VPRS 15580 Index to Purchasers of Crown Land at Auction

Full description

This series provides an index to those persons who purchased Crown land at a public auction. Details given are the lot number, the name of the person, the location and date of the sale.

Once the land had been surveyed and designated as being available for Public Auction, a notice was posted in the Government Gazette. This occurred between one to three months before the date of a sale. The notice contained the Sale Number (a sequential number from 1860), details of the date, time and location of the sale, the location and description of the land to be sold, the lot it was to be sold in, the upset price, and the deposit required. Auctioneers prepared an Auctioneers Report for the Department of Crown Land and Survey (and the Board of Land and Works) to inform them of which land was sold, to whom, for what price and what deposit (see VPRS 80 Auctioneers Reports of Land Sales by Public Auction). This information was transferred to registers in both the Land Sales office and the office in the Land District where the land was located. Land sales held in specific districts were conducted by authorised officers of the Lands Department. Financial records tracked the transfer of monies owed until the sale was finalised.

A report that all lands had been paid for was signed by the Receiver of Monies and Paymaster of the Department of Lands. The Treasurer and Under-Treasurer signed a report that they had received the money. The printed reports or sale books were then sent to the Deeds Branch in order for the Deeds to be prepared. The details would be recorded in a register at the Deeds Branch, and then the sale information would be passed to the Surveyor General's Branch in order to obtain the technical description of the lands before the information was returned to the Deeds Branch. The engrossment would be finalised, the information examined and checked, and then the sale information would be passed to the Chief Draughtsman's branch so that plans could be drawn in the margin of the Grant and the Deed. These were passed back to the Deeds Branch to record that the deed was ready for final issue, before being sent to the Receipt and Pay Office in Melbourne for delivery. The Grant and Deed were signed by the Governor and sent to the Registrar of Titles. The Registrar registered and delivered the Grant to the Grantee, and retained the Deed for safe keeping.

Summary details of all sales by auction may be found in VPRS 11862 Reports of Land Sales by Public Auction. Details of the Crown Grants issued may be found in the Registers of Crown Grants. See

;VPRS 11868 - for the period 1837 to 1851

VPRS 11866 - for the years 1851 to 1858

VPRS 11865 - for the period 1859 to 1988 and

VPRS 11864 for Crown Grants issued between 1988 and 1991.