The NBCA is a representative body formed by agreement of the Australian State Governing Bodies which represent four Australian States. It is incorporated under the relevant New South Wales legislation.
Its objectives are to:
- ensure that national band contests, marching contests and solo & party competitions are conducted under a common set of rules;
- deal with any appeals which may be made to the Council by State Governing Bodies;
- promote a general love and knowledge of band music and good fellowship among band persons;
- promote and assist in the promotion and to control national band contests;
- provide positive leadership and direction to enable brass and concert bands to achieve their maximum potential through planned administration, policy development and communication.
The NBCA holds an annual conference (usually in June) and is managed in between conferences by the NBCA Executive. Rules and regulations of the NBCA can be downloaded from the Resources section of this website.
The main functions of the National Band Council at present are to:
- facilitate the organisation of the National Band Championships;
- formulate and promulgate the regulations under which the Championships will be held. These regulations detail how both music and drill competitions are to be conducted. The competition rules have been in existence and published for many years. In 1997 they were published amongst other material in the NBCA Year Book which was made readily available to all bands. The Year Book was again published in 1998, 1999 and 2000. From 2001, the regulations and drill book have been available from the NBCA website;
- decide the rotation upon which the State Governing Bodies will be responsible for holding the National Championships. Generally speaking, the States are given the responsibility in a set rotation, although this is sometimes rearranged to recognise special events in a particular State, such as a sesquicentenary. In practice, Western Australia is often not included in the rotation, primarily due to the logistics in transporting the bulk of entries from the Eastern seaboard;
- share information between State Governing Bodies and other interest groups in the banding community; promote and encourage the production and performance of brass and concert band music.
