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Acquiring your space

Acquiring your space. A presentation by Elizabeth Estbergs of Archives ACT for the ACT Heritage Festival 7 April 2009. Leasehold in the ACT. Pre-colonial era. English land law All land of a British possession belongs to the Crown

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Acquiring your space

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  1. Acquiring your space A presentation by Elizabeth Estbergs of Archives ACT for the ACT Heritage Festival 7 April 2009 Leasehold in the ACT.

  2. Pre-colonial era • English land law • All land of a British possession belongs to the Crown • No-one except the Crown can have absolute ownership of the land • 1788 • The land in NSW belonged to the Crown

  3. Henry George • Publications • The conditions of labour • Progress & poverty • The single tax: what it is, and why we urge it • Social problems • Private ownership of land • Fundamental evil • Perverted and distorted the fee enterprise economy • Did not advocate land nationalisation • Toured Australia 1889-890 • Labor Party did not espouse Single Tax

  4. Federation • Political philosophy & groups of the 1890s • Free trade or protection • Labour movement • Australian Natives Association • Womanhood Suffrage League • Temperance groups • Anti-imperialists • Experience of Washington, District of Columbia • 10 square miles • 100 square miles

  5. Leasehold principle • Political platform from 1901 • Edmund Barton • Land within the federal area will not be sold. Its ownership will be retained by the Commonwealth. • Reasons • to limit speculation in undeveloped land • ensure increasing values contributed to the cost of a federal capital territory • Allow unearned increments in land value to be retained by the Australian people • Ensure orderly growth through lease purpose clauses • Leases are sold or disposed of, not the land itself

  6. Constitution • Imperial legislation • An Act to constitute the Commonwealth of Australia [9th July 1900](63 & 64 Victoria - Chapter 12) • Seat of Government • 52. The Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have exclusive power to make laws for the peace, order, and good government of the Commonwealth with respect to-- • (i) The seat of the government of the Commonwealth, and all places acquired by the Commonwealth for public purposes: • ….

  7. Seat of Government Acts • Seat of Government Surrender Act 1909 (NSW) • Counties of Murray and Cowley, area about 900 square miles • The right of the State or of the residents therein to the use and control of the waters of the Queanbeyan and Molonglo Rivers and their tributaries ...

  8. Seat of Government Acts (2) • Seat of Government Acceptance Act 1909 (Cwlth) • Continuance of laws Subject to this Act, all laws in force in the Territory immediately before the proclaimed day shall, so far as applicable, continue in force until other provision is made. • Continuance of interests in land All estates and interests in any land in the Territory which are held by any person from the State immediately before the proclaimed day shall, subject to any law of the Commonwealth, continue to be held from the Commonwealth on the same terms and conditions as they were held from the State

  9. Seat of Government (Administration) Act 1910 (Cwlth) • Section 9 of the Act provides that no land in the Territory can be held by freehold • legislating the leasehold system that continues today. • The ACT is the only self-governing territory in Australia established under a system of leasehold. • No disposal or sale of freehold land in the ACT by Government since 1910

  10. Acquisition of freehold • All crown lands transferred without payment • Private freehold compensated • First acquisitions were for: • The City • Streams for water supply

  11. City Area Leases Ordinance 1921 • Ordinances made under Seat of Government (Administration) Act 1910 • Empowered Minister to grant leases within the city area for periods not exceeding 90 years • Lessees were to erect boundary fences • Annual rent not less than 5% unimproved value of the land • Erection of an approved building • No leases granted under this Ordinance

  12. City Area Leases Ordinance 1924 • Amended 1921 Ordinance • 99 year leases • Rental 5 per cent per annum • Bidding at auction • Unimproved capital value to be re-appraised • Appeal provision • Churches received perpetual leases

  13. Leases Ordinance 1918 • Lands outside the City area • Not exceeding 25 years for agricultural or grazing purposes • Rental 5 per cent per annum • Special conditions • Extermination of weeds • Extermination of noxious animals • 40,000 acres for returned servicemen • Tenant rights in improvements • Appeal rights to the Land Commissioner

  14. Before the auction – the plan

  15. Auctions

  16. Advertisement from the Argus, 1 November 1924 By order of the Right Honourable G. F. Pearce, F.C. Minister for Home and Territories, Commonwealth of Australia. The Territory for the Seat of Government. Canberra The Capital City of the Commonwealth

  17. 30 June 1925

  18. 30 June 1926

  19. Lessees 29 May 1926 • Civic Centre – Business blocks • Lease no. 4 Upset value £875 McGill £1400 • Lease no. 5 (500) Oakley and Parkes architects 1300 • Lease no. 6 (1800) John Deans 1800 • Lease no. 7 (500) C.O’Keefe 1400 • Lease no. 8 (500) G. Adams 1300 • Lease no. 9 (500) Hutchinson Bros. 1300 • Lease no. 10 (500) Pringle 1450 • etc

  20. Canberra Leases 9 April 1927 • Ainslie Boarding House site • Section 57 Block 1 J. Burcham Clamp £1100 • North Ainslie – Canberra Avenue Subdivision • Section 6 Block 6 Canberra Building and Investment Co. Ltd £160 • Section 6 Block 12 ditto • Section 6 Block 13 ditto • Eastlake Circle - Motor Service Station • Section 25 Block 1 H. Brodie, Bredbo (upset price £2000) £11,300

  21. The Lease

  22. Lease conditions • Lessee buys • the rights to the use of the land • During a certain period of time • In a certain way • Purpose clause • Development condition

  23. Business leases • 50 sites ready 1973 • 7 suburbs without shops • 15 service station sites • 32 industrial sites • 33 service trade sites • 100 business sites by 1974 • Problem of release technique • Minister for the Capital Territory, Kep Enderby suspended land auctions 1 August 1973 • Commission of Inquiry into Land Tenure

  24. Integrated shopping centres • Innovative retailing • 1980s recession • Commercial relationships • Property owners & tenants • Property owners & government

  25. Finding the pot of gold • Mining Act 1906 (NSW) • NSW unable to grant licences to prospect or mine for minerals because Territory land was “exempted Crown Lands” • Mining Ordinance 1930 • Issue miners’ rights • Authority to prospect • Mining lease • Exempted areas: • Canberra City district • Cotter River catchment • Parts of the Molonglo & Queanbeyan River catchments • No Warden’s Court

  26. Freehold Locality plan showing Canberra freeholds estate and its relation to the Federal territory, prepared and published by Henry F. Halloran & Co., Auctioneers & Sydney, 1926. Queanbeyan Racecourse Railway line and border Tharwa Road

  27. Land rent • …“Similarly, time tends to erode the understanding on which the system was based and this was evidenced by the changes made in Canberra such as the abolition of land rent which gave it some of the characteristics of freehold.”… • John Gorton – abolition • http://www.crispinhull.com.au/2002/05/05/2002_05_may_land-rent-gorton/

  28. Expenditure/Revenue 1952 • Total expenditure to 30 June 1952 • (a) lands £ 921,235.16.5 • (b) engineering works 9,057,270. 4.4 • (c) architectural works 12,257,974.12.6 • (d) miscellaneous 2,022,218.12.6 • Total capital expenditure 24,258,699.5.9 • (e) maintenance 19,244,001.13.1 • Total £43,502,700.18.10 • Revenue £10,312,394.12. 8 • Net expenditure £33,190,306. 3. 2

  29. Municipal charges 1952 • rate of 1/3 in the £1 on the unimproved value of the land • 7d. for general rate • 2d. for lighting • 3 ½d for water • 2 ½d for sewerage • Rural landholders general rate 3 ½d in the £1 for unimproved assessed value

  30. Inquiry into Land Tenure 1973 • “The effectiveness of the system depends on an understanding of and adherence to the essence of the leasehold concept i.e. a lease is a contract between landlord and lessee.”

  31. Self-Government 1989 • Australian Capital Territory (Planning and Land Management) Act 1989 (Cwlth) • National land • Territory land • ACT Executive is responsible for Territory land • Land Act 1991 • Repealed all former leasing ordinances relating to Territory land • Administered by Lease Administration Branch of DELP (Department of Environment, Land and Planning) • DELP abolished 1995 • Land Division of Department of Urban Services • Planning and Land Management (PALM)

  32. 2003 - 2009 • Planning and Land Act 2002 • ACT Planning and Land Authority Formed 1 July 2003 • Land Development Agency • Formed 1 July 2003 – sells the land • Formed from • Land Group of Department of Urban Services • Gungahlin Development Authority • Kingston Foreshore Development Authority • Planning and Development Act 2007

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