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Real Property Act 1886
Part 9Crown leases
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Part 9—Crown leases
90G—Interpretation
In this Part—
designated Act means—
(a) the Crown Land Management Act 2009; or
(b) the Pastoral Land Management and Conservation Act 1989; or
(c) a relevant Act within the meaning of Schedule 1 Part 7 of the Crown Land Management Act 2009; or
(d) any other Act under which a Crown lease may be granted or which regulates dealings with Crown leases.
91—Interpretation of Crown lease
For the purpose of this Part of this Act, every lease or agreement for sale of Crown lands hereafter granted, or made by or on behalf of the Crown, shall be deemed a Crown lease.
92—Person now holding under lease or agreement may surrender
Every person now holding any Crown lands under any lease or agreement for sale granted or made by or on behalf of the Crown may, subject to the approval of the Minister of Lands, surrender his lease or agreement for a Crown lease of the land remaining subject to such lease or agreement, upon all the same terms as shall have been applicable to such land prior to the surrender, but so that every person having any estate or interest in the surrendered land shall concur in the surrender.
93—Execution and registration of Crown Lease
(1) The parties to a Crown lease must execute a lease which must be lodged in the Lands Titles Registration Office for inclusion or recording in the Register of Crown Leases.
(2) The Register of Crown Leases may take the form of the individual copies of the leases bound into a book or kept separately or of records made by an electronic, electromagnetic, optical or photographic process or both of those forms.
(3) A Crown lease will be taken to be registered upon the Registrar-General allotting a volume and folio number in respect of the lease.
(3a) A Crown lease registered under subsection (3) is able to be (and a Crown lease so registered is taken to have always been able to be) transferred, mortgaged and dealt with for the purposes of this Act as if it were a lease registered in the Register Book (provided that an entry in respect of a lease that would ordinarily be made in the Register Book must instead be made in the Register of Crown Leases).
(3b) If an instrument lodged in the Lands Titles Registration Office transfers, mortgages or otherwise deals with a Crown lease, the instrument will be taken to be registered or recorded, as appropriate, on being entered in the Register of Crown Leases by the Registrar‑General.
(3c) However, the Registrar‑General may not register a Crown lease, or register or record an instrument that transfers, mortgages or otherwise deals with a Crown lease, unless satisfied that any consent required under a relevant designated Act has been obtained.
(4) Subject to this section, any person may have access to the Register of Crown Leases, and to all instruments affecting registered Crown leases in the Lands Titles Registration Office, for the purpose of inspection during the hours, and on the days, appointed for search.
(5) If, on the application of a person whose particulars are, or are to be, contained in the Register of Crown Leases, the Registrar‑General is satisfied that access under this section to any such particulars would be likely to place at risk the personal safety of the person, a member of the person's family or any other person, the Registrar‑General may take such measures as he or she thinks fit to prevent or to restrict access to those particulars.
(6) An application under subsection (5) must be in the appropriate form and must contain such particulars, and be supported by such evidence, as the Registrar‑General may require.
(7) The Registrar‑General may take such measures as he or she thinks fit to prevent or restrict access to any particulars the subject of an application under subsection (5) while the application is being determined.
(8) Nothing prevents the Registrar‑General varying or revoking any measures taken under subsection (5) or (7) if he or she thinks fit.
94—Forfeiture etc of Crown Lease
The forfeiture or determination of a Crown lease will not take effect until the forfeiture or determination has been entered in the Register of Crown Leases by the Registrar-General.
95—Indefeasibility of title under Crown lease
(1) Subject to subsection (2), section 69 applies (and is taken to have always applied) in relation to the title of a person who appears by the Register of Crown Leases to be a proprietor of land as if the person were the registered proprietor of the land and the Crown lease were the certificate of title.
(2) Subsection (1) does not operate to protect the interests of a party to an instrument if—
(a) any consent required under any relevant designated Act was not obtained before the instrument was registered; or
(b) the instrument is in any way inconsistent with any relevant designated Act.
95A—Evidentiary
Subject to this Part, a document that purports to have been certified by the Registrar‑General to be a correct copy of a Crown lease is to be accepted in legal proceedings—
(a) as conclusive evidence of title to any estate or interest in land that it records; and
(b) as evidence (which may be rebutted) of any other information that it records.
95B—Operation of Part in relation to Crown leases and other instruments subject to other Acts
(1) Nothing in this Part overrides any designated Act, and, to the extent of any inconsistency between this Part and a designated Act, the designated Act will prevail.
(2) To avoid doubt, registration or recording under section 93, and indefeasibility under section 95, do not prejudice or alter any right or remedy that the Crown would otherwise possess or validate any instrument, or provision of any instrument, that would not be valid under a designated Act.