VPRS 13956 Register of Applications for Leases, Homestead Associations, Settlement on Lands Act 1893 and Land Act 1901 (Occupation Branch)

The Settlement on Lands Act 1893 was passed with a view to providing an outlet for the unemployed labour of Victoria through the establishment of three main types of rural settlement. Homestead Associations was one of these.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. Rent Rolls held by PROV as VPRS 13942 document the payment of these instalments.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Land Act 1901).These associations were deemed to have been unsuccessful with the relevant portions of the Act being repealed in 1904.Each application for a lease was allocated a number which became the numerator of the file number. Other details given were the name and current address of the applicant, the location and extent of the land, the decision made regarding the application and annotations related to the subsequent management of the file.Researchers should consult VPRS 7311 Microfiche Catalogue to Crown Land and Survey Files: File Number Order or VPRS 7312 Microfiche Catalogue to Crown Land and Survey Files: Parish/Township Order to retrieve a file.VPRS 13956/P1 was previously registered as Unit 221 of VPRS 458/P Applications Registers, Land Act Unknown.