VPRS 13076 Register of Leases Granted by the Board of Land and Works, Section 12 Amending Land Act 1865

Section 12 of the Amending Land Act 1865 allowed persons to make application for the purchase, selection, or for a lease of land in declared, surveyed and proclaimed agricultural areas for the purposes of residence and cultivation. The lease could be granted for a term of seven years at a rent of two shillings per acre per annum with the lease to be executed within three months of application. Rent was to be paid half-yearly with a half-years rent in advance. The lessee was to reside upon the land for at least three years and make improvements to it. If these terms were met, after that three years, there was a right of purchase of the land at the price of one pound per acre. Allotments, as determined by the Board of Land and Works, were to be between 40 and 640 acres with no individual being able to select more than 640 acres per year.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 a half-years rent in advance. 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.This series registers leases granted by the Board of Land and Works under these conditions for applicants in all districts in Victoria. Details given are the place and date of selection, the reference number given as an annual single number, the name(s) of the lessees, the parish, the details of the allotment, section and area, the date of the lease, when it was passed by the Board, an alphabetical reference for the deed mark and remarks. These deal mainly with notes of them being sent for execution or for delivery. It may be that the letters Ex.O.T with a date refer to the execution of the lease by the Board.