VPRS 13942 Rent Roll, Leases, Homestead Associations and Village Settlements, Settlement on Lands Act 1893 and Lands Act 1901

The Settlement on Lands Act 1893 was passed with a view to providing an outlet for the unemployed labour of Victoria through the establishment of three main types of rural settlement. Homstead Associations was one of these.Homestead Associations or combinations of not less than six people who desired to settle on Crown land adjacent to each other could, on registration of the association and its members with and the payment of the registration fee to the Board of Land and Works, have up to 2,000 acres reserved for allocation to the members of the association. Members had to be over the age of eighteen and not have any other land holdings. Applications may be located in VPRS 13956 Register of Applications for Leases, Homestead Associations, Settlement on Lands Act 1893 and 1901.Each member was able to occupy no more than 50 acres. Occupancy was by license for three years at a nominal rent with no member able to receive more than one permit to occupy. After this time, a lease could be granted for a period of twenty years as long as specific conditions were met including the cultivation of set proportions of the allotment within specific time frames and residence by the lessee or a member of his family during the period of the lease (Section 20 of the 1893 Act and Section 332 of the consolidated Land Act 1901). Advances not exceeding fifteen pounds for building upon and improving the allotment by way of a loan might be made to permissive occupants. These advances were to be repaid in some twenty annual instalments with the first instalment being due with the issue of the lease. Those who received advances were to match the sum advanced in expenditure.Township sites were to be located within the same area with no more than 100 acres to be allowed. Each occupant of a homestead allotment could also be granted a lease of a one acre township allotment (Section 26 of the 1893 Act and Section 337 of the consolidated Land Act 1901).These associations were deemed to have been unsuccessful with the relevant portions of the Act being repealed in 1904.The Governor in Council could also proclaim land for the purpose of Village Settlements which could be then divided into allotments of between one and twenty acres. Under Section 5 of the Act (Section 318 of the Land Act 1901), a permit to occupy a village community allotment could be granted for three years at a nominal rental. After that time a lease for up to twenty years could be applied for if certain conditions, as set by regulations, had been met. The price of an allotment was to be no less than one pound per acre and was to be paid in forty half yearly instalments. For a Crown grant to be obtained at the end of the period, the lessee had to pay this sum, repay any advances made and the cost of the survey of the land. As well, the lessee or his family was to reside on the land with certain proportions to have been brought into cultivation within specified time periods.It was recognised relatively soon that not all the land allocated by the Board of Land and Works was suitable for village settlements and that 20 acres was an inadequate area for a settler to make a living. As a consequence, provision was made in Sections 344 to 346 of the Land Act 1901 for landholders to acquire more land to, with the original holding, the value of two hundred pounds.Once a lease was granted, there is a reference to the entry in the lease register (see VPRS 11874/P1 Register of Leases Granted Under Sections 5, 20 and 26 of the Settlement on Lands Act and VPRS 11875/P1 Register of Leases Including Closer Settlement and Soldier Settlement.) The records relating to the payments of rent and compulsory fees and the repayment of advances were recorded in a rent roll separate from that used during the period of permissive occupancy (see VPRS 13929/P1 and VPRS 13941/P1). Other details given are the file number, the name of the person and, where applicable, of the homestead association, details of the location and extent of the land, the application for a Crown grant and any details of transfer of the land to another settler or the resumption of the land. Files may be able to be found in VPRS 5357/P Land Selection and Correspondence Files.VPRS 13942/P was previously registered as Units 239, 240 and 241 of VPRS 631/P Rent Rolls.