VPRS 13929 Rent Roll, Permits to Occupy, Homestead Associations Settlement on Lands Act 1893 and Land Act 1901

Full description

The Settlement on Lands Act 1893 was passed with a view to providing an outlet for the unemployed labour of Victoria through the establishment of three main types of rural settlement. Homestead Associations was one of these.

Associations or combinations of not less than six people who desired to settle on Crown land adjacent to each other could, on registration of the association and its members with and the payment of the registration fee to the Board of Land and Works, have up to 2,000 acres reserved for allocation to the members of the association. Members had to be over the age of eighteen and not have any other land holdings. Applications may be seen in VPRS 13928 Register of Applications, Homestead Associations Settlement on Lands Act 1893 and Land Act 1901.

Each member was able to occupy no more than 50 acres. Occupancy was by license for three years at a nominal rent with no member able to receive more than one permit to occupy. The payment of the rent during this time was recorded in a special rent roll. Details also included the granting of any advances and their repayment, the file number, the name and homestead association of the person, the location and extent of the land and details of any transfers. Once a lease was granted, there is a reference to the entry in the lease register (see VPRS 11874/ P1 Register of Leases Granted Under Sections 5, 20 and 26 of the Settlement on Lands Act and VPRS 11875/P1 Register of Leases Including Closer Settlement and Soldier Settlement.)

After this three years, a lease could be granted for a period of twenty years as long as specific conditions were met including the cultivation of set proportions of the allotment within specific time frames and residence by the lessee or a member of his family during the period of the lease (Section 20 of the 1893 Act and Section 332 of the consolidated Land Act 1901). Advances not exceeding fifteen pounds for building upon and improving the allotment by way of a loan might be made to permissive occupants. These advances were to be repaid in some twenty annual instalments with the first instalment being due with the issue of the lease. Those who received advances were to match the sum advanced in expenditure.

Township sites were to be located within the same area with no more than 100 acres to be allowed. Each occupant of a homestead allotment could also be granted a lease of a one acre township allotment (Section 26 of the 1893 Act and Section 337 of the consolidated Land Act 1901).

These associations were deemed to have been unsuccessful with the relevant portions of the Act being repealed in 1904. Files relating to individual allotments may be able to be found in VPRS 5357 / P Land Selection and Correspondence Files or VPRS 440 Occupation Files - District Series using the denominators 20 or 26.