Charles Bonney first controller of squatting on South Australian waste lands from 1842; grants timber licences
Charles Bonney, as South Australia's first crown lands commissioner, oversaw the first controls on use of unsold waste lands. He also handled timeber cutting licences being granted. At right: Felling large trees goes on in the 20th Century with a large red gum truck section on a jinker being pulled by a bullock team from Fulham in Adelaide's west to a Glen Osmond saw mill.
Image from 1922 by W.S. Smith, courtesy State Library of South Australia
With land speculation identified as one of the reasons for the South Australia province falling into near bankruptcy in 1840, the British parliament in 1842 passed an Act for protecting the unsold waste lands of the crown in South Australia from encroachment, intrusion and trespass.
The Waste Lands Act 1842 represented the first time that regulations for controlling the use of unsold crown land had been enforced in South Australia. Up to then, . free squatting by the pastoralists on unsold land had been tolerated.
Charles Bonney was appointed crown lands commissioner to encforce the Act. Bonney had been treated like a hero in Adelaide for bring cattle overland from New South Wales in the late 1830s.
As crown lands commissioner, Bonney’s duties were to define the boundaries of land runs by erecting landmarks, settle disputes between pastoralists, issue pastoral and timber licences for which fees were charged, levy assessments on stock (one penny per head of sheep and six pence per head of cattle) and prevent crown land being occupied without authority.
Bonney was gradually given a small staff of crown lands rangers and others. New land regulations in 1850 provided for pastoral leases up to 14 years instead of the annual occupation licences. This gave much better security for pastoralists, some of whom had built up large runs in the 1840s. Lease No.1 was for about 59 square miles (about 153 square kilometres) in became the Hundred of Alma, about 80 kilometres north of Adelaide.
As land commissioner (also immigration commissioner and later mines inspector), Bonney was so successful in the land commissioner that in 1854 some crown tenants in the southeast of the colony presented him with £700 as a mark of esteem.
Another role for Bonney under the 1842 Waste Lands Act was to oversee the tirst timber licences being granted. Licences were issued at an annual fee of £1. Proprietors, lessees or licensed occupiers of waste land, provided their land was not reserved for public purposes, were allowed to cut timber for their own domestic use but not for sale. Penalties for operation without a licence were fines: first offence not exceeding £10, second £20, third £50...