VPRS 13339 Local Lands Board Schedules, Sale

Under the Amending Land Act 1865 and the Land Act 1869, applications for licenses to occupy Crown Land under such sections as Section 42 (1865) and Sections 19 and 49 (1869) had to be first investigated and reported upon by a Commission (under the 1865 Act) or a Local Lands Board (1869 Act). The last Commissions under the 1865 Act were held in January 1870 with Local Land Boards then being appointed under the authority of the Minister (see Section 100, Land Act 1869).The functions of the Commissions and the later Local Lands Boards were to investigate and report upon every application, to protect the public and local interests and promote the advantageous occupation of land. Commissions included in their membership the Surveyor-General, the Assistant Commissioner of Lands and Survey, the Secretary for Mines, chairmen and members of Mining Boards and Shire Councils and were assisted by District Surveyors, other officers of the Department and Mining Surveyors who had made the surveys of the sites applied for. These Commissions or enquiries were made in district centres and other principal centres of population on and in the vicinity of the goldfields. The decision with respect to the application arrived at by the Commission or the Local Lands Board was then entered in the Applications Register.The major change with the Local Lands Boards was to have the Minister appoint local members able to sit regularly in the local area. The criteria for membership were considerable knowledge of the local area and/or knowledge of the rules of the Department of Crown lands and Survey and the 'wants of the public'. Initially, public hearings were held at centres in each local Land District, particularly when there was a high volume of applications. As the volume of applications declined, it appears that Local Land Board hearings were directed from fewer centres such as Ballarat and Bendigo with hearings being less frequent or only when required. It was customary for hearings to be advertised in local newspapers to allow for the presentation of evidence including objections, in relation to applications.Functions of the Boards were extended from making recommendations on applications for licenses to include recommending on applications for the forfeiture of licenses under Section 20 of the Land Act 1869 where the department considered that further investigation was necessary and recommending on applications for the sale of unimproved country lands by auction and on the extension of commonage. The core function of making recommendations on applications for a license of occupation or a lease of Crown lands has remained with other functions varying over time. An appeal mechanism was also established for those wishing to dispute the recommendations of the Local Lands Board. Currently, (January 2003) these Boards are governed by Section 34 of the Land Act 1958.The volumes in this series record a summary of proceedings of the Local Land Board. The details entered are the number of the case, the date of the hearing, the name of the applicant, the details of the land applied for (parish, section and allotment and area), the date of approval, the date of issue of the licence and by whom it was issued and remarks. This last column was used to denote whether the application was refused or approved with a notation of the reason for refusal. The columns relating to the issue of licences became used to make notes regarding later sales of land and cancellations, transfers and revocations of licences. Prior to each sitting of the Local Land Board details were sometimes given of its composition.Standard formats of volumes were changed to also include notes of the evidence taken by the Local Lands Board as well as the Section of the Act under which application was made or the purpose of the application. Later volumes are letterpress books where presumably the original pages were forwarded to the Board of Land and Works or the Department of Crown Lands and Survey for the final decision on the application. Many of these books contain very detailed accounts of the evidence in specific cases.Special Schedules upon which the Board was called to rule dealt with those relating to reservations for roads and other special purposes.VPRS 13339/P2 was previously registered as Unit 2 of VPRS 449 / P Miscellaneous Registers.