Much of the open space area in Queanbeyan are Crown land areas that are managed by the Queanbeyan City Council These areas have had the elected Council appointed to separately administer the land as a Crown Land Trust.
The specific trusts that operate in the city are:
- Queanbeyan Showground Reserve Trust,
- Queanbeyan Park Reserve Trust,
- Seiffert Reserve Trust
- Queanbeyan City Council Crown Reserves Reserve Trust, and
- Letchworth Estate Reserve Trust.
These Trusts are responsible, under the oversight of the Minister for Lands, for the care, control and management of specified Crown Reserves.
In each case, the Council has been appointed as the Manager of the affairs of these Reserve Trusts and meets separately as the various Reserve Trust Management Committees making decisions in relation to Trust affairs.
Reserve Trusts enjoy a level of autonomy to determine all matters relating to the control and management of Crown reserves, often within an approved Plan of Management. This includes entering into maintenance contracts, determining the lease and development options of the land (subject to Crown consent), setting entry fees and employing people to work for it.
Reserve Trust Meetings are held if needed on the second Wednesday of each month. Meetings for the Trusts are separately convened and conducted consecutively. The Trust Secretary issues formal agendas and prepares reports of the meetings.
Apart from the members of the Trusts (Councillors of Queanbeyan City Council and the Manager of the Trusts), and Council support staff, attendance at Reserve Trust Meetings is by invitation.
It is a requirement of the Crown Lands Act 1989 that Reserve Trust Management Committees expend revenue received from users of Crown Lands for the maintenance of the reserve on which it was generated or, with the consent of the Minister, for the maintenance and improvement of other Crown Reserve Lands.
The Reserve Trusts managed by the Council do not generate sufficient revenue to meet the cost of maintenance of the lands administered, let alone the cost of capital improvements. In the main, the majority maintenance works and all capital works are funded by the Council. The Manager – Legal and Internal Services has been appointed the Secretary of Reserve Trust Management Committees.