Acts establishing the Board of Land and Works were passed by the Parliament of Victoria in 1857, and received royal assent that November.
The Board formed a Department of Railways to carry out its functional responsibilities, of which Joseph Wood was appointed the first secretary.
[1][2] Its creation was resisted by some parliamentarians, who felt that the department represented unnecessary expenditure on the part of the Board.
[4] By 1870, the department was responsible for the railway lines to Echuca, Williamstown, Ballarat and Geelong, and had begun construction on several others.
[1] The department was responsible to the Board of Land and Works, which controlled its budget and set policy and regulations.