How a parcel of rural land is named
Every parcel in the state has its own legal description, and most are built from one of a few pairs: a plan and allotment, a hundred and section, a government town and allotment, or a certificate of title reference. The forms that come from the state’s first surveys are these:
- Hundred and section
- Diagram books, large bound volumes of survey plans, record how the first survey, made under the Crown Lands Act, split the state into hundreds and sections. The search by hundred and parcel in SAILIS was built from their index pages.
- Hundred plan and out of hundred plan
- Plans showing the state’s original subdivisions, inside the hundreds and outside them.
- Block
- An identifier used in land descriptions mostly for pastoral land beyond the named hundreds.
- Government town allotment
- Land in a town gazetted under the Crown Lands Act is described by the town’s name, and its parcels are called allotments.
Not every farm parcel is a certificate of title
Land Services SA lists several kinds of title reference, including these three:
| Reference | What it is |
|---|---|
| Certificate of title (CT) | Issued under the Real Property Act, it certifies that the person named holds title to the land described. |
| Crown lease (CL) | A lease of Crown land authorised by statute, such as the Crown Lands Act 1929. Crown leases are dealt with much like certificates of title. |
| Crown record (CR) | A computerised record of Crown land that has never been granted. It looks a little like a certificate of title and must not be mistaken for one. |
Two older forms can also appear. A land grant is how the Crown first granted land in fee simple; from 1858 until 1 July 1995 a grant was treated as a certificate of title, with a volume and folio reference. Old system land was granted before 2 July 1858 and never brought under the Real Property Act, and dealings with it are registered in the General Registry Office.
One assessment, several titles
The numbers on a rates notice and the titles do not always line up. The Valuer-General can combine two or more parcels into one valuation assessment when they adjoin, are held in the same ownership and are used together so that they could not be sold apart to advantage, or when the law requires it. Combining them changes the valuation only: certificates of title and allotment or plan details stay as they were. A single valuation number on a farm’s notice can therefore stand for several titles.
What to have before searching
To order a copy of a title in SAILIS, Land Services SA asks for one of four things: the address, the title reference, the plan or parcel reference, or the valuation number. The title reference and the plan or parcel reference can be found through the online Property Location Browser or on a council rates notice.
In SAILIS, Register Search Plus (under the Land Search menu) returns a copy of the Register Search with the plan and the associated dealings.
Terms a search can turn up
Land Services SA’s glossary explains the terms below. Two of them, the fruit lien and the stock mortgage, are registered in the General Registry Office:
- Encumbrance. An instrument charging the land with an annuity, rent-charge or sum of money, which often carries restrictive covenants on how the land may be used or developed.
- Caveat. Lodged by someone claiming an equitable interest in the land, it can stop dealings with the land being registered.
- Profit à prendre. Created and ended in the same way as an easement, and noted on the title under the easements heading.
- Fruit lien. A security, much like a mortgage, over a fruit crop under the Liens on Fruit Act 1923, registered in the General Registry Office.
- Stock mortgages and bills of sale. Also registered in the General Registry Office.
- Notes and conditions. Notations by the Registrar-General, and information affecting the land, that call for further investigation.
The property interest report
Land Services SA describes the property interest report as a one-stop service on the State Government interests that affect any property in South Australia. Its parts include valuation details, a check search showing registered or unregistered dealings lodged in the previous 90 days, a copy of the certificate of title, and certificates including a land tax certificate and an SA Water certificate. It can be ordered through SAILIS or from Land Services at 101 Grenfell Street, Adelaide, and a refresh confirms any changes within 90 days.
Searching back in time
Anyone can search historical land information through SAILIS, from the register book of certificates of title to family history. Some searches are free and some carry a fee, and Land Services SA staff do not search on anyone’s behalf, though video tutorials explain how. The records reach back to deeds for land that was freehold from 1837 to 1858, kept on paper only; indexes of the names in Real Property Act records covering 1858 to 1975, with Crown lessees from the mid-1880s among them; and the Real Property Act records themselves, such as certificates of title and transfers.
A historical search goes better with the property’s historical or pastoral name, the period it may have been bought, and its location, including the section number and the hundred. The Torrens title system, now used in every Australian jurisdiction, was introduced in South Australia by Robert Torrens in 1858.
Where to check
Land Services SA’s pages on title copies, historical searching and its glossary are linked below with the Valuer-General’s page on amalgamation. Some applications, such as those under Part 4 and Part 7A of the Real Property Act 1886, generally need a legal practitioner or conveyancer. A buyer from overseas also has the national rules in paddock 4.