Record series
Application Search Notes
VPRS 18870
1862 - present
Open
North Melbourne
Agencies
This record series was created by:
Supreme Court of Victoria ( VA2549 ): 1862 - 1873
Agencies responsible for this record series: Date Range
Series date range: 1862 - present
Series in custody:
1862 - 2020
Contents in custody:
1862 - 2020
Function / Content
This series consists of the Application Search Notes which document the history of deeds to a piece of land being converted from the pre-Torrens General Law system to a certificate of title. The records document the history of the search undertaken to determine the chain of title, and contain references to the Memorial Books (VPRS 18873) consulted during the search.The Application Search Notes made up part of the requirements for an application to be lodged to bring General Law land under the operation of the Transfer of Land Act or the Torrens System of land registration. They are the chain of title as recorded in the Memorial Books, which were held at the Registrar-General’s Office (RGO). It has a working sheet showing the Land Index and Memorials used to complete the search. These searches are usually the historical Chain of Title for a particular parcel of General Law land that has been converted to the Torrens system. They are useful for researchers, in that it is quick and easy to see if a particular person has had an interest in a property, without the need to commence a search from the Crown Grant. Using the references to Memorial Books in these records, researchers can avoid having to use the Name Index (VPRS 18871) and Land Index to Memorial Books (VPRS 18872) to obtain book and page number references for the Memorial Books.
The Application Search Notes track ownership and land transactions to a parcel under the General Law system. The first converted title (Volume/Folio) under the Torrens system has a related conversion Application Number (e.g. AP35269) that can be used to access the Search Notes in this series. This is the same number used to access records in VPRS 460 Applications for Certificate of Title, which contain all the documentation such as original deeds provided in order to convert a General Law Chain of Title to a Torrens Certificate of Title.
Each record contains a work sheet, extract of Memorials, hand drawn and retained General Law Plans of Subdivision as they affect the search, and notes made by the Examiner as he has worked his way through the conversion Application. Sometimes the notes will explain breaks in the chain of title.
There are three distinct runs in this series. The first covers the records from 1862 to 1936, comprising Application Search Notes for application numbers AP00001 to AP49000. For the second run from 1936 onwards, both these records and the Application Examiner Notes (VPRS 19093) were consolidated into the one record. From AP49001 both records are joined in this series. And the third run, covering 1999 to 2001 and application numbers AP80000 to AP118553, which was known as Library Searches. These were Application Search Notes prepared as part of a project by the RGO in order to accelerate the conversion of General Law deeds into Torrens titles.
The first land tenure system to be introduced into Victoria in March 1838 was called the 'General Law' or 'Old Law System', or more commonly called today, NUA (Not Under Act). Land under the Torrens system (Real Property Act 1862) was therefore 'under Act'. This was directly based on the principles of the English Common Law where land was acquired through settlement and reason rather than conquest.
Under the General Law system, land ownership was based on a set of deeds, being the original deed held by the owner and a Memorial which was generally registered at the RGO. These documents helped prove ownership back to the Crown Grant, although there was no compulsion under this system to register the Memorial with the RGO.
Title was proven by producing the collection of deeds, which was commonly called the ‘Chain of Title’ held by successive owners, as well as a search of the Memorials lodged at the RGO. A Memorial is a copy of the original deed. Every time land changed hands, the chain of deeds needed to be produced and a new deed/Memorial needed to be drawn up by lawyers. It was a cumbersome and expensive system, in which the risk of deeds being lost or destroyed was high. Land ownership in the General Law system was and is still not guaranteed by the Victorian government.
Although the expectation was that all land would be brought under the operation of the Transfer of Land Act fairly quickly, this did not prove to be the case. In the mid-1980s, after 120 years of operation of the Torrens system, large areas of land remained under the General Law system. The registration of Memorials continued until the 31 December 1998 when the register was closed. This was an effort to help speed up the Conversion process, as all new land transactions would have to be conducted under the Transfer of Land Act following an application to convert the deed into a certificate of title. This is a continuing series as a small amount of conversion activity still occurs.
How to use the records
To access this series, researchers need the Application Number relating to an application to convert a piece of land from the General Law system to a certificate of title under the Torrens system. Each record is identified by its Application number, e.g. AP35269.Recordkeeping system
Application Search Notes are indexed under the Application Number to convert General Law land under the Transfer of Land Act (Torrens system) e.g. AP25478. These numbers can be found on the associated Certificate of Title after conversion to the Torrens system, current digital cadastral maps, and Land Titles Office map base (Parish and Charts).Early records are files bounded together, and later records are files within a manila folder stored in boxes.
