AGY-1881 | Grafton Lands Office

Full description

The Crown Lands Act, 1884 provided for New South Wales to be divided into three district divisions, Central Division, Eastern Division and Western Division (1). The regulations for the purpose of carrying into effect the Crown Lands Act, 1884 provided that New South Wales be divided into land districts, and that any land district or number of land districts shall constitute a Land Board District with a head office (2). The system of local land offices enabled decisions affecting land to be made locally so that the offices became the operational work-face of the department within their local area. (3) Each Lands Office administers a Land District Board (4).

The Grafton Land District, located in to Eastern Division, was proclaimed on 2 January 1885, (5) and a Lands Office opened at Grafton with William Blackman appointed from that date. (6) 

The major functions of the Grafton Lands Office were:
(a) administration of legislation affecting Crown lands;
(b) assessing Crown lands to determine land capability and preferred use;
(c) acquiring and reserving land for recreational, public and community use;
(d) administration of purchases, leases and occupancies over Crown land;
(e) processing of applications for the Minister's consent to transfer in respect of restricted title lands and applications for conversion of leasehold tenures into purchase tenures;
(f) publication, sale and maintenance of Parish maps;
(g) distribution and sale of aerial photographs, satellite imagery and associated products;
(h) administration of Commonwealth-State land exchanges on behalf of the NSW Government
(I) Determination of claims over Crown land by Aboriginal Land Councils. (7)

Footnotes and References:
(1) Crown Lands Act, 1884
(2) NSW Government Gazette 2 January 1885, p.56
(3) Annual Report Loc Cit
(4) Annual Report Loc Cit
(5) NSW Government Gazette 2 January 1885, p.177
(6) NSW Government Gazette No.5, 2 January 1885, p.195.
(7)  Ibid. p. 40