Land Index to Memorial Books

This series consists of an index of land sales under the pre-Torrens General Law system, which provides access to VPRS 18873 Memorial Books.

The Land Index is a key step in identifying the Memorials that relate to a particular Chain of Title. It is split into First Series ranging from 1838-1859 and Second Series from 1859-1998.

The Land Index is accessed by using VPRS 18871 Name Index Books to identify the name of the vendor and the book/page number for the Land Index, and typically a page will have the following information on it:

• Names of the person/s transacting the land
• Book and No. which relates to the Memorial Books book number and page number
• The person whom the transaction is to
• The Land Description, which is Parish/Crown Allotment No., Section, or other type of description used to identify the parcel of land.

These pages can continue to the next page or can be referred to another book and page number for continuation of the Index.

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 system was directly based on the principles of the English Common Law.

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 Registrar Generals Office (RGO). These documents helped prove ownership back to the original Crown Grant, although there was no compulsion under this system to register the Memorials.

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. Every time land changed hands, the chain of deeds needed to be produced and a new conveyance 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.