VPRS 13840 Rent Roll, Melbourne, Section 47 Land Act 1869 and Section 93 Land Act 1884

Full description

All licenses for the occupation of Crown lands and leases of Crown lands required the payment of rent in amounts and at intervals as stated by legislation or regulations made under the authority of legislation. Rents could be paid either by post or personally to the Melbourne office of the Department of Crown Lands and Survey (VA 538) or to local Receivers and Paymasters as designated for each parish and Land District (subsequent to the formation of the Occupation Branch in c 1874). Receivers and Paymasters were often local Clerks of Courts.

Previous to the passage of the Land Act of 1869, the payment of rents had been recorded in Registers of Licensees and Lessees. These continued for Section 33 of the Land Act 1869 and at the offices of local Receivers and Paymasters. Within the Department of Crown Lands itself and the Occupation Branch these Registers were superseded by the Rent Rolls.

Details given in the rent rolls are the name of the licensee or lessee, the details of the location and size of the land, details of the payments of fees and of the date and amount of regular periodic payments of rent. Remarks include details of subsequent purchase of the land, of any transfers of leases or licenses to other holders and the subsequent payments made by those persons and any cancellation or revocation or instances of abandonment of the land by the occupier.

Notifications of rents due at a particular date were circulated by notice or by lists published in the Government Gazette. The latter allowed local officers to be aware of the rents due in their areas. When the rents were paid to these officers, the payments were recorded in the local records and returns forwarded to the Department. Examples of these records may be seen in VPRS 809 Returns of Pastoral Rents Received. At the Occupation Branch, clerks (the rent rollers) were employed whose sole duties were the updating and maintenance of the rent rolls and preparation of certificates documenting payments where these were to be credited against the purchase price of land. Originally from about 1877, a rent roll clerk was attached to each "District Land Office" within the Occupation Branch.

Rent rolls, like registers of applications, were arranged according to sections of a specific Land Act. For major provisions such as Sections 19 and 20, Land Act 1869 or Section 29, Land Act 1898 and Section 35, Land Act 1901, the rent roll recorded only payments relating to that section. Payments for obligations under other sections of the Land Acts could be included together in one roll. Separate rolls were kept for payments made in each Land District.

Section 47 of the Land Act 1869 allowed, as did Section 53 of the Land Act 1862, for a license to be granted for the use of Crown lands not under lease or license under Part II of the 1869 Act. Uses were for the extraction of raw materials such as timber and stone, the processing of rural products in such facilities as brick kilns, the occupation of fishermen's' residences, the erection of pumps and collection of ballast and any other purpose for which land might be leased under Section 45 of the Act. Clause 7 allowed the depasturing of animals on land not forming part of any run or common.

Section 93 and Section 91 of the Land Act 1884 (later Section 99, Land Act 1890 and Section 145, Land Act 1901) provided for the licensing or leasing of Crown lands for a multitude of purposes such as rural businesses, the removal of raw materials and other purposes none of which were to be agricultural or grazing. Licenses were renewable annually at a fee to be set. Leases under the 1884 Act for these purposes were to be of no more than three acres at an annual rental of five pounds.

From late 1907 the Department of Crown Lands and Survey began changing to cards for its recordkeeping systems with the rent roll being reported as mainly on cards by 1917.

Unit 1 of VPRS 13840 / P1 was previously registered as Unit 1 of VPRS 1302 / P Rent Roll - Sundry Licenses. Unit 2 was previously registered as Unit 1 of VPRS 1303 / P Rent Roll - Business and Residence Licenses. Unit 3 was previously registered as Unit 2 of VPRS 1301 / P Rent Roll - Business and Similar Licenses and Unit 4 was previously registered as Unit 160 of VPRS 631 / P Rent Rolls.