Why were so many Victorian Acts passed in 1958?

A surprising number of the Victorian Acts which legal practitioners use on a regular basis were passed in 1958. These include the Administration and Probate Act, County Court Act, Crimes Act, Partnership Act, Property Law Act, Transfer of Land Act and Wrongs Act.

But why were so many pieces of legislation passed in this particular year? And why do so many of these Acts lack second reading speeches or explanatory memoranda? And why do many, such as the Property Law Act, so closely resemble earlier Australian, or even English, statutes?

The answer can be found in the Acts Enumeration and Revision Act 1958 (Vic). The Act was the final instalment in a process which had been underway for much of the previous century, in which Victoria gradually emerged as an independent jurisdiction with its own statutory law, after years of simply applying English, and later New South Welsh, legislation by reference.

Victoria was separated from New South Wales and made an independent colony in 1850 by an Act of the UK Parliament (Imperial Act 13 & 14 Vict., c. 59). Section 25 of that Act stated that all laws then in force in New South Wales would apply in Victoria. New South Wales, in turn, had previously applied the laws of England as of 1828 (Imperial Act 9 Geo. 4, c. 83).

This copy-of-a-copy approach to statute law was obviously not a long-term solution, particularly given the very different conditions of the colonies as compared with the UK. It also meant that it was sometimes necessary to consolidate statutes, to save everyone the need to refer back to NSW legislation, or worse yet pre-Federation English legislation, in order to understand what was ‘on the books’ in Victoria.

Accordingly, a series of consolidations of Victorian statutes was published over the ensuing decades, to allow Victorians to refer to a single source to understand legislation as applying in the state. The consolidations also compiled amendments to Acts, which could otherwise be cumbersome to review -- given that this was long before the Internet, and even before the days of reprints or looseleaf services or gluing bible-paper amendments into volumes of legislation.

This started in a four-volume set in 1866. A more ambitious consolidation was conducted in 1890, consolidating a mixture of imperial and colonial acts, 450 in total, into 109 Acts, including the first iterations of the now well-known Property Law Act, Crimes Act and Local Government Act.

Post-Federation, Sir Leo Cussen undertook a detailed review of English statute law as at 1828, in order to determine what Acts had been applied in NSW (and therefore later applied in Victoria in 1850), leading to the Imperial Acts Application Act 1922 (Vic). Section 7 of that Act repealed all other English legislation that might affect Victoria, dating back to the reign of Henry III (~1236). Sir Leo also undertook a later consolidation in 1928.

The 1958 consolidation, however, was the final one. As presciently observed by an observer that year: “The task of preparing a general consolidation has become so burdened with difficulties of compilation, printing and expense, that the 1958 consolidation of Victorian Statute law is probably the last to be undertaken” (see A.A. Browne, ‘Legislative Summary Victoria 1958’ (1959) 2(2) Melbourne University Law Review 222).

The 1958 Act consolidated approximately 2500 Acts (some doubtless of questionable contemporary application) into 233 consolidating bills, including those which many readers may be familiar with today.