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Commonwealth act
This Act has been repealed and is no longer in force. It is retained for historical reference.
This Act was part of post-war Australia's effort to rebuild and expand the nation's road network by directing Commonwealth money to the States for road construction, maintenance, and repair.
The Act creates a special government bank account — called the Commonwealth Aid Roads and Works Trust Account — and sets out exactly how money flows into it and back out to the States.
Money flows in from three sources:
General roads funding (from fuel levies):
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Direct links to the current provisions in Commonwealth Aid Roads and Works Act 1947.
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View on official registerSourced from the Federal Register of Legislation (legislation.gov.au), CC BY 4.0.
Rural and sparse area roads funding (from the £1.5 million annual payment):
Road safety (the one-off £100,000):
States don't get a blank cheque. To receive their share, each State must:
This Act is an early and clear example of vertical fiscal imbalance in Australian federalism — meaning the Commonwealth raises money (through fuel taxes) that it then hands down to the States with strings attached. It locked in a user-pays logic (drivers buying petrol fund roads) while giving Canberra significant oversight over how States spend on infrastructure. It also embedded a deliberate bias toward rural and remote areas, and gave the Commonwealth the power to fund roads it considered strategically important for national defence or access to its own property.