VPRS 13087 Register of Lessees, Castlemaine, Section 12 Land Act 1862.

Part II of the Land Act 1862 allowed for the Sale of Lands by Selection. More than 10 million acres of land was reserved for proclamation as agricultural areas for residence and cultivation and not less than four million acres was to be available for selection within three months of the passing of the Act. Land was to be surveyed into lots of at least 40 acres and not more than 640 acres with each lot to be divided into two subdivisions. Selectors could purchase both subdivisions at the price of one pound per acre, or could purchase one subdivision and lease the other one. Persons holding occupation licenses under terms of the notices of 1861 had a pre-emptive right to select the land which they were occupying with the consent of the Board of Land and Works.Leases were to be for eight years at a rent of two shillings and sxpence per acre or part of an acre with the lessee having a pre-emptive right of purchase. Selectors could not be infants or married women (unless they had obtained a judicial separation) and had to be resident in Victoria. No-one could select more than 640 acres in a year. Unselected land or land where leases were forfeited were to be sold at public auction. Conditions of the selection were that selectors would, within a year of the selection, cultivate one tenth of the land, or erect a habitable dwelling upon it or fence the land.Applications were to be made in the form set down in the Schedules to the Act in person at a land office and be accompanied by the purchase price of the whole lot or the purchase price for half and one years rent in advance for the other half. Applications were to be entered into a register, which was to be open to public inspection, by the land officer . The priority of the order of applications was to be determined by lot. Any refusal of an application was to be notified within thirty days in the Government Gazette with the reasons for refusal or disallowance being given. Leases also had to be approved by the Governor-in-Council.For the recording of the progressive payment of rents, a register of lessees was created in Melbourne for each locality where revenue was collected. Initially, each register was based on the location of the offices of the Receivers of Revenue (a departmental officer or another designated Crown officer such as a Clerk of Courts). Lessees would pay rent to the local Receiver of Revenue convenient to their location, returns of payments would be forwarded to the office of the Department of Crown Lands and Survey in Melbourne where they would be recorded in the appropriate register of lessees. With the formation of the Occupation Branch and the conduct of business according to the District Land Offices established, these registers were then allocated to a specific District Land Office within the Occupation Branch. Records within these registers may be for properties which, after 1874, were located in parishes which had been allocated to different District Land Offices.This register recorded the date of the lease or its reference number (which may be the lease number or an application number), the county and parish, the extent of the land being the allotment and section and area and for each year, the number of the report (regarding observance of the conditions of the lease) and the amount of rent to be paid in half-yearly instalments. A remarks column contains notations regarding the subsequent purchase of the land, the transfer to another lessee or to a section of the Land Act 1869 or any cancellation or revocation of the lease. These notations are often accompanied by a correspondence number or a reference to an entry in the Government Gazette.This series recorded details of payments for land located in parishes later administered by the Castlemaine District Land Office after c1874.VPRS 13087/P1 was previously registered as Unit 2 of VPRS 1314/P Register of Lessees, Land Act 1862. It was reserialied in 2002.