Cumberland County Council (New South Wales)

Cumberland County Council was a county council which existed in the Australian state of New South Wales from 1945 to 1946. Despite being named for Cumberland County, it was legally distinct from it, covering a largely identical but technically distinct territory (the Cumberland county district).

The Local Government Act 1919, part 29, enabled the governor to proclaim "county councils", which are groupings of local government areas (at the time, municipalities and shires) who wished to cooperate in the provision of services. The territory of a county council is known as a "county district". Although the State of New South Wales is divided up into 141 counties, for the purposes of surveying and the registration of land titles, counties and county districts are distinct legal entities, generally with different names and territories.^[1]

Under the Act, a Cumberland County Council existed from 27 July 1945 to 1964. Despite sharing the name of Cumberland County, it was not the government of Cumberland County, rather of the Cumberland county district, which was a legally distinct entity despite covering the same geographic area. While like other county councils in New South Wales, it was established by proclamation of the Governor, the Local Government (Town and Country Planning) Amendment Act 1945 inserted a new part 12A in the Local Government Act 1919, containing special legislative provisions to apply to Cumberland County Council. Under part 12A, a shire or municipality could be proclaimed by the Governor to be part of Cumberland county district only if at least some of its territory was located in Cumberland County; the Cumberland county district would only include the parts of the shire lying within Cumberland County.

Its responsibilities were primarily limited to town planning on the metropolitan scale. As is the case of all other county councils in New South Wales, Cumberland County Council was not elected by the people, but rather was elected by councillors of the various local governments within the county. The council consisted of 10 councillors each elected to a single constituency: No. 1 (Sydney), No. 2 (Marrickville, Canterbury), No. 3 (Randwick, Botany, Woollahra, Waverley), No. 4 (Rockdale, Hurstville, Kogarah, Sutherland), No. 5 (Strathfield, Ashfield, Burwood, Leichhardt, Drummoyne, Concord), No. 6 (Auburn, Bankstown, Holroyd, Parramatta), No. 7 (Mosman, Manly, North Sydney, Warringah), No. 8 (Hunter's Hill, Hornsby, Ku-ring-gai, Lane Cove, Ryde), No. 9 (Blacktown, Penrith, Baulkham Hills, Windsor) and No. 10 (Fairfield, Camden, Liverpool, Campbelltown, and parts of Wollondilly and Wollongong).^[2]

In 1948 the Council published the County of Cumberland planning scheme, a framework for accommodating expected postwar growth in the Sydney Basin. The objectives of the County Council were often in conflict with the aims of many State Government departments. For instance, the County Council's plans called for a green belt to encircle metropolitan Sydney, while the NSW Housing Commission wished to use much of this land to build new low-density public housing estates in areas such as Blacktown and Liverpool. As a result, the Cumberland County Council was dissolved in 1964.

Its metropolitan planning functions were taken over by a new body, the State Planning Authority, which has since been superseded by a succession of state government planning departments.^[3] As of 2024^[update], the planning department is the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure.

Chairmen

Years	Name	Council	Notes
1945–1951	John Percival Tate	Ryde	[4]
1951–1958	Ronald Stark Luke	Mosman	[5][6]
1958–1960	Leslie Arthur Scutts	Marrickville
1960–1961	Sydney John Webb	Holroyd
1961–1962	Tom Foster	Sydney	[7]
1962–1963	Sydney John Webb	Holroyd	[8]
1963–1964	Samuel Peters	Randwick

References

1. "AGY-423 | Cumberland County Council". Research Data Australia. Retrieved 2024-12-24.
2. "CUMBERLAND COUNTY". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 35, 293. New South Wales, Australia. 1 February 1951. p. 4. Retrieved 11 March 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
3. "AGY-424 State Planning Authority". NSW State Archives & Records. Retrieved 19 March 2020.
4. Sarah-Jane Rennie, 'Tate, John Percival (1894–1977)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/tate-john-percival-11822/text21153, published first in hardcopy 2002, accessed online 11 March 2017.
5. "Councillor R. S. Luke". Construction. New South Wales, Australia. 14 February 1951. p. 3. Retrieved 11 March 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
6. "County Council Chairman's Chain of Office". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 36, 054. New South Wales, Australia. 11 July 1953. p. 2. Retrieved 11 March 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
7. "Thomas Christopher Foster". Sydney's Aldermen. City of Sydney. Archived from the original on 12 March 2017. Retrieved 11 March 2017.
8. "Draw decides new chairman". The Biz. No. 2903. New South Wales, Australia. 7 February 1962. p. 3. Retrieved 11 March 2017 – via National Library of Australia.