Land selection in Queensland

rdf:langString Land selection in Queensland

rdf:langString The process of land selection in Queensland in Australia began in 1860 and continued under a series of land acts in subsequent years. When Britain claimed possession of Australia, it did so on the basis of terra nullius (that the land belonged to nobody) and did not acknowledge that Indigenous people had any ownership over the land. All land in Australia became Crown land and was sold or leased by the Australian colonial governments according to the needs of the colonists. Land was considered the Queensland colony’s greatest asset. Prosperity of the colony was measured according to the extent of land settlement. Rent from land leases was the colony’s largest revenue earner. The initial political contest was between pastoralists and selectors lead by the "town liberals" who desired that immigrants have an equitable right to small land holdings. Closer settlement for agricultural purposes was promoted by the Queensland Government who desired settlement by immigrants to Queensland and exports of agricultural produce and raw materials such as cotton and wool to Britain. No group (pastoralists or town liberals) held a dominant control over land policy. Legislation was framed with the aim of a comprehensive land policy but was changed following to energetic efforts by both groups to interfere in areas of occupancy conditions and priority for selection, and there was tension between free selection and long leases particularly for pastoral class land. Consequently there were over 50 principal and amending acts covering all land legislation up to 1910.