---
title: "Seat of Government Acceptance Act 1909"
slug: "seat-of-government-acceptance-act-1909"
jurisdiction: "Commonwealth of Australia"
jurisdiction_code: "commonwealth"
collection: "act"
status: "in force"
act_number: "23 of 1909"
version_date: "1973-12-31"
register_id: "C2004C00608"
canonical_url: "https://zoelaw.ai/legislation/seat-of-government-acceptance-act-1909"
date_modified: "2026-03-29"
source: Zoe (https://zoelaw.ai)
---

# Seat of Government Acceptance Act 1909

---
title: Seat of Government Acceptance Act 1909
identifier: C1909A00023
jurisdiction: commonwealth
type: act
status: in_force
source: "https://www.legislation.gov.au/C1909A00023/1973-12-31/1973-12-31/text/original/epub/OEBPS/document_1/document_1.html"
---

#### 1 — Short title [see Note 1]
This Act may be cited as the Seat of Government Acceptance Act 1909.
#### 2 — Commencement [see Note 2]
This Act shall commence on a day to be fixed by Proclamation, after the Parliament of the State has passed an Act ratifying and confirming the said agreement, and surrendering the Territory to the Commonwealth.
#### 3 — Ratification of Agreement [see Note 3]
The Agreement made between the Commonwealth and the State and set out in the First Schedule to this Act is hereby ratified and confirmed.
#### 4 — Seat of Government
It is hereby declared and determined that the Seat of Government shall be in the Territory described in the Second Schedule to this Act.
#### 5 — Acceptance of Territory [see Note 4]
(1) The Governor‑General is hereby authorized to declare by Proclamation that, on and from a day to be fixed by the Proclamation (in this Act referred to as the proclaimed day), the Territory described in the Second Schedule to this Act, and surrendered by the State to the Commonwealth, is accepted by the Commonwealth as a Territory.
  (2) The effect of the Proclamation shall be that, on and from the proclaimed day, the Territory shall be accepted by the Commonwealth and be acquired by the Commonwealth for the Seat of Government.
  (3) The Territory shall be known as the Australian Capital Territory.
#### 6 — Continuance of laws
(1) Subject to this Act, all laws in force in the Territory immediately before the proclaimed day shall, so far as applicable, continue in force until other provision is made.
  (2) Where, by any law of the State in force in the Territory on the proclaimed day, any power or function is vested in the Governor of the State, or in any Authority of the State, that power or function in relation to the Territory shall be vested in and exercised or performed by the Governor‑General, or the Authority exercising similar powers and functions under the Commonwealth, as the case requires or as the Governor‑General directs:
  Provided that the Governor‑General may direct that any such power or function may be exercised or performed on behalf of the Commonwealth by the Authority of the State in which it was previously vested; and while that direction remains in force the Authority of the State shall, in regard to the exercise or performance of that power or function, be deemed to be an Authority of the Commonwealth:
  Provided further that, until a date to be fixed by Proclamation, where a Crown grant in fee simple of any land referred to in the next succeeding section is issuable, the grant may be issued by the Governor of the State in the name of the King and under the Seal of the State, and any grant so issued shall vest in the grantee the fee simple in the land subject to the reservations and exceptions contained in the grant, and the land in respect of which the grant is issued shall, until a date to be fixed by Proclamation, be deemed to be under the provisions of the Real Property Act 1900 of the State in its application to the Territory.
#### 7 — Continuance of interests in land
All estates and interests in any land in the Territory which are held by any person from the State immediately before the proclaimed day shall, subject to any law of the Commonwealth, continue to be held from the Commonwealth on the same terms and conditions as they were held from the State.