VPRS 8836 General Law Titles (Government Properties) (Records Not Transferred)

Full description

This series comprises general law title deeds and associated legal documents (conveyances, mortgages, contracts of sale, agreements, statutory declarations etc.) relating to properties purchased by the Department of Public Works or the Board of Land and Works for use as public offices such as police stations, court houses or government office buildings.

Background

An innovative system of land registration began in the 19th century with the passing of the Real Property Act 25 Vic., No. 140 (1862) and the Transfer of Land Statute 29 Vic., No.301 (1866). This system of registering and transferring titles to land is colloquially known as the "Torrens System of Land Registration", named after Robert Torrens who was influential in the adoption of the system in South Australia in 1858. The Torrens system provided a single title document which was registered. Subsequent transfers of land were all recorded on the same title document. This system was still in use as of April 1994.

Prior to the adoption of the Torrens system, each transaction of land (conveyance, mortgage etc.) resulted in the creation of a new document which rather than replacing the previous documents, was an addition to them. All the documents were required to ensure that ownership could be proven, as a missing title from the "chain" of documents meant that a person holding that document could challenge for the ownership of the property. This system was known as the "general law" system, or more commonly, the "old law" system.

Often, property titles were converted into the new Torrens system. When this occurred, the general law titles were annotated with a number indicating that they had been registered in the new Torrens System and the general law titles were no longer required once the new title was issued.

Provenance

Until 1985 the construction, acquisition and management of the State's public buildings was the primary responsibility of the Public Works Department (VA 669). It is believed, therefore, that these records formed part of the record keeping system of that department

The records appear to have been in the hands of the Public Works Department until 1985 when the property management function was transferred from the Public Works Department to the Department of Property and Services. The function of managing State owned and leased property assets was subsequently transferred to the Department of Finance.

The Summary Guide should be consulted for further information on this department. (See Inventory of Series for VA 669.)

Creation of an Artificial Series

These records were found in the basement of 35 Spring Street by the Records Manager of the Ministry of Finance in 1992. They are presumed to be a fragment of a much larger record keeping system which no longer exists. Because so little is known about the original record keeping system, an artificial series has been created for these documents, until further information becomes available.

Seven archive boxes were discovered, which contained titles documents and leases. The non-current leases were approved for destruction in 1994. Some of the leases however, were still current - being for 999 years duration. These have been registered as a separate series - VPRS 8835 Leases and Agreements [Government Properties].

What all the documents appear to have in common is that they relate to properties that have been acquired for the Crown by the Public Works Department / Board of Land and Works for public use, or for the construction of public buildings.

Evidence of Previous Numbering Systems

Some of the deeds are annotated with numbers which are known to correspond to Public Works Department files. It is presumed that these files deal with the properties to which the title belongs.

The Crown Solicitor was involved with conveyancing of properties and some files bear numbers from the Crown Solicitor's record keeping system. Many of the deeds also have numbers which are believed to be page numbers written on them, these appear to be roughly chronological and it is assumed that they were entered in a register. The nature and location of this register was unknown at the time of the proposed transfer (April 1994). This may have been a miscellaneous deeds register retained in the Crown Solicitor's Office.

Often the deeds have a number which may be a Torrens title application number, but the Torrens title was not found with the deeds. When land reverts to ownership by the crown, titles are no longer required.