Find your ancestors in Queensland, Crown Land Sales 1842-1911

QLD CROWN LAND SALES 1842 - 1911

These records are a great genealogy tool for anyone researching their ancestry or building their family tree. They have been indexed from material created by the Queensland Lands Department and held at the Queensland State Archives, Brisbane. Access to the actual files at the Department of Environment and Resource Management (Titles Registry) requires the provision of the Volume and Folio Number – a fee is attached.

There are two sets of data in this collection, comprising two time ranges:

1. CROWN LAND SALES 1842 - 1861

Early records in the database are for lands sold before the separation of Queensland from New South Wales; while later records, from December 1859 to February 1861, contain details of lands sold after Queensland became a separate colony. It's a fascinating and insightful genealogy tool to help uncover your ancestry and build your family tree.
The main series of records indexed by this database are:

(i) Lists of Lands Sold - Colony of Queensland (Series ID 16119; formerly SUR/4) - Queensland State Archives Item ID101517, Register - sales of Crown land covering the period circa 1 Sep 1842 to circa 31 Aug 1859 and

(ii) Register of Lands Sold (Series ID 16130; formerly SUR/5) - Queensland State Archives Item ID 101547, Register - sales of Crown land covering the period 19 Dec 1859 to 21 Feb 1861.

The 1842-1859 records cover lands sold in what later became Queensland. Details recorded in the register include: the date of sale or offer at auction; number of lot; date of selection; county, parish town or place, area (acres, roods, perches); allotment or portion; section; upset price realized; amount of purchase money; purchaser; residence and remarks. These early records have been indexed from lists supplied to the Queensland State Archives by the New South Wales Lands Department. www.archivessearch.qld.gov.au/Search/SeriesDetails.aspx?SeriesId=16119

The registers covering the 1859-1861 period list: the date of sale or offer at auction; number of lot; date; county; parish town or place; area; allotment or portion; upset price realized; amount of purchase money; purchaser and residence. Places where sales were conducted are Ipswich, Brisbane, Warwick, Drayton, Rockhampton, Dalby, Maryborough, Gayndah, Callandoon, Condamine, and Gladstone. www.archivessearch.qld.gov.au/Search/SeriesDetails.aspx?SeriesId=16130

2. CROWN LAND SALES 1860 -1911

The mains series indexed are the Triplicate Deeds of Grant - Land Purchase A Registers (Series ID 47; formerly SRS 47), Town Lot B Registers (Series ID 46; formerly SRS 46) and Registers of Land Purchase Deeds under Pre-Emptive Right (Series ID 10373; formerly A/66816, A/66817 and A/66818).

Country Land Purchase A Registers 1860-(1991) The series consists of copies of the original Deeds of Grant. Only the original certificate of title is recorded, the Titles Office holds details for later transactions. It includes grants under a variety of land acts. Detailed information on the series is available at www.archivessearch.qld.gov.au/Search/SeriesDetails.aspx?SeriesId=47

The deed may contain: Deed number, folio number, county, parish, date of purchase, date of surrendered certificate of title, area surrendered, name of the purchaser, suburb/town where purchaser is from, cost of the purchase, portion number, plan catalogue number, agricultural farm number, selection number, mortgage number, diagrams of the parish, description of the Deed of Grant detailing where the land is situated and what the land does not include, the lot number proclaimed and the date of proclamation. The items in italics are indexed in this publication.

Town Lot B Registers 1860-(1921) (alternate title of Land Purchase B used on some of volumes in this series) The series consists of deeds issued under various land acts. Detailed information on the series is available at www.archivessearch.qld.gov.au/Search/SeriesDetails.aspx?SeriesId=46

The information contained on each of the deeds is similar to that for the Land Purchase A Registers: Deed number, folio number, county, parish, town, date of purchase, area, plan catalogue number, name of the purchaser, where the purchaser is from, cost of purchase, admeasurement, allotment number, section number, description of the Deed of Grant detailing where the land is situated and what the land does not include, the town lot number proclaimed and the date of proclamation. Again the items in italics are included in this publication.

Registers of Land Purchase Deeds under Pre-Emptive Right 24 Jun 1860 – 22 Oct 1885 Under 1847 regulations, lessees of runs in unsettled districts were allowed to purchase portions of their runs before the leases expired. The regulations were repealed in 1869 – there are just two entries in the database after that date. Information in the registers usually includes the name of the purchaser, residence, the amount paid, the area in acres, county, portion and description. Items in italics are in this publication. Detailed information on the series is available at www.archivessearch.qld.gov.au/Search/SeriesDetails.aspx?SeriesId=10373

Special and Exchange Grants – some allotments were obtained by special grants, others by exchange

Cancelled grants – these were extracted from both Country Land Purchase A Registers and Town Lot B Registers and are distinguished by the inclusion of the word “cancelled” after the register from which they were extracted.

The fields in the index cover information from the Deed itself and other data to allow location of the Deed in the records. Note that occasionally the clerks put the Deed of Grants in the wrong book – there are times when very large acreages have been taken up as Town land and others where very small areas have been taken up as Country land.

• Deed of Grant number
• Surname / Given names of party as recorded on the Deed
• District – Southern (Brisbane), Central (Rockhampton), and Northern (Townsville); the Central and Northern Districts were created in 1889.
• County
• Parish
• Town / Village / Run
• Area (in acres, roods and perches)
• Type of Deed – Town (Town Lot B Registers), Country (Land Purchase A Registers), Pre-emptive Right, Cancelled (from deeds in both Land Purchase A Registers and Town Lot B Registers), Special Grants, Exchange and Transfer of Deeds
• Volume
• Folio
• Book
• Page

To find out the names of duplicate purchasers you will have to do a search on the Deed of Grant number.

Conversions from the imperial measurement system to the metric system:
1 inch = = 25.4 mm
12 inches = 1 foot = 304.8 mm
3 feet = 1 yard = 0.9144 metre
22 yards = 1 chain = 20.1168 metres
10 chain = 1 furlough = 201.168 metres
8 furlongs = 1 mile = 1609.344 metres
1 mile = 1760 yards = 5380 feet

Surveyors used a chain of 100 wire rods or links each 7.92 inches (201.168 mm) long. This was known as the surveyor’s chain or Gunter’s chain. A ‘standard’ quarter-acre block is 1 chain wide and 20 chain deep, or 66 feet by 165 feet.

Rods, poles and perches refer to the same linear measurement, namely 5.5 yards (16.5 feet or 5/0292m). Thus four rods (poles or perches) equal one chain. However the terms are more commonly used to refer to square rods, square poles or square perches. Hence 1 (square) rod equals 30.25 square yards or 25.29 square meters or more precisely 25.29285264 square meters.

A rood equals 40 square rods (square poles or square perches) and is equivalent to ¼ acre. This is approximately 1011.714 square metres, they are of the ‘standard’ quarter-acre house block.

40 perches = 1 roods (1/4 acre; 1210 sq yards) = 1011.714 sq m
4 roods = 1 acre (4840 sq yards) = 0.405 hectares

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