public Parks Act (2), 1884 (48 Victoria Act No. 22) allowed for municipalities to become Trustees (11), required only the Governor to consent to the by-laws which were to be published twice in the Government Gazette and provided for offences to be heard in local Courts of Petty Sessions. (12) The Trustees of the Park were further regulated by the Trustees of Public Reserves (Limitation of Numbers and Retirement) Act, 1941 (Act No. 51, 1941) which stipulated the number of Trustees at seven, enabled the appointment of ex-officio Trustees, defined a quorum for the meetings of Trustees, required the Trustees to report annually and submit financial statements to the Minister, provided for the removal of Trustees who failed to attend at least 40% of meetings and regulated for retirement of Trustees at the age of 70. (13) End Notes (1) NSW Government Gazette 21 November, 1882 p. 6167 (2) NSW Government Gazette 7 December, 1883 p. 6664 (3) NSW Government Gazette 8 August, 1890 p. 6172 (4) Minutes of the meeting of the Birchgrove Trust, 15 April, 1948 Birchgrove Trust Minute Book p. 276 NRS 15830/1/1 (5) Public Parks Act, 1854 (18 Victoria, Act No 33) s.1 (6) Ibid. s. 4 (7) Ibid. s. 5 (8) Op. cit. (9) Ibid s. 1 (10) Public Parks, Act, 1854 s. 6-8 (11) Public Parks Act (2), 1884 s. 5 (12) Ibid. s. 9-10 (13) Trustees of Public Reserves (Limitation of Numbers and Retirement) Act, 1941 s. 4