Unique IDFN-0006Description**This function applies to all Councils***
For Councils other than Sydney City Council, absorbed by the City by 1949, see function FUN 29 for details.
Design, construction, maintenance and management of buildings and other facilities (eg public toilets, electric power substations, market sheds) owned by the Council, purchase and sale of of land or buildings by the Council, management of Council's property portfolio, and management of Council's role as a tenant.
This function does not include resumption of land (compulsory acquisition for specified statutory purposes), or Council's role in provision of public housing.
Council's requirement for buildings arose from the responsibilities allocated under the Sydney Corporation Act 1842, and the requirement has changed over time, as responsibilities have changed. For example, among the earliest substantial buildings constructed by the Council were water pumping stations at Botany and Crown Street, but these passed to the newly-formed Board of Water Supply & Sewerage in 1888. Among the principal nineteenth-century buildings designed and constructed by the Council are the Belmore Markets (1869 and new building in 1893), the Corporation [market administration] Building 1893, Queen Victoria Building (completed 1898) and the Town Hall (completed in stages, 1869-1889). The Exhibition Building in Prince Alfred Park was built for the Colonial government in 1869.
Council's major period of building design and construction was between about 1900 and 1930. It was often done as part of the redevelopment of areas resumed for slum clearance or street widening purposes (for example along the north side of Oxford St). Construction included hotels, office blocks and shops for income-generating purposes, market buildings, public conveniences, electric substations and public housing. In a revival after 1945, Council the emphasis shifted to community welfare facilities.
Council's own architectural and drafting staff designed the buildings, but actual construction was mostly contracted by tender.
For much of the present century Council has owned city property (land and buildings) from which it has derived rental income. A great deal of this has been sold off, especially since the middle 1930s, or was lost to Council when functions were removed (eg markets administration in 1968) or boundaries changed (eg property in Oxford St when South Sydney City Council was created in 1988).
Since the late 1970s Council has also become involved in heritage refurbishment of historic buildings. The Town Hall underwent a refit for Council's sesquicentenary in 1992. The Queen Victoria Building was reopened in 1988, and the Capitol Theatre in 1995, as commercially-based joint projects with Ipoh Garden Developments.
During the 1990s Council undertook a refurbishment project of the Customs House at Circular Quay (in conjunction with the Commonwealth), and negotiated the construction of the City Recital Hall at Angel Place.CreationThis function does not derive from a specific mandate, but emerges from provisions such as the Sydney Corporation Act 1879 s 129 which permitted the Council to erect buildings on Prince Alfred Park, and s131 of the same Act which permitted the Council to grant leases of corporate premises.
For municipalities other than the City of Sydney, property management responsibilities are implied by the Municipalities Act 1858 ss74, 75 empowering establishment of public institutions such as asylums and libraries. Refer to the function 'suburban municipal government'.
Local Government Act 1993 chapter 6 part 1: Empowers local governments to carry out activities appropriate to current and future community needs.
