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[the] expertise of the Italians was in land use and so they tumed their
skills to the utilization of the land that became available for sale as a
resuU of widespread demands by the ex-gold diggers.*'
Not until the 1860s, however, when the govemment of the Colony released land on
favourable conditions to the ex-miners, could the Italian speakers take up the 'call of
the land'.
Previously Australia's early settlement legislation had been affected by a
number of economic, social and political factors, among the most important being the
character of the initial settlement and the growth of the country's population and
resources. Land law had been based on the principle that all land in British possession
was vested absolutely in the Crown and private property rights could only be derived
from the Crown. By the Waste Land Repeal Act of 1855, the British Parliament
vested in the new colonial legislature the entire control and management of waste
(unalienated) land of the Crovm wdthin their respective territories. Land settlement
policies underwent several major changes during four periods: the Period of Free
Grants (1788-1831), Land Sales and Pastoral Licences (1831-1861), Selection before
Survey (1861-1894) and the Period of Experimentation and Reform (1894 onwards).*"*
During the first period ~ Free Grants ~ the early govemors were empowered
to make free grants to emancipated convicts, free settiers, marines and officers, the
maximum area permitted varying according to the status of the grantee and his marital
state. In the second period ~ Land Sales and Pastoral Licences ~ the land policy was
based on a theory of colonisation propounded in 1829 by Edward Gibbc. Wakefield.
Free grants were abolished in favour of sale by auction without restriction as to area
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