[1] The Trust operates as one of the State's premier cultural institutions within the Create NSW portfolio.
It is constituted as a body corporate under the Sydney Opera House Trust Act 1961.
[2] It has 10 members appointed by the Governor of New South Wales on the nomination of the Minister for the Arts.
A Trustee holds office for three years and is eligible for reappointment for no more than three consecutive terms.
[4][5][6] The first trust appointed under the 1961 act comprised 17 trustees: the Premier Bob Heffron or the Minister for Public Works (Norm Ryan; as president), the Lord Mayor of Sydney (Harry Jensen; as vice-president), and 15 'nominated trustees': Stanley Haviland CBE (chairman), Edward William Adams, Clarence Henry Woodward Arthy, Professor Henry Ingham Ashworth, Doris Fitton OBE, John Glass CBE, Sir Bernard Heinze, Neil Hutchison, Hon.