Lightfoot and Burne Families - U.K. to Australia

Agency number: 4339
Title: Balranald Crown Land Agents Office
Start date: by 06 Feb 1858
End date: 01 Jan 1885
Category: Local Office
Creation: Crown Lands Alienation Act, 1861 (25 Vic. No.1, 1861) & Crown Lands Occupation Act, 1861 (25 Vic. No.2, 1861).
Abolition: Crown Lands Act, 1884 (48 Vic. No.18, 1884).

Administrative history note:
No definitive date exists for the creation of the Balranald Crown Lands Agent Office, however surviving records form the office commence on 6 February 1858 and the Public Service List records the appointmnet of Alfred B. Burne to the Office on 1 August 1861. (1) Both the Crown Lands Alienation Act, 1861 (25 Vic. No. 1, 1861) and the Crown Lands Occupation Act, 1861 (25 Vic. No. 2, 1861) which set out the duties of land agents received assent on 18 October, 1861. The former dealt with the sale of land. The duties of a land agent under this Act included

(a) accepting written applications for conditional purchases of land between 40 and 120 acres (2)
(b) receiving deposits of 25% of the purchase price (3)
(c) determining by lot the successful purchaser (if two or more applications are made for the same land) (4)
(d) recording particulars of applications for provisional purchases into a book (5)
(e) forwarding particulars of applications to 'the proper officer of government' each week. (6)
(f) arranging refunds if a purchaser withdrew from a conditional purchase of unsurveyed land within one year of application (7)
(g) Certifying occupancy and improvements to conditionally purchased land final purchase of the land (8)
(h) Making land available to other purchasers if the deposit has not been paid (9)
(I) recording in a book all sales made by him under the Act. (10)

Under the Crown Lands Alienation Act, 1861 the Land Agent
(a) received payments of renewals of leases (11)
(b) Converted leases under the Crown Land Regulations, 1848 to those under the Crown Lands Alienation Act, 1861 (12)
(c) arranged leases for land which was not bid for at auction (13)

Regulations under the Acts were published in pamphlet form and were available from 15 November, 1861 (14)

End Notes:
(1) Public Service List 1862 p.53.
(2) Crown Lands Alienation Act, 1861 (25 Victoria Act No. 1) s. 13
(3) Ibid.
(4) Ibid
(5) Ibid. s. 15
(6) Loc. Cit.
(7) Ibid. s. 16
(8) Ibid. s. 18
(9) Ibid. s. 26
(10) Ibid. s. 27
(11) Crown Lands Occupation Act, 1861 s. 12 (3)
(12) Ibid. s. 12 (4)
(13) Ibid. s. 12(12)
(14) NSW Government Gazette 15 November, 1861 p. 2446