Identity area
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Title
Date(s)
- 1882-01-02 - 2003-07-01 (Creation)
- 1882-01-02 - 1998-12-31 (Accumulation)
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Name of creator
Administrative history
The Department of Lands and Surveys was one of the oldest government agencies in Western Australia, having been constituted under the name of the Survey Office in 1829. The Office became the Surveyor-General's Department in 1870 and was organized into two branches - Crown Lands and Surveys. The Department was administered by the Surveyor-General who also held the title of Commissioner of Crown Lands.
The Department was restyled the Crown Lands and Surveys Department in 1873 and, in 1890, the Department of Land and Surveys.
The Department of Lands and Surveys was responsible for the leasing and alienation of Crown Lands (except where mining and forestry tenures were involved*), the reservation of land for public purposes and roads, the surveying and classifying of land, and the exploration and mapping of the State. From its inception, the Department was also active in promoting immigration and settlement, and until 1973 was responsible for administering various Assisted Passage Immigration Schemes.
Immigration remained one of the functions of the Department until 1986, and the Department was responsible for the administration of the Noalimba Reception Centre.
Following a functional review, the Department was reorganized and renamed the Department of Land Administration in 1986.
- Initially, the Department was responsible for virtually all aspects of land administration, but with the establishment of the Department of Mines (1893) and the Forests Department (1919), it relinquished control of mining and forestry matters.
Name of creator
Administrative history
Following a functional review of the Department of Lands and Surveys, a new Department of Land Administration came into being on 1 July 1986. A new organization structure was implemented on 6 February 1987, which divided the Department into four major divisions: Land Operations, Land Titles, Mapping & Survey, and Corporate Services. Directors were appointed for each division and were accountable to an Executive Director. A Bunbury Regional Division, under the control of a manager, was also established to co-ordinate the Department's activities in the south-west region of the State.
In 1990 the Department of Land Administration established an integrated Land Information Program to provide development of the Western Australian Land Information System (WALIS) and access to the State's information about land.
On 1 July 2003, the Department of Land Administration was abolished and the functions of this organisation were split across two major departments. The Department of Land Information was formed to control the management of land titles, property valuation and land mapping. The management of Crown land and pastoral leases was passed to the Department of Planning and Infrastructure.
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Repository
Archival history
Content and structure area
Scope and content
This is the main series for correspondence files dealing with the administration of land in the State. The series covers the full span of activities carried out by the departments responsible for land administration.
On 2 January 1882, the Chief Clerk for the Crown Land and Surveys Department introduced a new system for filing correspondence. The previous system of arranging correspondence into five groups (i.e. for settlers; officials; surveyors; applications for employment; telegrams) was abandoned in favour of recording all correspondence in numerical order by year. In effect, this commenced the annual single number filing system for such correspondence.
Transfers of many consignments in this series have been made by groups of like files. A summary of these transfers is as follows:
Accounting/Budgeting (consignment 4490); Acts (consignment 4005); Acquisitions (consignments 6753, 6754, 6784); Administrative (consignments 4034, 5363); Committees/Conferences (consignment 4007); Investigations (consignment 4069); Leases - Conditional purchase (consignments 3883, 3918, 4132, 6266); Leases - Pastoral (consignments 3525, 3685, 3871, 4947, 6231, 6462); Leases - Perpetual (consignments 3883, 3918, 4132, 6455, 6615); Leases - Special (consignment 4066); Nomenclature (consignments 4799, 6621); Policy/Organisations (consignment 4034); Planning (consignment 3910); Public Relations/Publications (consignment 4006); Purchases (consignments 4066, 4067, 4132, 6455) Reserves (consignments 3640, 4035, 4080, 4133, 4634, 4698, 4811, 6196, 6243, 6461, 6614); Resumptions (consignment 6752); Roads (consignments 6466, 6470, 6586, 6705); Sites (consignment 6706); Surveys (consignment 3134); Townsites (consignments 3884, 4889, 6467); War Service Land Settlement (consignment 1105, 4992).
(Files in this Record Series also include items that were previously listed at the State Records Office at references: AN 3, Accession 541; AN 3/9, Accession 1384; AN 3/10, Accession 1569; AN 3/12, Accession 1632; AN 3/13, Accession 1657; AN 3/14, Accession 1672; AN 3/15, Accession 1683; AN 3/16, Accession 1699; AN 3/19, Accession 1755; AN 3/20, Accession 1764; AN3/21, Accession 1765; AN 3/22, Accession 1766; AN 3/23, Accession 1777; AN 3/24, Accession 1778; AN 3/25, Accession 1843; AN 3/26, Accession 1844; AN 3/27, Accession 1845, AN 3/WAR/3, Accession 1105).