NRS-19513 | General Register of Deeds [Land and Property Information New South Wales]

Full description

The General Register of Deeds was established under the Registration of Deeds Act, 1825 (6 Geo. IV No.22) which introduced the principle that 'any Deed or instrument executed bona fide and for valuable consideration should take priority according to the date of registration and not of execution'. The current legislation regulating the General Register of Deeds is the Conveyancing Act, 1919 (Act No.6, 1919).

The registration of deeds has always included transactions other than those relating to land. The General Register was for all deeds registered with the Registrar-General, unless legislation dictated a separate register. In some cases, deeds may have been registered in the General Register of Deeds, then in separate registers and then re-registered in the General Register.

The English Common Law System of conveyancing was introduced into the Colony of New South Wales and referred to as the 'Old System'. The Old System Title is a chain of evidence beginning with the Crown Grant and embracing all dealings and happenings up to the present date, that could affect the particular estate or interest of the land in question. Under the 'Old System', establishing proof of title requires the examination of a series of deeds, commonly referred to as a chain of deeds or a chain of title. The chain of title is established by possession of all documents pertaining to that land from the time of its granting from the Crown. Each time land is sold or mortgaged, a separate Deed is prepared. As time passes, the size of the bundle of documents requiring safe storage for production rapidly grows. The system presents considerable problems for landowners if deeds are lost.

To offer land holders some degree of confidence in their transactions, a system of registration of such dealings was introduced pursuant to Governor King's Public Order of 26 February 1802.  Governor Macquarie issued a proclamation on 18 January 1817 which provided for the registration of all deeds and conveyances made and executed from and after 25 March 1817. The Governor ordered that all deeds of property were to be registered and that any deed not registered after that date would be adjudged void.  There was no statutory requirement to register deeds and fees were charged for registration. The registration of plans of subdivision of old system land was not mandatory prior to 1961.

Registrations of change of name were also registered in the General Register of Deeds prior to the commencement of the Conveyancing Act, 1919 on 1 July 1920. Changes of name were again registered in the General Register of Deeds from 30 June 1976 to April 1996 when this function was transferred to the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages. A small number of changes of name continued to be registered until June 2002 when the registration of changes of name in the General Register of Deeds was discontinued entirely.

Deeds were extracted from the registers and transferred to other States when these States were constituted.

The records have a variety of physical formats and numbering systems. Some registers contain full copies of the deed, others contain 'memorials' documents which include only essential particulars extracted from the deed under official seal:
*1824-1842 - A-Z volumes, bound, retyped (memorials only)
*1842- Books 1-2, bound, retyped (memorials only)
*1843-Books 3-5, bound, handwritten with printed pages (memorials only)
*1843-1917 - Books 6-1133, bound, handwritten with printed pages (full copies)
*1918-1921 - Books 1134-1301, bound handwritten and typed (full copies)
*1921-1991 - Books 1302-3887, bound, typed (full copies)
*1992-1999 - Books 4000-4191B, microfilm (full copies) - beginning of the ADIS (Automated Deeds Indexing System)
*1999 - ongoing - Books 4192 onwards, images (full copies).

The first 40 registers are arranged in alphabetical order.  The arrangement of the majority of the registers is by Book and Number based on date of registration. A new Book number is allocated per 1000 deeds lodged. Within that Book sequence a number is allocated to each deed. Paper registers each contain 100 deeds. Each microfilm roll has 1000 deeds and equates to one Book with a second part where two microfilm rolls were needed.  On 2 November 1992 the Automated Deeds Indexing System (ADIS) was introduced and deeds registered thereafter were registered in electronic format. ADIS maintains the same numbering system, with a gap between the end of the paper registers at book 3887 and the start of ADIS at book 4000. With the launch of ADIS the Register of Causes, Writs and Orders was amalgamated into the General Register of Deeds.

Most of this series consists of un-bound paper registers. From 1992 the registers consist of ADIS output on 16mm microfilm.