VPRS 5825 Pastoral Run Registers

Full description

The Order in Council 1847 divided New South Wales, which included the Port Phillip District into Unsettled, Intermediate and Settled Districts for the purpose of pastoral occupation. Leases for up to fourteen years could be obtained in the Unsettled Districts, for up to eight years in the Intermediate Districts and for one year in the Settled Districts. Rents were to be proportional to the carrying capacity of the land with ten pounds per annum being the minimum. Application needed to be made for these leases . Records of these may be seen in VPRS 13924 / P Register of Applications for Lease of Pastoral Runs.

The Land Act 1862 modified these conditions, converting all licenses to yearly ones until 1870. Rents were to continue to be calculated on the basis of the carrying capacity of the land with the occupier having rights of appeal against the determination by the assessors of the Board of Land and Works. New runs were made available for lease for no more than 14 years with the rights to be bid upon at auction. Rents were to be payable in half yearly instalments in June and December. In general terms, these provisions were confirmed by the Land Act 1869.

Circulars were sent notifying licensees and lessees of the rent due and lists were published in the Government Gazette at June and December. Rents were able to be paid either locally or directly to the Department of Crown Lands and Survey (VA 538) where the keeping of rent rolls was instituted in 1862. Previous records of rent payments were kept by the Treasury (from 1849) and destroyed by a process of periodical destruction. Returns of rent payments from districts outside Melbourne may be seen in VPRS 809 Return of Pastoral Rents Received. Details of rent payments may be seen in VPRS 3649 Register of Payment of Pastoral Rents and VPRS 1293 Register of Pastoral Licences.

This series contains summary details of the pastoral runs giving the name of the run, the district in which it was located, the application number for the lease of the run, the date of the granting of the lease being published in the Government Gazette, the names of holders of the lease and the dates of changes and in the second volume, the details of the boundaries of the run.