VPRS 11862 Reports of Land Sales by Public Auction

This series was created by the Land Sales Branch of the Police Magistrate, Port Phillip District (VA 472), Superintendent, Port Phillip District (VA 473), the Colonial Secretarys Office (VA 856), the Crown Lands Department (VA 2878) and the Department of Crown Lands and Survey (VA 538) respectively.This series documents the details of Crown land sales by public auction conducted by the department in accordance with the relevant Orders-in-Council and Land Acts. This serieswas created by the department to assist in its day to day operations and t he administration of the issue of Crown Grants. The reports of land sales by public auction contained information transcribed from the individual Auctioneers Reports of Land Sales by Public Auction (VPRS 80), which were sent to the department after each auction.The branch referred to this series in order to check the details of the sales. It appears that they were treated as a reference record upon which the monthly summaries of sales were based (see VPRS 11861 Statistical Summary of Sales by Auction).The following details were recorded:Place and Date of Sale by Public AuctionLotCounty / TownAllotment / SectionExtent Sold /Unsold - Why not SoldUpset Price per AcreSold forName and Residence of PurchaserDeposit PaidBalanceTotalThis series is arranged chronologically by the dates of sales by public auction. Each bound volume has the sale date range marked on the spine. Between 1837 and 1849 and later between 1853 and ?1883 to 1885 separate volumes were kept for town lots and country/suburban lots. It appears that with the passing of the Land Act 1884 which significantly limited the area to be sold by auction, only one volume for all lots was kept by the department.Each volume has an alphabetical index of places of sale and the town/county/parish in which the allotments offered for sale were located.In September 1972 the Land Sales Branch was moved to the Deeds and Securities Branch. Following this administrative change the practice of creating bound volumes was abandoned. The department then began to create an individual file to record the data for each auction sale because it considered a file system to be more accessible.