VPRS 1325 Registers of Outwards Correspondence [1873-1874 & 1893-1894]; Register of Applications & Rent Roll (Homestead and Village Settlement), Bairnsdale District Office;;

This volume contains a number of series of records, most of them relating to settlement under the provisions of the Settlement on Land Act 1893 relating to Homestead Associations and Village Settlements. This volume was used at the Bairnsdale District Survey Office.The volume was originally used as a register of outwards correspondence from 1873 to 1874, noting the date of correspondence sent, to whom and the subject. It was used again for the same purpose from 1893 to 1894 in relation to applications and procedures relating to Homestead Associations and Village Settlements under the Settlement on Lands Act 1893.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.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).The Governor in Council could also proclaim land for 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.The third series in this volume consists of a register of applications made at the Bairnsdale District Survey Office for the Homestead Associations at Lindenow and Raymond Island and the Village Settlements at Eagle Point and Sarsfield. Details given are the date, the name of the applicant, the number of the allotment and notes regarding approvals. Loose papers in the volume provide further details relating to the applicants for the sttlement of Eagle Point.From 1895 to 1898, this volume was used to provide details of the payments of instalments and of the receipt of advances at the settlements of Eagle Point, Swan Reach, Sarfield, Lindenow and Raymond island. Other details relating to these payments may be found in the rent rolls kept at the Occupation Branch of the Department of Crown lands and Survey in Melbourne (see VPRS 13941/P1, VPRS 13942/P1 and 13929/P1).Further loose papers in the volume consist of correspondence, pro forma and signed undertakings by applicants to carry out the conditions of occupation of the land.