Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics

1. Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics1905–1974
2. Australian Bureau of Statistics1974–present

Provided for by the Census and Statistics Act 1905 (assented to on 8 December 1905), which created the office of Commonwealth Statistician and a Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics; the Bureau was placed in the Department of Home Affairs, whose census and statistics functions it took over. G. H. Knibbs took office as the first Commonwealth Statistician in 1906 and set up the Bureau in Melbourne.

Legislation: Census and Statistics Act 1905

1. 14 November 1916Passed to the new Department of Home and Territories when the Department of Home Affairs was abolished.
2. 1924The Tasmanian state statistical office was integrated with the Bureau.
3. 1928The Bureau's central office moved from Melbourne to Canberra.
4. 1932Transferred to the Treasury portfolio.
5. 20 August 1957The New South Wales Bureau of Statistics was merged into the Bureau, part of the integration of the remaining state statistical offices with the Commonwealth Bureau in the late 1950s.

Renamed the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 1974, continuing as the same office ahead of its establishment as a statutory authority in 1975.

• Conduct of the national census
• Collection and publication of economic, demographic and social statistics
• Publication of the Official Year Book of the Commonwealth of Australia
• Coordination and integration of state statistical collections
• Statistical services to Commonwealth departments

Last in the portfolio of Department of the Treasury.

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Some dates or links for this organisation are not fully confirmed. Corrections are welcome.