What it does
This Act establishes a statutory architecture for the creation, governance, management, financing and disposal of commons in New South Wales. Mechanically, it requires the Minister to create a trust and assign a corporate name whenever land is set aside as a common (s 4(1)-(2)). A trust is a corporate entity holding the land in fee simple for the commoners (s 14(1); s 8(1)(b)), with its affairs to be managed either by an elected trust board (typically 3-7 members), by a local authority appointed with its consent (s 7(1)-(4)), or by an administrator appointed by the Minister (s 4(6); s 5; s 48).
The Act gives trusts a statutory corpus: a fee simple estate in the common by virtue of s 14, subject to the Crown Land Acts when lands are converted back to Crown status on revocation (s 24(3); s 61A(3)). It confines trusts’ capacity to transact with respect to their land by requiring Ministerial consent or a prior general authority for transactions, and it renders unauthorised transactions void (s 16(1)-(4); s 16(2)). The Act expressly bars trusts in the Western Division from alienating their land (s 16(3)). Where transactions are authorised, the Minister may prescribe conditions and require notice procedures prior to sale (s 16(6)-(11)). A mortgage may include a power of sale outside the Western Division; if such a power is exercised the Minister may not refuse the sale (s 17).
Governance mechanisms include the requirement for a commoners’ roll (s 10), periodic general meetings (annual and special) with prescribed notice and quorum rules (ss 31, 35; Sch 4), elections for trust boards at specified intervals (ss 32-34), provision for minutes and record-keeping (ss 39-41), and a statutory audit regime (ss 41-46). Trusts may make by‑laws (subject to Governor approval) dealing with a wide range of matters including fees and charges for commoners and others, vehicle use, camping, protection of flora and fauna, and collection of fees (s 9). The Minister may require, adopt, alter or cancel management plans after public processes; where a plan changes lawful uses that existed before the Act’s commencement, a 75 per cent special-general-meeting approval threshold applies (ss 25-28).