Unique IDFN-0012Description**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.
Regulation of public health principally by means of preventive measures and the regulation of activities deemed to be potential or actual health risks. This function does not include provision of health services to Council staff.
This function overlaps in some respects with the functions: CF 03 Garbage and refuse cleansing and CF 15 Water supply and sewerage, and to some extent CF 09 Resumptions of land. Until well into the twentieth century, Council's conception of its public health responsibilities was tied to the collection and disposal of waste, from streets and premises including cesspits, and for regulating "nuisances", such as noxious trades, and to a concern for removal of slum housing.
Although medically-qualified officers had been appointed to manage the responsibility, they were generally disregarded. It was only following the plague outbreak of 1900 and resultant public agitation that the Council began to pay sustained attention to public health matters. The position of City Health Officer was funded by and responsible to the State Government (under the joint title of District Medical Officer) and based at the Town Hall, from about 1902 until 1936.
In recent years the public health function has been focussed on matters such as regulation of businesses serving food, providing 'skin penetration' services such as tattooing, and the like.
Shirley Fitzgerald: Sydney 1842-1992 (Sydney, Hale & Iremonger, 1992) see esp pp 181, 215-220.
AJC Mayne: Fever Squalor and Vice: Sanitation & Social Policy in Victorian Sydney (St Lucia, University of Queensland Press, 1982) see esp chapter 3.CreationSydney Corporation Restoration Act 1857.
Required appointment of qualified medical practitioner as City Health Officer.
Sydney Corporation Act 1879, ss163-165, 191-193, etc.
Council to appoint a City Health Officer with authority to report on epidemics and nuisances, unhealthy dwellings, and to enter dwellings and seize unwholesome food.
City of Sydney Improvement Act 1879, s25, 31 etc, gave the City Heath Officer authority to condemn premises unfit for habitation.
Public Health Acts 1896 and 1902
Provided for demolition of buildings unfit for habitation, notification and combatting of infectious diseases, food water and dairy products unfit for consumption, and cattle slaughtering.
Sydney Corporation Act 1902, s59(1).
The City Health Officer was required to be a qualified medical practitioner.
For municipalities other than the City of Sydney: Municipalities Act 1858 s72 included power to make bylaws for preservation of public health. Refer to the function CF 29
