MOUNT STROMLO OBSERVATORY.

No. 79 of 1956.

An Act to provide for the Transfer of the Administration of the Observatory at Mount Stromlo in the Australian Capital Territory to The Australian National University, and for other purposes.

[Assented to 7th November, 1956.]

BE it enacted by the Queen’s Most Excellent Majesty, the Senate, and the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Australia, as follows:—

Short title.

1. This Act may be cited as the Mount Stromlo Observatory Act 1956.

Commencement.

2.—(1.) Subject to the next succeeding sub-section, this Act shall come into operation on the day on which it receives the Royal Assent.

(2.) Section three of this Act shall come into operation on a date to be fixed by Proclamation, being a date not earlier than the date on which the administration of the Observatory is transferred to the University in pursuance of an arrangement under section five of this Act.

Repeal.

3.—(1.) The Commonwealth Observatory Trust Fund Act 1953 is repealed.

(2.) Upon the commencement of this section, the moneys which, immediately before that commencement, stood to the credit of the Commonwealth Observatory Trust Fund established under the Act repealed by this section, and the investments representing any of those moneys, shall be paid or transferred to the University.

Definitions.

4. In this Act, unless the contrary intention appears—

“the Minister” means the Minister of State for the Interior;

“the Observatory” means the observatory situated at Mount Stromlo in the Australian Capital Territory and known, at the date of commencement of this section, as the Commonwealth Observatory;

“the University” means The Australian National University.

Arrangement for transfer of Observatory.

5—(1.) The Minister may, on behalf of the Commonwealth, enter into an arrangement with the University for and in relation to the transfer to the University of the administration of the Observatory.

(2.) An arrangement under this section may provide for—

(a) the grant to the University, at a nominal rent, of a lease in perpetuity of any land owned by the Commonwealth which is required for the purposes of the Observatory (including residential purposes), together with such property or rights in or in respect of buildings and other fixtures on any such land as the Minister thinks fit; and

(b) the transfer to the University, without charge, of any equipment or other property owned by the Commonwealth that has been used or acquired for the purposes of the Observatory.

(3.) An arrangement under this section may include such undertakings by the University as the Minister thinks necessary with respect to—

(a) the continuation by the University of all or any of the activities carried on at the Observatory at the date of the arrangement;

(b) the employment by the University of all or any of the persons who are, at the date of the arrangement, employed by the Commonwealth in connexion with the Observatory; and

(c) the use of moneys and investments paid or transferred to the University under section three of this Act.

Powers of Minister.

6. The Minister may, on behalf of the Commonwealth, do all things necessary for carrying out an arrangement made under the last preceding section.

Rights of officers.

7. Where a person employed by the University in pursuance of an arrangement made under section five of this Act was, immediately before his employment by the University, an officer of the Public Service of the Commonwealth—

(a) he retains his existing and accruing rights;

(b) for the purpose of determining those rights, his service as a person employed by the University shall be taken into account as if it were service in the Public Service of the Commonwealth; and

(c) the Officers’ Rights Declaration Act 1928–1953 applies in relation to him as if this Act and this section had been specified in the Schedule to that Act and as if the University were a Commonwealth authority within the meaning of that Act.