www.austlii.edu.au
I think you will find heaps of historical legislation archived there too.
This is all off the top of my head, my Air Law text is in the office. For reference the book to get is "Aviation Law" by Ron Bartsch, published by LBC. It is probably a little out of date now of course
The Federal Government has the power to legislate on Aviation matters by virtue of section 51 of the Commonwealth constitution. The power is
implied - remember the constitution was written in the 1890's - so you won't find aviation mentioned explicitly.
The Federal Govt. of the day (1920's) ratified the 1919 Paris convention and enacted the Air Navigation Act (1920) to fulfil its obligations under that convention.
Part of that act would have been the creation of the Department of Civil Aviation (aka Dept Constant Aggravation) to enforce the provisions of the Act.
The Air Navigation Regulations and the Air Navigation Orders were created to add layers of detail.
The Chicago Convention (1944) resulted in ammendments to the Air Nav Act
The Civil Aviation Act (1988) introduced the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), and the ANRs and ANOs became CARs and CAOs. The other big change at this point was the introduction of Air(no)services Australia as airspace regulator and services provider.
Creampuff would be the best man to give you the run-down with Gaunty to provide a counter-melody
