Land selection in Queensland

The process of land selection in Queensland in Australia began in 1860. It continued under a series of land acts in subsequent years.^[1] When Britain claimed possession of Australia, it did so based on terra nullius (that the land belonged to nobody) and did not acknowledge that Indigenous people had any ownership over the land. All land in Australia became Crown land and was sold or leased by the Australian colonial governments according to the needs of the colonists.^[2]

The land was considered the Queensland colony's greatest asset. The prosperity of the colony was measured according to the extent of land settlement. Rent from land leases was the colony's largest revenue earner. The initial political contest was between pastoralists and selectors led by the "town liberals" who desired that immigrants have an equitable right to small land holdings (known as closer settlement). Closer settlement for agricultural purposes was promoted by the Queensland Government who desired settlement by immigrants to Queensland and exports of agricultural produce and raw materials such as cotton and wool to Britain. No group (pastoralists or town liberals) held dominant control over land policy. Legislation was framed with the aim of a comprehensive land policy. However, it was changed from time to time following the energetic efforts by both groups to alter the occupancy conditions and priority for selection, and there was tension between free selection and long leases particularly for pastoral land. Consequently, over 50 principal and amending acts covered all land legislation up to 1910.^[1]