Unique IDFN-0009Description**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.
Resumption means the compulsory acquisition of land for public purposes envisaged by law, including construction and widening of roads, and clearance of slums, and including payment of compensation to dispossessed owners. This function also includes management of the short-term tenancies granted to occupants of resumed properties, or others, pending actual demolition. In recent years the function has not been significantly exercised, but it remains open.
The Moore Street Improvement Act 1890 (see s3) could alternatively be considered the first legislation giving the Council a right to compulsorily acquire land (for the transformation of Moore St into Martin Pl) but it was specific to this project, not a general power of resumption.
The resumptions in 1901-1902 (following the Plague scare), in Millers Point and The Rocks, and harbour foreshores from Circular Quay to Darling Harbour, were carried out by the State Government not the City Council.
The first resumptions by the Council after the 1905 Act were at Athlone Place (Ultimo), and Wexford St (Haymarket/Surry Hills). Others followed, mainly in Camperdown, Surry Hills and the Haymarket. Council's major resumptions were slum clearance operations and street widening.. Land was cleared by the demolition of existing buildings, and sometimes streets disappeared or were realigned in whole or part as a result. In some cases the Council constructed public housing on the land, but often it sought to replace the 'slum' housing with commercial and industrial uses. Streets widened included George St West (Broadway), Oxford St between College St and Taylor Square, and William St.
The largest area of and affected by Council action may have been the block bounded more or less by Oxford St, Elizabeth St, Albion St and Bourke St, resumed in several stages between about 1910 and 1935. This included the Brisbane St resumption.
There was sometimes a delay of years between the time a resumption came into effect and the time demolition actually commenced. It was common for occupants of the existing properties, or others, to be granted short-term tenancies by the Council, pending demolition. Claims for compensation, by owners of resumed properties, also sometimes took years to finalise.
Over the years Council built up a considerable property portfolio by retaining ownership of residues of resumed land not utilised or sold for other purposes, and leasing out the properties. In many cases the Council constructed buildings for lease on these sites, including office blocks, shops and hotels.
Shirley Fitzgerald: Sydney 1842-1992 (Sydney, Hale & Iremonger, 1992) pp220-228. See also other books in the Sesquicentenary History series: Chippendale, Surry Hills, Millers Point, Pyrmont & Ultimo, The Accidental City.CreationMoore St Improvement Act 1890, s3
Sydney Corporation Amendment Act 1900, ss26-28
The Council was empowered to resume land for purposes connected with streets and public places.
Sydney Corporation Amendment Act 1905, Part II
Additional resumption powers were granted, for slum clearance and public housing purposes.
For municipalities other than the City of Sydney: Local Government Act 1919 part XXV. Refer to the function CF 29.
Local Government Act 1919 also applied to the City of Sydney, from 1 January 1949.
Local Government Act 1993, ss186-190
Councils have a general power to acquire land for the purpose of exercising any of their functions.
