Australian Capital Territory

age of majority act 1974
This consolidation has been prepared by the ACT Parliamentary Counsel’s Office
Reprinted as at 30 November 1996
TABLE OF PROVISIONS
Section
	1.	Short title
	2.	Commencement
	5.	Age of majority 18 years
	6.	Construction of laws and instruments made on or after 1 November 1974
	7.	Construction of wills made before 1 November 1974
	8.	Distribution on intestacy
	9.	Moneys payable under judgments etc.
	10.	Repeal
	11.	Savings

An  Act  relating to the Age of Majority
1. 	Short title
	This Act may be cited as the Age of Majority Act 1974.1
2. 	Commencement
	This Act shall come into operation on 1 November 1974.

5. 	Age of majority 18 years
(1) 	Subject to this Act, a person attains full age for all purposes of the law of the Territory when he or she attains the age of 18 years.
(2) 	A person who has attained the age of 18 years is not subject to any want of legal capacity by reason only of his or her age.
(3) 	Where, on 1 November 1974, a person had attained the age of 18 years but had not attained the age of 21 years, the provisions of this Act apply to, and in relation to, that person as if he or she had attained the age of 18 years on 1 November 1974.
6. 	Construction of laws and instruments made on or after 1 November 1974
(1) 	This section applies to—
	(a)	a law in force in the Territory on, or at any time after, 1 November 1974; and
	(b)	an instrument (including a will or codicil) executed on or after that date.
(2) 	Subject to subsection 7 (2), unless the contrary intention appears, the expressions “majority”, “full age”, “sui juris”, “minor”, “minority”, “infant”, “infancy”, “nonage”, and any similar expressions, when used in a law or instrument to which this section applies, shall be construed in accordance with section 5.
(3) 	Nothing in this Act affects a reference in a law or instrument to an age expressed in years.
(4) 	Nothing in this Act—
	(a)	affects the validity or operation of a settlement or disposition of property made before 1 November 1974; or
	(b)	affects the operation of any rule of law by which the validity or operation of such a settlement or disposition is to be determined.
7. 	Construction of wills made before 1 November 1974
(1) 	Nothing in this Act affects the construction of a will or codicil made before 1 November 1974.
(2) 	Unless the contrary intention appears, a codicil made on or after 1 November 1974, being a codicil to a will made before that date, shall be construed as if this Act had not been made.

8. 	Distribution on intestacy
	Where a person died intestate before 1 November 1974, the administrator of the estate of the intestate is not, by reason only of this Act, obliged to distribute any portion of the estate to a person before that person attains the age of 21 years.
9. 	Moneys payable under judgments etc.
	An order or direction in force immediately before 1 November 1974 in relation to money recovered by a minor in proceedings in a court or payable to a minor as a result of proceedings in a court has effect, on and after that date, as if a reference to the attainment by a minor of the age of 21 years (however expressed) were a reference to the attainment of the age of 18 years.
10. 	Repeal
	The Infants (Housing Contracts) Ordinance 1968 is repealed.
11. 	Savings
(1) 	Nothing in this Act affects a want of legal capacity arising otherwise than by reason of the age of a person.
(2) 	Nothing in this Act affects the construction or operation of an industrial award or agreement.
(3) 	Nothing in this Act affects the rights or obligations arising from a contract of employment made before 1 November 1974.

NOTES
1.	The Age of Majority Act 1974 as shown in this reprint comprises Act No. 46, 1974 amended  as indicated in the Tables below.
	Citation of Laws—The Self-Government (Citation of Laws) Act 1989 (No. 21, 1989) altered the citation of most Ordinances so that after Self-Government day they are to be cited as Acts.  That Act also affects references in ACT laws to Commonwealth Acts.
2.	The Legislation (Republication) Act 1996 (No. 51, 1996) authorises the Parliamentary Counsel in preparing a law for republication, to make certain editorial and other formal amendments in accordance with current legislative drafting practice.  Those amendments make no change in the law.  Amendments made pursuant to that Act do not appear in the Table of Amendments but details may be obtained on request from the Parliamentary Counsel’s Office.
Table 1
Table of Ordinances
Ordinance	Number  
and year	Date of 
notification 
in Gazette	Date of 
commencement	Application, saving or transitional provisions	

Age of Majority Ordinance 1974	46, 1974	24 Oct 1974	1 Nov 1974		
Ordinances Revision Ordinance 1978
	46, 1978	28 Dec 1978	28 Dec 1978	—	
Self-Government day 11 May 1989
Table 2
Table of Acts
Act	Number  
and year	Date of 
notification 
in Gazette	Date of 
commencement	Application, saving or transitional provisions	

Statute Law Revision (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1992	23, 1992	4 June 1992	4 June 1992	—	
(Reprinted as at 30 April 1993)	

Table of Amendments
ad. = added or inserted      am. = amended     rep. = repealed      rs. = repealed and substituted

Provision	How affected

S. 3	rep. No. 46, 1978
S. 4	rep. Act No. 23, 1992