Department of Trade and Customs

The department was one of the first seven Commonwealth Government departments to be established in the Federation year, 1901.[2] The first head of the department was Harry Wollaston, appointed in 1901.[3] In that first year, Wollaston and Charles Kingston worked closely together in drafting legislation and the first Commonwealth customs tariff.[3]

In 1956, the department was abolished and most of its functions were split between the Department of Customs and Excise and the Department of Trade.[4]

Information about the department's functions and/or government funding allocation could be found in the Administrative Arrangements Orders, the annual Portfolio Budget Statements and in the department's annual reports.

By 1906 the department was responsible for:[1]

• bounties;
• copyrights;
• Customs and Excise;
• designs and patents;
• lighthouses, lightships, beacons, buoys;
• quarantine;
• trade and commerce (including navigation and shipping);
• trade marks, dumping, monopolies and combines;
• weights and measures; and the
• censorship of literature and films.

The department was a Commonwealth Public Service department, staffed by officials who were responsible to the Minister for Trade and Customs.[1]

The head of the department was the Comptroller-General, initially Harry Wollaston,[3] and later:[1]

• Nicholas Lockyer (1911–13);[5]
• Stephen Mills (1913–22);[6]
• Percy Whitton (1922–23);
• Robert McKeeman Oakley (1923–27);[7]
• Ernest Thomas Hall (1927–33);
• Edwin Abbott (1933–44);[8][9]
• John Kennedy (1944–49);
• Bill Turner (1949–52); and
• Sir Frank Meere (1952–56).[10]