A pastoral lease, sometimes called a pastoral run, is an arrangement used in both Australia and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

where government-owned Crown land is leased out to graziers for the purpose of livestock

grazing In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to roam around and consume wild vegetations in order to convert the otherwise indigestible (by human gut) cellulose within grass and other ...

rangeland Rangelands are grasslands, shrublands, woodlands, wetlands, and deserts that are grazed by domestic livestock or wild animals. Types of rangelands include tallgrass and shortgrass prairies, desert grasslands and shrublands, woodlands, sava ...

Australia

Pastoral leases exist in both Australian commonwealth law and

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

jurisdictions. They do not give all the rights that attach to freehold land: there are usually conditions which include a time period and the type of activity permitted. According to

Austrade The Australian Trade and Investment Commission, or Austrade ( ), is the Australian Government's trade, investment and education promotion agency which was also given responsibility for tourism policy, programs and research from 2013. Austrade ...

, such leases cover about 44% of mainland Australia (), mostly in arid and semi-arid regions and the tropical savannahs. They usually allow people to use the land for grazing traditional livestock, but more recently have been also used for non-traditional livestock (such as

kangaroo Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern ...

s or camels), tourism and other activities. Management of the leases falls mainly to state and territory governments. Under

Commonwealth of Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

law, applicable only in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aust ...

, they are agreements that allow for the use of Crown land by farmers, etc. In the

Australian states The states and territories are federated administrative divisions in Australia, ruled by regional governments that constitute the second level of governance between the federal government and local governments. States are self-governing p ...

, leases constitute a land apportionment system created in the mid-19th century to facilitate the orderly division and sale of land to European colonists. Leases within state jurisdictions have variations as to applicability from state to state.

Native title Aboriginal title is a common law doctrine that the land rights of indigenous peoples to customary tenure persist after the assumption of sovereignty under settler colonialism. The requirements of proof for the recognition of aboriginal title, ...

can co-exist with pastoral leases, and

Indigenous land use agreement Native title is the designation given to the common law doctrine of Aboriginal title in Australia, which is the recognition by Australian law that Indigenous Australians (both Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people) have rights ...

s may be made between the leaseholder and the affected native title group. The

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government agency responsible for scientific research. CSIRO works with leading organisations around the world. From its headquarters in Canberra, CSIRO ...

has conducted research on pastoral lands in the terms of the lands as ''rangelands'' on a country-wide basis.

Relevant legislation and management

Australian jurisdictions have land management legislation that affects the administration of pastoral leases: * New South Wales - ''Western Lands Act 1901'' * Northern Territory – ''Pastoral Land Act 1992'' and ''Crown Lands Act 1992'' * Queensland – ''Land Act 1994'' * South Australia – '' Pastoral Land Management and Conservation Act 1989'' and ''Crown Lands Act 1929'' * Western Australia – ''Land Administration Act 1997''

Pastoral lease information

* Northern Territory * Queensland * South Australia * Western Australia - see

List of Pastoral leases in Western Australia Pastoral leases in Western Australia are increasingly known as "stations", and more particular – as either sheep stations or cattle stations. They are usually found in country that is designated as rangeland. In 2013 there were a total of 527 ...

New Zealand

The statutory provisions of pastoral leases are covered by the

Crown Pastoral Land Act 1998 The Crown Pastoral Land Act is an Act of Parliament in New Zealand. The Act provides for the process of tenure review of leasehold land holdings in the high country of the South Island. See also *List of Statutes of New Zealand (1800-1980) *L ...

'' and the ''

Land Act 1948 Land, also known as dry land, ground, or earth, is the solid terrestrial surface of the planet Earth that is not submerged by the ocean or other bodies of water. It makes up 29% of Earth's surface and includes the continents and various islan ...

''. The holder of the lease has: * the exclusive right of

pasturage Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or swine ...

* a perpetual right of renewal of the lease for terms of 33 years * no right to the soil, and * no right to acquire the fee simple of any of the land. Pastoral leases are undergoing a voluntary

tenure review Tenure review is a process of reviewing the leasehold tenure of some high country land in the South Island of New Zealand. It currently involves 20% of the South Island or 10% of the total land area of New Zealand. Tenure review began with the pa ...

process.

References

{{Reflist Australian property law Australian English Livestock in Australia Pastoral Agriculture in New Zealand