Webster v Mosman Municipal Council [1926] HCA 11

CLR. OF AUSTRALIA, 557 : [HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA.] WEBSTER . . - F ' J . APPELLANT; PLarntirr, AND HE COUNCIL OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF MOSMAN . . : a ; ; ReEsponvDENT. DerrenDant, ON APPEAL FROM THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES, Government—Drainage—Construction of drain by municipal council—Water- 5 oop ve

course through land—Alteration of watercourse by owner—Increased flow of 09. 1hye water caused by council works—No damage done to land—Injunction—Looal aa

Government Act 1919 (N.S.W.) (No. 41 of 1919), sec. 241%.

Sypyey, Upon the plaintiff's land within a municipality of New South Wales there Nov. 24, 25,

had been a natural depression along which the surface water from a large May'3. 19 i

area of the municipality passed to the sea. 'The plaintiff or her predecessors

had filed in the land so as to increase the heightof the surface of the depression ,, Knox 0-3.

and to confine the water within a defined straight channel of which the filling Rich and'

formed the banks, and the municipal council, purporting to act under sec, S****° 44

241 of the Local Government Act 1919 (N.S.W.), had made a concrete invert

along the bottom of this channel. 'The flow of the water through the channel

was increased in volume and velocity owing to the combined acts of the muni-

cipal council in making roads, &c., and of the owners of the surrounding land

in building, &c. ; but the channel was, so long as the filling remained in position,

sufficient in size to carry the increased flow ; so that no damage was in fact

done to the plaintiff's land by it. In a suit by the plaintiff for an injunction

to restrain the council from causing water to flow upon the plaintiff's land in

larger quantity or in a more concentrated form than naturally would flow

upon it, * Seo, 241 of the Local Government watercourse. . . . (3) If the pro-