Minister for Lands and Property

The Minister for Lands and Property, also called the Secretary for Lands was responsible for one of the key issues for the colonial administration of New South Wales, being the contest between squatters and selectors to dispossess the Aboriginal people of their land. ^[1]

Minister for Lands and Property of New South Wales
Incumbent Steve Kamper since 5 April 2023
Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure
Appointer	Governor of New South Wales
Precursor	Secretary for Lands and Works
Formation	1 October 1859
First holder	Bob Nichols

Role and responsibilities

The land issue dominated the politics of the late 1850s, and in October 1859, towards the end of the second Cowper ministry, the Secretary for Public Works was split off from the Secretary for Lands and Works. This enabled John Robertson to concentrate on what became known as the Robertson Land Acts.^[2] The Cowper ministry fell at the end of October 1859, replaced by the short lived Forster ministry. Robertson formed his first ministry in March 1860. While the four previous Premiers held the office of Colonial Secretary, Robertson chose to be Secretary for Lands.^[3]

The main work of the department at this time was processing the selection claims, including the various commissioners for Crown Lands and the necessary survey work under the Surveyor General. The minister had numerous other responsibilities, including immigration until 1869, mining until 1874 and forestry until 1908.^[4]

In the Holman Nationalist ministry from November 1916 William Ashford held the portfolios of Secretary for Lands and Minister for Forests and it became increasingly common for the minister to hold the portfolio along with other portfolios. In 1981 the Department of lands was temporarily amalgamated with the Department of Local Government,^[4] with the minister Lin Gordon holding both portfolios,^[5] until the departments were separated again in February 1984.^[6] The portfolio of Minister for Lands was abolished in April 1984 and replaced by the Minister for Natural Resources whose responsibilities included waterways, reserves and parks, forestry.^[7] The portfolio was briefly re-established in 1986, 1990 and 2004.

List of ministers

Lands

Ministerial title	Minister [1]	Party		Term start	Term end	Time in office	Notes
Secretary for Lands and Works	George Nichols		No party	6 June 1856	25 August 1856	80 days	[8]
	Terence Murray			25 August 1856	2 October 1856	38 days	[9]
	John Hay			3 October 1856	7 September 1857	339 days	[10]
	Terence Murray			7 September 1857	12 January 1858	127 days	[9]
	John Robertson			13 January 1858	30 September 1859	1 year, 286 days	[3]
Secretary for Lands				1 October 1859	26 October 1859		[3]
	John Black			27 October 1859	8 March 1860	133 days	[11]
	John Robertson [a]			9 March 1860	15 October 1863	3 years, 220 days	[3]
	Bowie Wilson			16 October 1863	2 February 1865	1 year, 109 days	[12]
	John Robertson			3 February 1865	19 October 1865	258 days	[3]
	William Arnold			20 October 1865	30 October 1865	10 days	[13]
	John Robertson			1 January 1866	21 January 1866	20 days	[3]
	Bowie Wilson			22 January 1866	26 October 1868	2 years, 278 days	[12]
	William Forster			27 October 1868	14 April 1870	1 year, 169 days	[14]
	John Robertson			13 August 1870	15 December 1870	124 days	[3]
	Bowie Wilson			16 December 1870	13 May 1872	1 year, 149 days	[12]
	James Farnell			14 May 1872	8 February 1875	2 years, 270 days	[15]
	Thomas Garrett			9 February 1875	5 February 1877	1 year, 362 days	[16]
	Ezekiel Baker			6 February 1877	21 March 1877	43 days	[17]
	Richard Driver			22 March 1877	16 August 1877	147 days	[18]
	Thomas Garrett			17 August 1877	19 November 1877	94 days	[16]
	Ezekiel Baker			20 November 1877	17 December 1877	27 days	[17]
	James Farnell			18 December 1877	20 December 1878	1 year, 2 days	[15]
	James Hoskins			21 December 1878	28 December 1881	3 years, 7 days	[19]
	Sir John Robertson			29 December 1881	4 January 1883	1 year, 6 days	[3]
	James Farnell			5 January 1883	6 October 1885	2 years, 274 days	[15]
	Joseph Abbott			7 October 1885	21 December 1885	75 days	[20]
	Gerald Spring			22 December 1885	25 February 1886	65 days	[21]
	Henry Copeland			26 February 1886	19 January 1887	327 days	[22]
	Thomas Garrett		Free Trade	20 January 1887	19 January 1888	364 days	[16]
	Sir Henry Parkes			26 July 1888	23 August 1888	28 days	[23]
	James Brunker			29 August 1888	16 January 1889	140 days	[24]
	William Lyne		Protectionist	17 January 1889	7 March 1889	49 days	[25]
	James Brunker		Free Trade	8 March 1889	22 October 1891	2 years, 228 days	[24]
	Henry Copeland		Protectionist	23 October 1891	2 August 1894	2 years, 283 days	[22]
	Joseph Carruthers		Free Trade	3 August 1894	3 July 1899	4 years, 334 days
	James Young			3 July 1899	13 September 1899	72 days
	Thomas Hassall		Protectionist	14 September 1899	9 April 1901	1 year, 207 days
	Paddy Crick		Progressive	11 April 1901	14 June 1904	3 years, 64 days
	Edward O'Sullivan			15 June 1904	29 August 1904	75 days
	James Ashton		Liberal Reform	29 August 1904	1 October 1907	3 years, 33 days
	Samuel Moore			2 October 1907	20 October 1910	3 years, 18 days
	Niels Nielsen		Labor	21 October 1910	1 August 1911	284 days
	Frederick Flowers			4 August 1911	26 November 1911	114 days
	George Beeby			11 September 1911	9 December 1912	1 year, 89 days
	John Treflé			10 December 1912	11 January 1915	2 years, 32 days
	William Ashford			12 January 1915	15 November 1916	1 year, 308 days
			Nationalist	15 November 1916	12 April 1920	3 years, 149 days
Secretary for Lands Minister for Forests	Peter Loughlin		Labor	12 April 1920	20 December 1921	1 year, 252 days
	Walter Wearne		Nationalist	20 December 1921	20 December 1921	7 hours
	Peter Loughlin		Labor	20 December 1921	13 April 1922	114 days
	Walter Wearne		Nationalist	13 April 1922	17 June 1925	3 years, 65 days
	Peter Loughlin		Labor	17 June 1925	19 November 1926	1 year, 155 days
	Jack Lang			25 November 1926	26 May 1927	182 days
	Ted Horsington			27 May 1927	18 October 1927	144 days
Minister for Lands	Richard Ball		Nationalist	18 October 1927	3 November 1930	3 years, 16 days
Secretary for Lands	Jack Tully		Labor	4 November 1930	15 October 1931	345 days
			Labor (NSW)	15 October 1931	13 May 1932	211 days
	Ernest Buttenshaw		Country	16 May 1932	31 January 1938	5 years, 260 days
	Colin Sinclair			1 February 1938	6 November 1940	2 years, 279 days
	Alfred Yeo			6 November 1940	16 May 1941	191 days
	Jack Tully		Labor	16 May 1941	9 May 1946	4 years, 358 days
	Bill Dunn			9 May 1946	19 May 1947	1 year, 10 days
	Bill Sheahan			19 May 1947	30 June 1950	3 years, 42 days
	Jack Renshaw			30 June 1950	2 April 1952	1 year, 277 days
	Frank Hawkins			3 April 1952	15 March 1956	3 years, 347 days
	Roger Nott			15 March 1956	22 November 1957	1 year, 252 days
	William Gollan			22 November 1957	1 April 1959	1 year, 130 days
Minister for Lands	John McMahon			1 April 1959	31 May 1960	1 year, 60 days
	Jack Renshaw			31 May 1960	3 March 1961	276 days
	Keith Compton			3 March 1961	13 May 1965	4 years, 71 days
	Tom Lewis		Liberal	13 May 1965	3 January 1975	9 years, 235 days
Minister for Lands Minister for Forests	Milton Morris			3 January 1975	30 June 1975	178 days
	John Mason			30 June 1975	23 January 1976	207 days
	Col Fisher		Country	23 January 1976	14 May 1976	112 days
Minister for Lands	Bill Crabtree		Labor	14 May 1976	29 February 1980	3 years, 291 days
Minister for Lands Minister for Forests Minister for Water Resources	Lin Gordon			29 February 1980	5 April 1984	4 years, 65 days	[5]
Minister for Lands	Jack Hallam		Labor	4 July 1986	21 March 1988	1 year, 261 days	[26]
Minister for Lands and Forests	Garry West		National	24 July 1990	6 June 1991	2 years, 306 days	[27]
Minister for Conservation and Land Management				6 June 1991	26 May 1993
Minister for Land and Water Conservation	George Souris			26 May 1993	4 April 1995	1 year, 313 days
	Kim Yeadon		Labor	4 April 1995	1 December 1997	2 years, 241 days
	Richard Amery			1 December 1997	21 November 2001	3 years, 355 days
	John Aquilina			21 November 2001	2 April 2003	1 year, 132 days
Minister Assisting the Minister for Natural Resources (Lands)	Tony Kelly			2 April 2003	3 May 2004	7 years, 360 days	[28]
Minister for Lands				3 May 2004	28 March 2011
Minister for Natural Resources, Lands and Water	Kevin Humphries		National	23 April 2014	2 April 2015	344 days
Minister for Lands and Water	Niall Blair			2 April 2015	30 January 2017	1 year, 303 days
Minister for Lands and Forestry	Paul Toole			30 January 2017	23 March 2019	2 years, 52 days
Minister for Lands and Water	Kevin Anderson		National	21 December 2021	28 March 2023	1 year, 97 days	[29]
Minister for Transport	Jo Haylen		Labor	28 March 2023	5 April 2023	8 days
Minister for Lands and Property	Steve Kamper			5 April 2023	incumbent	2 years, 59 days	[29]

Property

Ministerial title	Minister [1]	Party		Term start	Term end	Time in office	Notes
Minister for Finance, Services and Property	Dominic Perrottet		Liberal	2 April 2015	30 January 2017	1 year, 303 days
	Victor Dominello			30 January 2017	23 February 2019	2 years, 24 days	[30][31]
Minister for Water, Property and Housing	Melinda Pavey		National	2 April 2019	21 December 2021	2 years, 263 days	[32]
Minister for Transport	Jo Haylen		Labor	28 March 2023	5 April 2023	8 days
Minister for Lands and Property	Steve Kamper			5 April 2023	incumbent	2 years, 59 days	[29]

Notes

1. Concurrently Premier of New South Wales until 9 January 1861.