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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This Act has been repealed and is no longer in force. It is retained for historical reference.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 sets up a government subsidy ("bounty") system to financially support Australian manufacturers who produce sulphur or sulphuric acid from Australian raw materials. Think of it as the government paying local producers a top-up payment per tonne of sulphur they make, to help them compete against cheaper imported sulphur.
The Act replaced an earlier version from 1923, updating the rules and rates.
Who gets paid? Only manufacturers who produce sulphur or sulphuric acid at an officially approved factory (premises formally appointed by the Minister), using Australian materials, and selling the product for use within Australia.
How much is the bounty? The rate per tonne is tied to the cost of imported sulphur — essentially, when imported sulphur is cheap, the local producer gets a bigger top-up; when imported sulphur is expensive, the top-up is smaller. The rate adjusts by one shilling per tonne for every shilling the import price moves above or below £6 per tonne, but (£1.80 in old money).
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Direct links to the current provisions in Sulphur Bounty Act 1939.
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View on official registerSourced from the Federal Register of Legislation (legislation.gov.au), CC BY 4.0.
The rate also adjusts if government customs duty (an import tax) on sulphur changes — if the duty goes up, the bounty goes down by an equivalent amount, so manufacturers don't get a double benefit.
Is there a cap? Yes — the total annual bounty is capped at £110,000. If there are more valid claims than money available, each manufacturer's payment is cut proportionally (like splitting a pizza into smaller slices when more people show up).
Profit limits apply: If a manufacturer makes more than a 10% annual profit on the capital they've invested in the business, the government can claw back all or part of the bounty. The bounty is meant to help struggling producers, not to pad already-healthy profits.
Quality control: Bounty is only paid on sulphur that meets a minimum 99% purity standard and is certified as being of good commercial quality.
Compliance and oversight:
Penalties:
Transparency: Each year, a public report must be tabled in Parliament listing every manufacturer who received bounty, how much they got, and how much sulphur they produced.
This law reflects Depression-era and wartime economic policy — using government subsidies to nurture a domestic sulphur industry, which was strategically important for manufacturing explosives, fertilisers, and industrial chemicals. By tying the bounty to import prices, the government ensured it only subsidised local production when it genuinely needed help to compete, rather than handing out money unconditionally.