VPRS 15649 Rent Roll Cards, Section 187 Land Act 1901 and Section 121 Land Act 1915, Central and Northern Victoria

From mid - 1907, a card system was introduced within the Occupation Branch of the Department of Crown Lands and Survey. For each new file generated by a successful application to lease or be licensed to occupy Crown land, two cards were created and maintained. One was to record the application and the later management of the file replacing the Registers of Applications. The other was to record the details of payments of rents and other fees replacing the rent roll volumes. The details for active files recorded in these volumes were progressively transferred to cards.Details given on the rent roll cards are the name of the licensee or lessee, the details of the location and size of the land, details of the payments of fees and of the date and amount of regular periodic payments of rent. Remarks include details of subsequent purchase of the land, of any transfers of leases or licences to other holders and the subsequent payments made by those persons, any cancellation or revocation or instances of abandonment of the land by the occupier.All licenses for the occupation of Crown lands and leases of Crown lands required the payment of rent in amounts and at intervals as stated by legislation or regulations made under the authority of legislation. Rents could be paid either by post or personally to the Melbourne office of the Department of Crown Lands and Survey (VA 538) or to local Receivers and Paymasters as designated for each parish and Land District (subsequent to the formation of the Occupation Branch in c 1874). Receivers and Paymasters were often local Clerks of Courts.Notifications of rents due at a particular date were circulated by notice or by lists published in the Government Gazette. The latter allowed local officers to be aware of the rents due in their areas. When the rents were paid to these officers, the payments were recorded in the local records and returns forwarded to the Department. Examples of these records may be seen in VPRS 809 Returns of Pastoral Rents Received. At the Occupation Branch, clerks (the rent rollers) were employed whose sole duties was the updating and maintenance of the rent rolls and preparation of certificates documenting payments where these were to be credited against the purchase price of land. Originally from about 1877, a rent roll clerk was attached to each District Land Office within the Occupation Branch.Cards are for land mainly in the former Bendigo, Castlemaine, Kerang, Echuca and St Arnaud Land Districts. Section 119 Land Act 1884 provided for the issuing of grazing licenses for Crown lands not otherwise held. This provision continued as Section 123 Land Act 1890 and Section 187 Land Act 1901. This eventually became Section 121 Land Act 1915. Many of the licenses for which rent was being paid had commenced prior to the use of these cards.