{"id":"nsw:act-1915-009","name":"Seat of Government Surrender Act 1915","slug":"seat-of-government-surrender-act-1915","collection":"act","jurisdiction":"nsw","status":"in_force","isInForce":true,"actNumber":"9 of 1915","makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":175835,"registerId":"nsw-nsw:act-1915-009-current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-04-05","status":"InForce","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"Name of Act","content":"#### 1 Name of Act\n\n1 Name of Act\n\n> This Act may be cited as the [Seat of Government Surrender Act 1915](/view/html/inforce/current/act-1915-009).","sortOrder":0},{"sectionNumber":"2","sectionType":"section","heading":"Act to bind Crown","content":"#### 2 Act to bind Crown\n\n2 Act to bind Crown\n\n> This Act shall bind the Crown.","sortOrder":1},{"sectionNumber":"3","sectionType":"section","heading":"Commencement of Act","content":"#### 3 Commencement of Act\n\n3 Commencement of Act\n\n> This Act shall come into force on a date to be fixed by proclamation of the Governor.","sortOrder":2},{"sectionNumber":"4","sectionType":"section","heading":"Definitions","content":"#### 4 Definitions\n\n4 Definitions\n\n> In this Act:\n> \n> The agreement means the agreement made between the Commonwealth and the State of New South Wales, and set out in the Schedule hereto.\n> \n> The Commonwealth means the Commonwealth of Australia.","sortOrder":3},{"sectionNumber":"5","sectionType":"section","heading":"Ratification of agreement","content":"#### 5 Ratification of agreement\n\n5 Ratification of agreement\n\n> The agreement is hereby ratified and confirmed.","sortOrder":4},{"sectionNumber":"6","sectionType":"section","heading":"Surrender of territory","content":"#### 6 Surrender of territory\n\n6 Surrender of territory\n\n> The territory described in the agreement is hereby surrendered to the Commonwealth in accordance with the agreement.","sortOrder":5},{"sectionNumber":"7","sectionType":"section","heading":"Grant of Crown lands in territory","content":"#### 7 Grant of Crown lands in territory\n\n7 Grant of Crown lands in territory\n\n> The Crown lands within such territory are hereby granted to the Commonwealth without any payment therefor.","sortOrder":6},{"sectionNumber":"sch","sectionType":"schedule","heading":null,"content":"# sch\n\nSchedule\n\nAGREEMENT made the twenty-third day of September, one thousand nine hundred and thirteen, between the Commonwealth of Australia (hereinafter called the Commonwealth) of the one part, and the State of New South Wales (hereinafter called the State) of the other part: Witnesseth that, subject as hereinafter mentioned to the approval of the Parliaments of the Commonwealth and of the State, it is hereby agreed as follows:—\n\n> 1.\n> \n> The State shall surrender to the Commonwealth, and the Commonwealth shall accept, the territory (hereinafter called the Territory), now being part of the State, described hereunder, namely:—All that piece and parcel of land and water situate at Jervis Bay, in the parish of Bherwerre, county of St. Vincent, State of New South Wales, Commonwealth of Australia, area about 18,000 acres: Commencing at a point on the high-water mark on the left bank of Sussex Inlet at its intersection with the western boundary of portion 12 of 40 acres; and bounded thence westerly and north-westerly by that high-water mark to the high-water mark of St. George’s Basin; thence in a general easterly and north-easterly direction by that high-water mark to its intersection with the production westerly of the southern boundary of portion 18; thence easterly by a straight line formed by the western production of the southern boundary of portion 18, the boundary itself, and its production easterly to the high-water mark of Jervis Bay; thence by a line across the southern part of Jervis Bay bearing north-easterly to a point in the high-water mark of Jervis Bay at the northernmost extremity of Bowen Island; thence by the high-water mark of Jervis Bay and of the South Pacific Ocean along the eastern boundary of Bowen Island to the southernmost point thereof; thence by a line bearing south-westerly across the passage between Bowen Island and Governor Head to the high-water mark of the South Pacific Ocean on the foreshore of the mainland at the northernmost point of Governor Head; and thence by that high-water mark in a general southerly and south-westerly direction to St. George’s Head; thence in a general northerly, westerly, and south-westerly direction by the high-water mark of Wreck Bay to the high-water mark on the left bank of Sussex Inlet before mentioned; and thence in a general northerly direction by that high-water mark to the commencing point.\n\n> 2.\n> \n> This agreement shall not in any way be binding unless and until it is approved by the Parliaments of the Commonwealth and of the State, and legislation is passed enabling the Commonwealth and the State to effect the surrender and acceptance of the Territory.\n\n> 3.\n> \n> The Commonwealth shall account to the State for any purchase money received by the Commonwealth in respect of any grant of an estate in fee simple in the Territory—\n> \n> > (a) made by the State before the date of the surrender; or\n> \n> > (b) contracted before that date to be so made, either unconditionally or upon conditions which (except as to the payment of purchase money) have been wholly fulfilled at that date.\n\n> 4.\n> \n> The State shall make no claim for payment in respect of—\n> \n> > (a) the value of the waste lands of the Crown in the Territory; or\n> \n> > (b) the rents and profits, after the date of the surrender, of any land in the Territory held from the Crown under any estate less than an estate in fee simple; or\n> \n> > (c) the value of the right, title, estate, or interest of the Crown in reversion or expectancy upon the termination of any such estate as mentioned in the last preceding paragraph; or\n> \n> > (d) the purchase money for the grant by the State of any conditional estate in any land in the Territory, in respect of which at the date of the surrender there remains unfulfilled any condition precedent (other than the payment of purchase money) to the grant of an estate in fee simple.","sortOrder":7}],"analysis":{"flash_summary":{"complexity_score":3,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The Act implements and gives legal effect to the agreement set out in the Schedule: it ratifies the agreement (s.5), effects the surrender described in the Schedule (s.6; Schedule cl.1), grants Crown lands in the territory to the Commonwealth without payment (s.7), and records the accounting and waiver terms negotiated between the parties (Schedule cl.3–4). The statutory text does not expand the agreement’s terms beyond what the Schedule specifies; it implements that agreed scope subject to the parliamentary approval and proclamation requirements set out in the Schedule and s.3."},"complexity_factors":["Transfer of sovereign/land title coupled with a detailed geographic description (Schedule cl.1) requiring cadastral and title-matching work.","Conditionality on parliamentary approval and enabling legislation before the surrender is binding (Schedule cl.2) introducing procedural dependency on legislative acts and proclamation (s.3).","Accounting obligation for specified pre-surrender fee-simple grants (Schedule cl.3) which requires retrospective identification and calculation of purchase money receipts.","Express waivers by the State of several categories of post-surrender claims (Schedule cl.4) that may require legal interpretation as to which interests and payments are encompassed.","Short statute text that leaves operational details (management, regulation, disposal, administration of the territory after transfer) to later action, creating implementation risk and administrative discretion (s.6; s.7).","Interplay between treaty-style schedule (agreement) and statutory enactment (s.5) produces cross-references requiring reading both texts together."],"plain_english_summary":"The Act ratifies an agreement surrendering about 18,000 acres at Jervis Bay from New South Wales to the Commonwealth, converting that territory into Commonwealth land. Its effect is subject to both Parliaments’ approval and a commencement proclamation. Crown land title in the area passes to the Commonwealth without payment, though the Commonwealth must account to NSW for certain pre‑existing purchase monies while NSW waives a range of other monetary claims."},"kimi_summary":{"content_quality":"ok","complexity_score":2,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The legislation remains tightly focused on its original purpose: the single transfer of Jervis Bay from NSW to Commonwealth control. It has not expanded beyond this territorial surrender function."},"complexity_factors":["Only 2 defined terms ('the agreement' and 'the Commonwealth')","No cross-references to other Acts","Simple sequential structure (7 sections plus Schedule)","Conditional logic limited to one straightforward financial clawback clause (section 3 of Schedule)","Lengthy Schedule contains detailed land description using surveyor's language, but this is standard for property transfers rather than legal complexity","No delegated legislation or regulation-making powers","No amendments, repeals, or transitional provisions"],"plain_english_summary":"**What this law does:**\n\nThis is the law that handed over Jervis Bay from New South Wales to the Commonwealth of Australia in 1915. It made the transfer official after an agreement was struck in 1913.\n\n**Who it affects:**\n\n- **New South Wales** — gave up about 18,000 acres of coastal land and water at Jervis Bay\n- **The Commonwealth** — took control of the territory to become federal land\n- **Landholders** — anyone who had bought or leased land in the area from NSW before the handover\n\n**What the deal involved:**\n\n- NSW **surrendered** (handed over) the territory described in painstaking detail — every boundary line, inlet, and island is mapped out in the Schedule\n- The Commonwealth **accepted** it without paying for the \"waste lands\" (unused Crown land)\n- The Commonwealth had to **pay NSW back** for any land sales that NSW had already finalised or contracted before the handover date\n- NSW **gave up any future claims** to rents, profits, or reversionary interests on leases that were still running\n\n**Why it matters:**\n\nThis created the **Jervis Bay Territory** — a separate federal enclave that remains under Commonwealth control today. It was originally intended to give the new national capital (Canberra) access to the sea, though Jervis Bay is now geographically separate from the Australian Capital Territory following later constitutional changes. The Act shows how the federation could rearrange borders by mutual agreement between a state and the Commonwealth."},"summary":{"complexity_score":2,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The Act appears to have remained entirely unchanged since its enactment on 20 February 1915, with no amendments recorded. Its scope — the formal surrender of land to the Commonwealth for the seat of government — was narrow and singular by design, and there is no indication it was ever broadened or narrowed from its original intent."},"complexity_factors":["The Act is extremely old (1915) and has never been amended, meaning there is only one simple version to analyse","The actual substantive text of the Act was not provided in the excerpt — only metadata and navigation elements from the NSW legislation website are visible, limiting full analysis","The subject matter — a one-time land surrender — is conceptually straightforward with no ongoing regulatory machinery","No complex definitions, schedules, penalties, or cross-references to navigate","Minor complexity arises from its constitutional context (the interplay between NSW and Commonwealth powers under the Australian Constitution)"],"plain_english_summary":"## Seat of Government Surrender Act 1915 (NSW)\n\nThis is a **New South Wales (state) law** passed in 1915 that deals with the transfer of land from NSW to the Commonwealth (federal) government for the purpose of establishing **Canberra as Australia's national capital**.\n\n### What does it do?\nUnder the Australian Constitution, the federal government needed a dedicated territory for the national capital that was separate from any state. NSW agreed to hand over (\"surrender\") a parcel of land — what we now know as the **Australian Capital Territory (ACT)** — to the Commonwealth. This Act is the NSW legislation that formally gave effect to that surrender.\n\n### Who does it affect?\n- **Historically:** Landowners, residents, and government bodies in the region that became the ACT.\n- **Today:** It has essentially no day-to-day practical effect on ordinary people. It is a historical piece of legislation that completed a constitutional requirement.\n\n### Why does it still technically exist?\nDespite being over 110 years old and never amended, the Act remains **\"in force\"** on the NSW legislation register. This is likely because it has never been formally repealed — possibly because repealing it could theoretically raise questions about the legal foundation of the land transfer, even though that transfer is long settled in practice.\n\n### The big picture\nThis Act is one of the founding legal building blocks of **Canberra and the ACT**. Without NSW passing legislation like this, the Commonwealth could not have validly taken ownership of the land under the Constitution."},"issue_detection":{"absurdities":[{"type":"other","section":"Status Information - Currency of version","severity":"low","reasoning":"A file last modified in 1995 being certified as current to 2026 without any amendments is not necessarily legally absurd — the Act may simply never have been amended — but it creates a metadata inconsistency that undermines confidence in the currency certification under the Interpretation Act 1987.","confidence":0.55,"description":"The legislation is described as 'Current version for 20 February 1915 to date (accessed 5 April 2026 at 12:24)' yet the file is noted as 'last modified 8 May 1995'. This means a 1915 Act surrendering land to the Commonwealth has been unmodified for over 30 years yet is still described as current, raising questions about whether the administrative metadata is accurate or meaningful."},{"type":"other","section":"Responsible Minister","severity":"medium","reasoning":"Once the surrender was effected, the Act had no ongoing operative provisions requiring ministerial administration. Allocating a current minister to an Act whose operative effect was spent over a century ago serves no legal purpose and creates a misleading impression of ongoing executive responsibility.","confidence":0.72,"description":"The Responsible Minister for a 1915 Act surrendering NSW territory to the Commonwealth is listed as 'Premier' with reference to the 'Administrative Arrangements (Minns Ministry—Administration of Acts) Order 2023'. The Act's substantive purpose — the surrender of land — was completed and exhausted in 1915. Assigning ongoing ministerial responsibility to a functus officio instrument is an administrative absurdity, as there is nothing left for the Premier to administer."},{"type":"retroactive_impossibility","section":"Authorisation / File last modified 8 May 1995","severity":"low","reasoning":"While this is administratively routine and legally valid (s45C applies to existing legislation prospectively), it is logically curious that the authenticity of a 1915 Act depends on a certification framework created in 1987. The original Act had no such certification mechanism, meaning the document as certified is in some sense a creature of 1987 law, not 1915 law.","confidence":0.45,"description":"The Act is certified as correct under section 45C of the Interpretation Act 1987, a provision that did not exist until 1987 — some 72 years after the Act was made in 1915. The certification process retrospectively applies a 1987 statutory mechanism to authenticate a 1915 document, creating a temporal absurdity where the authenticating authority derives its power from legislation that postdates the instrument being authenticated by seven decades."}],"contradictions":[{"severity":"low","section_a":"Status Information - Currency of version ('Current version for 20 February 1915 to date')","section_b":"File last modified 8 May 1995","confidence":0.65,"description":"The status information asserts the version is current and maintained up to the access date of 5 April 2026, yet the file metadata records the last modification as 8 May 1995. These two claims are in direct tension: a file unmaintained since 1995 cannot simultaneously satisfy the representation that the NSW PCO 'compiled and maintains' it in a current database."}]}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/seat-of-government-surrender-act-1915","history":"/api/acts/seat-of-government-surrender-act-1915/history","analysis":"/api/acts/seat-of-government-surrender-act-1915/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/seat-of-government-surrender-act-1915/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/seat-of-government-surrender-act-1915/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/seat-of-government-surrender-act-1915/documents"}}