City Engineer's Department II

Unique IDAG-0028DescriptionPursuant to the provisions of the City of Sydney Act, 1988 which took effect on 1 January 1989, the City of Sydney was split into the Sydney City Council and South Sydney City Council and given separate organisational structures.

The existing Sydney City Council departments were either renamed, reorganised or abolished. Under the new structure, the old City Engineer's Department became the Works Department headed by the Director of Works. It was known as the Works Department until a Council resolution of 13 March 1989 changed the name back to the City Engineer's Department, and the title of the Director back to the City Engineer.

The structure for this department as gazetted in the Schedule of the Act had five branches. Oral advice received from the Department was that there was an extra branch headed by the Principal Surveyor, under the Roads and Contracts Engineer.

Each of the branches was headed by a Manager or Engineer and performed the following functions:

The Parks Manager's branch supervised the maintenance of all City parks and reserves. The work was carried out by the Parks Department of South Sydney City Council under the cross-servicing arrangements put in place by the 1988 Act. Any work unable to be carried out by South Sydney was contracted out. The Parks manager was John Sweaney, formerly Technical Officer in CA 10, Parks and Recreations Department.

The Administration Manager's branch handled departmental budget management, including the provision of secretarial support, and issued resident parking, crane, and hoarding permits. There was also a position called a Contracts Administrator responsible for processing of contracts. The Administration Manager was Gordon Milwain, formerly Chief Clerk with the City Engineer's Department.

The Development Structures and Lighting Contracts Engineer's branch was responsible for supervision of maintenance and works on pavements, footpath structures, city lighting (including parks), and receipt of shoring applications. All work was carried out by South Sydney. The manager of this branch was Serge Rebikov.

The Traffic and Parking Contracts Engineer's Branch investigated and reported on activities relating to the operation of the Sydney Traffic Committee and the Parking Sub-Committee; authorised traffic control devices; supervised work by South Sydney on road closures; designed and managed resident parking schemes; prepared local area traffic management schemes; and supervised signposting. The Manager was Cliff Cooling, formerly Design Engineer with the City Engineer's Department.

The Roads and Drainage Contracts Engineer's Branch supervised all works on roads and drains, kerbs and guttering, and reconstruction. Most of the work was carried out by South Sydney. The branch was also responsible for the computer requirements of the department. The Manager was John Evernden.

The Principal Surveyor's Branch processed development applications for traffic generating developments, checked footway leases in liaison with CA 11, Properties II, 1983-1992, and maintained the engineering plan room. There were no field hands in this branch as all the positions were transferred to South Sydney. The Principal Surveyor was Kevin Davis.

The most significant difference between this department and its predecessor was that it did not carry out any of the construction work and maintenance work itself. Its basic function was to supervise the contracting of work to outside bodies, mostly the Engineer's Department of South Sydney City Council.

The Parks Manager's branch of this Department was all that remained of CA 10, Parks and Recreations Department. Most of the functions of that Department went to the Parks Department of South Sydney City Council.

On 26 July 1991 Council adopted a new management structure composed of four Divisions - Finance and Administration, Corporate and Community Services, Planning, and Works. Each of these Divisions was headed by a Divisional Manager. These Divisions are not recognised in the Archives CRS (Council Record Series) system.

As part of the new structure, the name of the Department was shortened to "Engineers" and it was placed in the Works Division with Cleansing (formerly the Cleansing Department). The use of the word "department" was discontinued, although the department heads, including the City Engineer, retained their titles, status, salaries, employment conditions and responsibilities.

On 21 December 1992, Council adopted another new management structure which divided the Council administration into five divisions: CA 136, City Projects Division; CA 135, City Planning and Building Division; CA 112, Cultural and Community Services; CA 111, Corporate and Business Services; and CA 137, Urban Services Division. The Urban Services Division absorbed the functions of CA 28, City Engineer's Department II. The new structure took effect on 1 January 1993.CreationNSW Gazette, 2 December 1988: Notice pursuant to City of Sydney Act 1988, Schedule 3, Clauses 4 and 7AbolitionResolution of Council 21 December 1992

Series

Architectural and Engineering Drawings Relating to the Hyde Park Project

Records of the City Parks Project

Records of the Hyde Park Project

Photographs of the Hyde Park Project

City Engineer's Plans of Proposed Survey Work

Linens (original tracings), metric series

Street Index Cards

Plans of Engineering and Survey Standards (E3)

General Correspondence and Subject Files

Agency

Urban Services Division

Description

Start date1st January 1989End date21st December 1992Relationship legacy dataPRECEDED BY: City Engineers Department I AG-0005 (01/01/1989)
PRECEDED BY: Parks and Recreations Department AG-0010 (01/01/1989)
RELATED TO: Sydney City Council OR-0001 (01/01/1989 to 21/12/1992)
RELATED TO: Traffic management FN-0018 (01/01/1989 to 21/12/1992)
RELATED TO: Streets engineering FN-0016 (01/01/1989 to 21/12/1992)
RELATED TO: Parks and public spaces management FN-0014 (01/01/1989 to 21/12/1992)
RELATED TO: Building and development regulation FN-0010 (01/01/1989 to 21/12/1992)
RELATED TO: Streets lighting FN-0008 (01/01/1989 to 21/12/1992)
SUBORDINATE AGENCY: Sydney Streets Opening Conference AG-0138 (01/01/1989 to 21/12/1992)
Source System ID28

Relationships

Preceding agenciesParks and Recreations DepartmentCity Engineer's Department ISubordinate agenciesSydney Streets Opening ConferenceOrganisationSydney City CouncilRelated functionsStreets lightingBuilding and development regulationParks and public spaces managementStreets engineeringTraffic management

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City Engineer's Department II