Royal Commission on Sites for the Seat of Government of the Commonwealth
Seat of Government Royal Commission (1903)
14 January 1903 – 4 August 1903
Inspected and reported on the sites proposed in New South Wales for the federal capital (Albury, Armidale, Bombala, Lake George, Orange with Bathurst and Lyndhurst, and Tumut) so that Parliament could choose the seat of government under section 125 of the Constitution.
How it came into existence
Appointed by the Barton government by Letters Patent dated 14 January 1903, with four members: J. Kirkpatrick (chairman), the Victorian anthropologist and retired public servant A. W. Howitt, H. C. Stanley and G. Stewart. The surveyor T. F. Furber was its secretary. It followed the 1902 inspection tours of the sites by members of Parliament and the 1899–1900 New South Wales royal commission on the same question.
Changes during its life
- 16 July 1903Main report handed in; presented on 17 July 1903.
- 4 August 1903Special report on a proposed capital site at Dalgety.
How it ended
It handed in its main report on 16 July 1903 (presented the next day), placing the sites in the order Albury, Tumut, Orange, Lyndhurst, Armidale and Bathurst, Lake George and Bombala, and added a special report on a site at Dalgety on 4 August 1903, after which it ended. Parliament could not agree on Tumut or Bombala in 1903; the Seat of Government Act 1904 then chose the Dalgety district, a choice later replaced by the Yass–Canberra site in 1908.
Main functions
- Inspection of the proposed capital sites
- Comparison of topography, water supply, climate and access
- Ranking of the sites for Parliament
Where it sits
Last in the portfolio of Department of Home Affairs.
Lineage
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