Cumberland Country Plan

The Local Government (Town and Country Planning) Amendment Act gained parliamentary assent on 5 April 1945. Though complicated and hard to follow, this legislation was rightly hailed ‘as the most powerful [planning] instrument which had ever been placed in the hands of local government’ in New South Wales. Under its provisions the Cumberland Country Council was created. This body was charged with producing a broad county plan within three years – it took six due to inadequate resourcing – and overseeing the preparation of schemes for local government areas. Local planning schemes were the responsibility of shire and municipal councils; they were obliged to provide detail for the country master plan.

(from Paul Ashton’s ‘The Accidental City: Planning Sydney since 1788’, p67)