NRS-12592 | Drainage ("D") files

The Drainage Promotion Act of 1865 provided for the establishment of unions of landholders of flood prone lands and for the compulsory drainage of such lands. The Water and Drainage Act, 1902 authorised the expenditure of £200,000 per annum for five years on water supply, conservation, irrigation and drainage works and provided for the constitution of trusts to administer the works. Responsibility for administering drainage trusts and unions rested with the Public Works Department. In 1962/63 the last trust was converted to a drainage union. The Department continued to provide technical and engineering advice to drainage unions until 1987 when these functions were transferred to the Department of Water Resources.These files consist of correspondence, reports and investigations relating to proposed and established drainage trusts and unions; administration; constitution; works undertaken; inquiries; rating and assessment; by-laws; election of trustees; complaints; and dissolutions. Also included are files relating to resumptions of land with respect to the Burrinjuck Dam and Murrumbidgee Northern Irrigation Scheme and the resumption and survey report of the Woolgarlo Mine. Box 17/1292 includes an unregistered file on swamp drainage trusts, 1935. Correspondence and papers on these files date from 1858.(17/1268-92, 17/1254-67). 39 boxes. Note:This description is extracted from Concise Guide to the State Archives of New South Wales, 3rd Edition 2000.