NRS-1300 | Card register of rents on oyster leases [State Fisheries Branch]

Full description

This series consists of oyster lease rent cards arranged in lease number order. The cards were produced by the Fisheries and Oyster Beds Branch (later known as the State Fisheries Branch) between 1901 and 1940. A single lease is recorded on each card. As such there can be multiple cards for the same lessee. The main purpose of the cards is to record the lessee, location of lease, rent paid on the lease and period of the lease. Some cards also record consignments of oysters produced and spats (an oyster in its larval stage) removed.

The series is split into two runs, those cards that have been marked as "expired", "surrendered" or "refused" leases and those that have not. The two runs could be interleaved with the numbering gaps in each corresponding to the contents of the other. Up until 1936 the cards (oyster leases) are a given single number however from 1936 onwards the year followed by a single number is used e.g. 36/299.

Information provided on each card includes: Number (of lease); Name of applicant or lessees; Locality; Foreshore or area (in yards); Date of lease; Term (years); Annual Rental (in pounds); Rental payments / year / amount / date paid; Communications / date received / precis; On the back of the card: Oyster consignments / date / bags (number); Spat removals / date / bags placed on lease / bags removed from lease / lease from which or to which removed.

The same type of information as found on the lease cards can be found in volume format in NRS 1299 Oyster lease rent registers. These volumes however are not split into expired and current leases, they instead list all leases in lease number order. However from lease number 16377 onwards only the card register was used.

To find the lease number of a particular lessee NRS 1298 Personal oyster lease register can be used. This register lists lessees alphabetically by surname and lists the oyster lease numbers for each lessee.