South Australian Commission Land Sale Regulations 1835 (issued by the Commissioners in the United Kingdom).

Land development and settlement was the basis of the Wakefield Scheme and the reason for the establishment of South Australia, so land law and regulations governing it were fundamental to the foundation of the new Province.

These regulations, drawn up by the Commissioners, provided for surveys to be undertaken prior to sale, and maps to be made available. Land could be bought at a uniform price per acre irrespective of its quality or position, but if more than one person wanted a particular section it would be sold by auction. Leases of up to three years could be granted 'for pasturage' on unsold lands at a fixed price. The proceeds were to go to the Emigration Fund to assist 'poor persons' to come to the Province, initially as labourers or tradesman, with a view to becoming landowners themselves.

The Board of Commissioners, which had jurisdiction over land sales and migration, was established in early 1835, following the passage of the South Australia Act. Before the Province could be founded, the Act required that sales of land to the value of 35 000 had to be achieved. Another precondition was that sufficient capital had to be raised to guarantee that it would be viable and that the Government would not have to provide financial support. The Letters Patent (1836) and Order-in-Council (1836) clarified how the new Province was to be established.

Hill, Rowland, Sir (1795-1879)

Wakefield, Edward Gibbon (1796-1862)
Kingston, George Strickland (1807-1880)
Gouger, Robert (1802-1846)
Fisher, James Hurtle, Sir (1790-1875)

Jaensch, Dean (ed.), The Flinders History of South Australia: Political History, Wakefield Press, Adelaide, 1986

Pike, Douglas, Paradise of Dissent: South Australia 1829-1857, 2nd edn, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1967

Wakefield, E. New Zealand after fifty years New York ; Melbourne : Cassell, 1889

South Australia Act

Letters Patent (1836)

Order-in-Council (1836)

Australian dictionary of biography online edition Edward Gibbon Wakefiled

National Archives of Australia Documenting a democracy

National Archives of Australia, Documenting a democracy South Australian Commission land Sale Regulations 1835

SA Memory, Radical dream: social reform in South Australia Foundation of the province