The trust regulated the movement of vessels and the handling of cargo in the port through a Harbour Master, carried out dredging operations, removed wrecks, granted licences for the erection of piers, maintained wharf facilities and collected wharfage rates, maintained swimming baths.
All foreshores, lighthouses and tugs within the harbour which belonged to the Government were vested in the Trust, as well as the power to reclaim land.
[2] A number of dwellings were resumed in The Rocks, following the 1900 outbreak of bubonic plague, and the management of these was given to Sydney Harbour Trust.
The original intention was that the dwellings would be redeveloped as commercial premises, but instead Sydney Harbour Trust became a long-term landlord of housing in the area.
[3] In its early years, Sydney Harbour Trust operated three small power stations in Sydney—at Napoleon St, Circular Quay and Cowper Wharf, Wooloomooloo—which supplied adjacent wharves.