Register of Applications for Certificates of Title

Full description

This series consists of a register of applications for certificates of title for land which was alienated from the Crown prior to 2 October 1862. From that date the Real Property Act 1862 (25 VIC., No.140) introduced the Torrens System of Land Registration. The Torrens System provided that a single authoritative certificate of title which proved ownership of land would replace the earlier, cumbersome, old law system. Owners of land alienated prior to 2 October 1862 could apply to have a certificate of title issued.

The process of granting applications was often long and involved. Applications were examined by surveyors and legal examiners to determine that no hindrance to clear title existed. Applicants were required to prove legal transfer of ownership from the time of first alienation of the land up to the current ownership. Consequently the application files were actioned in different parts of the creating office for different times.

The volumes in this series therefore served two basic purposes. Firstly they were a register of application numbers and secondly they served as a file movement and application status register. Information recorded includes application number and date of application, name of applicant, description of the land, value of land as well as other information relating to various stages which were required to be completed in the application process including the issue of the certificate of title. Applications for certificates of title were allocated a single registration number in chronological order by date of application. The application number was used to control a series of files containing documentation lodged to support the application.

The application files which are registered by this series have been transferred into archival custody as VPRS 460, Applications For Certificates of Title.

The first volume of the register has fewer columns than the subsequent volumes. It also contains an index to surnames of applicants whose applications were registered in the first volume. These are application numbers 1 to 1091 registered from October 1862 to 30 July 1866. Subsequent volumes do not contain an internal index.

Indexes arranged in alphabetical order by surname were also created up to at least 10 February 1904 and are held as VPRS 16705. The existence of additional indexes is currently unknown.

Basic details of each application were also recorded in other volumes, also known as Titles Application Books, which give summary particulars of each application. The information in these volumes includes: number of application, date received, name of applicant, parish, section and allotment of land, and number of volume and folio in which title was recorded. Entries are arranged sequentially by application number. The Titles Application Books were still in the custody of the Land Titles Office in 1996. It is believed that the Books cover the same date range as the Register.

The format of the register for applications for certificates of title (the records in this series) changed on 29 July 1964. A card register of applications numbers and file movements was used from 1964 to 1983. From 1983 to the present time (1996) the register was computer based.

The whereabouts of the card register was not known by Bill Harrop, Manager, Register Book, Land Titles Office, in 1996.