Minutes of Council

This collection contains the Minutes of Council from 1842-1888 and the Proceedings of Council from 1888-2019 for the City of Sydney (formerly Municipal Council of Sydney or Sydney City Council).

The Minutes are the official handwritten meetings of Council from its first meeting. The volumes are digitised, and the meeting minutes are gradually being transcribed up to 1887 by City Archives volunteers (they will be added as completed). 

From 1888, this collection includes the Proceedings of Council which are typed printed duplicates of the Minutes of Council. They date from the first meeting of the Finance Committee on 5 January 1888. 

Early volumes of the Proceedings of Council include Minutes of the Finance, Sewerage and Lighting Committees, Annual Reports of the Town Clerk and various other officers of Council (for as long as these were produced), Lord Mayors' minutes, and lists of the aldermen, councillors and committees.

For 1888-1897 there is an extended table of contents. From 1898 there are indexes in the front of each volume. The Town Clerk's reports of TH Nesbitt (1901-1924) are indexed separately in the volumes for 1888-1897.

To browse, select the range below and hover to select the correct time period. 

The search on this page will only search within the Proceedings of Council from 1888 as it does not search handwritten items.