Terra Nulluis Overturned, and Differing Views of Tenure: What Future for Public Land in Australia

Abstract

"Forty-two percent of the land area of the Australian continent is held under leasehold tenure. In the state of Queensland, 50% of the land area is held under leasehold. Within that area there are small cities, country towns, road and railways, lakes and watercourses, national parks and so forth, for which different legal arrangements apply. But the other 50% of the land is general freehold tenured (whereby individuals and companies have a right of exclusive ownership) and that area includes the majority of the tenure. This is a variety of legal arrangements (see Appendices I and II) whereby an individual or company enters into agreement with the state or federal government to make use of public land for grazing purposes--by sheep and cattle in particular--in the state of land occupied by cities, much farmland, and so on....

"Using legislative documents, Government and newspaper reports, and some interviews, this paper examines, from a sociological point of view, the rights and obligations associated with a variety of tenure types and the implications of their obtaining over the same blocks of land; those issues which might be made conflictual when different tenure types apply to one piece of 'property'; and the ways in which access to property--especially as rural, landed property--articulates with claims to social esteem and right to a decent life in a culturally varied society. The longer-term possibilities for different claimants to continue to use land for living space, for agricultural production, and for mining while lifestyles, production processes, and markets change is considered in this paper in light of recent practice and new circumstances. The paper argues that the changed legal situation forces Australians to develop a new relationship to property--on, with, and under the landscape."