A pastoral lease, sometimes called a pastoral run, is an arrangement used in both
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 ...
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 coun ...
where government-owned
Crown land
Crown land (sometimes spelled crownland), also known as royal domain, is a territorial area belonging to the monarch, who personifies the Crown. It is the equivalent of an entailed estate and passes with the monarchy, being inseparable from it ...
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 ot ...
on
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 ...
s.
Australia
Pastoral leases exist in both
Australian commonwealth law and
state 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, such leases cover about 44% of
mainland Australia (), mostly in arid and semi-arid regions and the tropical
savannah
A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...
s. 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
camel
A camel (from: la, camelus and grc-gre, κάμηλος (''kamēlos'') from Hebrew or Phoenician: גָמָל ''gāmāl''.) is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. ...
s), tourism and other activities. Management of the leases falls mainly to state and territory governments.
Under
Commonwealth of Australia 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, 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 can co-exist with pastoral leases, and
Indigenous land use agreements may be made between the leaseholder and the affected native title group.
[
The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation 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
New Zealand
The statutory provisions of pastoral leases are covered by the 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 coun ...
'' Crown Pastoral Land Act 1998'' and the '' Land Act 1948''. The holder of the lease has:fee simple
In English law, a fee simple or fee simple absolute is an estate in land, a form of freehold ownership. A "fee" is a vested, inheritable, present possessory interest in land. A "fee simple" is real property held without limit of time (i.e., pe ...
of any of the land.
Pastoral leases are undergoing a voluntary tenure review process.
See also
* Cattle station
* Sheep station
* List of pastoral leases in Western Australia
References
{{Reflist
Australian property law
Australian English
Livestock in Australia
Pastoral
Agriculture in New Zealand