COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA CONSTITUTION ACT
- SECT 85
Transfer of property of State

When any department of the public service of a State is transferred to the Commonwealth:

(i)

all property of the State of any kind, used exclusively in connexion with the department, shall become vested in the Commonwealth; but, in the case of the departments controlling customs and excise and bounties, for such time only as the Governor-General in Council may declare to be necessary;

(ii)

the Commonwealth may acquire any property of the State, of any kind used, but not exclusively used in connexion with the department; the value thereof shall, if no agreement can be made, be ascertained in, as nearly as may be, the manner in which the value of land, or of an interest in land, taken by the State for public purposes is ascertained under the law of the State in force at the establishment of the Commonwealth;

(iii)

the Commonwealth shall compensate the State for the value of any property passing to the Commonwealth under this section; if no agreement can be made as to the mode of compensation, it shall be determined under laws to be made by the Parliament;

(iv)

the Commonwealth shall, at the date of the transfer, assume the current obligations of the State in respect of the department transferred.