VPRS 15686 Register of Approved Applications, Ballarat, Sections 47 and 98 Land Act 1901 (Ballarat District Survey Office)

From about 1901 there was a steady decline in new applications being made under the Land Acts. In mid-1907 a circular was sent to District Land Officers notifying them that from that time onwards, all applications regardless of Act and Section of the Act, were to be recorded in a single register kept at the District Land Office and allocated an annual single number. Details recorded were the number allocated to the application, the date of receipt, the name and postal address of the applicant, the location and extent of the land and the details of the recommendation by the Local Land Board and the disposal of the application (i.e. where it was forwarded or filed). A weekly return of all applications received was to be forwarded to Melbourne as well as a list of the cases to be considered by the Local Land Board prior to hearings. Records of a number of Local Land Boards are currently in custody.Once applications had been ruled upon by the Local Land Board, details of those which had been successful were to be entered in the register, as in this series, to be kept at the District Land Office for specific Sections of an Act. These registers contained the same details as in the general application register and then annotations relating to the Local Land Board, the dates of issue of any license and references and remarks. Details may include the dates of the issue of any lease or Crown grant or of entries in the Government Gazette as well as references to correspondence or file management.Section 47 Land Act 1901 stated that a license to occupy an agricultural allotment could be issued by the Governor-in-Council under the conditions set out in Section 48 of the Act. Section 98 of the Land Act 1901 added the extra condition that no compensation could be approved for damage to the land or the improvements or for the removal of timber in relation to any mining activities as defined by the Mines Act.VPRS 15686 was previously registered as Unit 18 of VPRS 6165/P Registers of Land Applications.