Bredillet and Cook Shire Council

Bredillet and Cook Shire Council
(2001 L0006, 15 May 2002) 

The applicant, who had been in dispute with the Council for several decades in relation to roads, fences and other matters concerning his grazing property, lodged an FOI access application for a wide variety of documents relating to those matters.  Following a deemed refusal of access by the Council, which had not realised that the applicant had paid the prescribed fee in respect of his FOI access application, the Council located a number of documents, but advised that it had not retained any relevant documents which were dated prior to 1967, and that some of the documents sought by the applicant should be in the possession of other agencies.  The Council also advised that there was not enough information to identify or locate further documents. The applicant was asked for further details, but did not provide any relevant information. The applicant also stated that he believed some of the documents to which he sought access may not exist. 

Assistant Commissioner Shoyer found that the searches and inquiries undertaken by the Council to locate documents responsive to the terms of the applicant's FOI access application had been reasonable in all the circumstances of the case, and that there were no reasonable grounds for believing that the Council had any further responsive documents in its possession or under its control.