VPRS 13055 Registers of Licensees, Castlemaine and Maldon, Section 42 Amending Land Act 1865

Full description

Section 42 of the Amending Land Act 1865 was designed to allow the use of lands on or adjacent to the goldfields to the advantage of the general population without interfering with the operations of miners. Occupation , at a modest rental, was to be temporary and for the purposes of residence and cultivation. Each renewable licence was to cover a maximum of twenty acres for no more than one year although persons could apply for multiple licences. Rental, to be paid to Receivers of Revenue or Paymasters, was fixed at the rate of two pounds ten shillings per annum for less than 10 acres and at four pounds per annum for an area of between 10 and 20 acres. License holders were required to make identifiable improvements - to enclose their allotments and cultivate a prescribed proportion of the area to demonstrate their bona fides.

As this land had already been surveyed for mining purposes and to determine the extent of the auriferous (or gold-bearing) lands, applications could be ruled upon efficiently and expeditiously. An application under this section of the Act was able to be submitted to either the Department of Crown Lands and Survey in Melbourne or at the office of the local representative or agent of the department. Some 36 land offices were established throughout the Colony to deal with applications received under this Act. The application would be registered in an Applications Register and allocated a number in order of receipt. The application was then investigated and reported upon by a local commission. Those applications for All Districts received at Melbourne were then indexed by name of applicant and the allocated number.

The functions of this commission were to investigate and report upon every application, to protect the public and local interests and promote the advantageous occupation of land. Commissions included in their membership the Surveyor-General, the Assistant Commissioner of Lands and Survey, the Secretary for Mines, chairmen and members of Mining Boards and Shire Council and were assisted by District Surveyors, other officers of the Department and Mining Surveyors who had made the surveys of the sites applied for. These commissions or enquiries were made in district centres and other principal centres of population on and in the vicinity of the goldfields. The decision with respect to the application arrived at by the commission was then entered in the Applications Register. For district registers, it became the practice to register and arrange applications with them directly relating to specific sittings of the commission at a specific place on a specific date.

With the granting of the application, application then had to be made to the Governor-in-Council, as prescribed in the Act, to grant a licence of occupation to the successful applicant. In the same way, cancellations and / or revocations of licences and transfers of licences had to be approved by the Governor-in-Council. Some of these records may be seen in VPRS 863 Orders in Council Regarding the Issue and Cancellation of Licences , Land Acts 1865 and 1869.

Once this leave had been granted by the Governor-in-Council, the licence was issued and an entry was then made in the Licence Register. Details given in the Register were the number of the license and the date of issue, the name of the licensee, the county and the parish in which the land was located, the details of the section and allotment and its area. The opposite page then had a series of sections where payments of the yearly fees could be entered. A remarks column was used to extensively note the history of the licence. It provides details of large numbers of transfers of licences under the provisions of Section 31 and Section 19 of the Land Act 1869 including, in some cases, the relevant file number. It also recorded transfers of licenses to other holders by administrative action or inheritance, subsequent purchases of the land, the revocation or cancellation of the license and the numbers of any associated correspondence.

At some point after the granting of the application, a file was created upon which were placed the original application and other subsequent correspondence with respect to it. These files have also been allocated sequential numbers (see VPRS 624 Land Selection Files, Land Act 1865). The numbers on these files do not coincide with any other number allocated during the application or the licensing processes at either the district or central levels. It is hypothesized that there has been created at some point a register to these files and their numbers which is not (as at July 2002) in custody.

In August 1868, additional regulations were made under Section 42 of the Amending Land Act of 1865. These regulations extended the distance from a goldfield within which selections might be made to thirty miles and authorised the issue of eight licences per person thus allowing each selector to obtain 160 acres. Applications were able to be made once again both locally and at the Central Office. Land had been surveyed in preparation and commissions were held immediately upon the Regulations coming into operation to decide upon these applications. Records in custody show that these applications were kept separately in the Applications Registers, although, once licences were granted, they were entered into the existing Licence Registers.

From the Licence Registers, it is apparent that much of the land selected and occupied under Section 42 of the Amending Land Act 1865 was either purchased under Section 31 of the Land Act 1869 or converted to leases under section 19 of the Land Act 1869. Other selections were able to be purchased at public auction, whilst others remained under the occupation of licensees for a lengthy period of time with licences able to be transferred or bequeathed.

VPRS 13055/P1 was previously registered as VPRS 1309/P Registers of Licences, Land Act 1865, Section 42.