A Steering Committee consisting of a group of professional and business men was formed in the Cape Peninsula in 1983. The objective of this steering committee was to form the Noise Abatement Society of the Cape. The first Annual General Meeting of the Society was held on 22 November 1983. A draft constitution set out the aims and objectives of the society, some of which were; to increase the local and central government awareness of the need to protect the public against noise pollution, to encourage these authorities to introduce legislation to deal with the problem, to gain support from the public sector and to stimulate research and debate on the subject. In 1989 the society ceased to exist and all existing assets were handed to the Department of Environmental and Geographical Science of the University of Cape Town.