Australian Business: Land Ownership

Methods of land ownership Freehold, leasehold and Crown land are the basis of land ownership in Australia.

Freehold means privately-owned land. This can be bought and sold.

Crown land is government-owned land and can be used for parks, utilities, airports, government facilities, granted to individuals or corporations, sold as freehold land, or leased. The Crown originally referred to the Royal Family, but it now applies to any government land ownership, be it state or federal. The land is held in the right of the Crown, and the Crown has legal rights as an individual land owner. About half of all Australian land is Crown land, including ninety-three percent of Western Australia.

Leasehold is where an individual or corporation buys a long-term lease on Crown land, usually ninety-nine years, and can treat the lands as if they owned it privately. Throughout the interior, huge tracts consisting of hundreds of square miles of Crown land are leased as cattle and sheep stations. The backbone of the economy—the mining industry—is entirely on leased land.