The ABS has published a Yearbook almost every year since 1908.....
Here's some snippets from the 1910 Yearbook regarding property.
In 1908 it looks like land in the cities was around £1 for a quarter acre block, and around £30 to build a homestead sized house and farms cost 16 shillings per acre.
There's a huge amount of information there. I'd be interested to see what others can find in them.
Here's some snippets from the 1910 Yearbook regarding property.
2. New South Wales.—Under the Crown Lands Act 1884 lands not exceeding in the
aggregate 200,000 acres for the whole State may be sold by auction during any one year.
The sales are notified in the Gazette not less than one month before the day of sale. The
upset prices may not be less than £8 an acre for town lands ; £2 10s. for suburban lands;
and other lands fifteen shillings. Town lands may not be sold in areas exceeding half-an-acre
; suburban lands in areas exceeding twenty acres ; and country lands in areas exceeding
640 acres. A deposit of 25 per cent, on the purchase-money must be paid at the sale,
and the remainder within three months.
3. Victoria.—Lands specially classed for sale by auction, and any land in any
city, town, or borough, may be sold by auction in fee simple, not exceeding 100,000
acres in any one year, at an upset price of Si an acre, or at any higher price
determined.
4. Queensland.—The Governor may proclaim any Crown lands to be sold by auction.
Town or suburban lots must be offered as nearly as possible according to the following
scale:—Town lands in allotments of from one rood to one acre, at an upset price of £8
per acre ; suburban lands, if within one mile from town lands, in lots of from one to
five acres, and if over one mile from town lands, in lots of from one to ten acres, the
upset price being £2 per acre. In respect of country lands, the maximum area which may
be sold by auction in any one year is 500,000 acres, and the upset price is fixed at £1
an acre for lands classed as agricultural, and not less than ten shillings per acre in the
case of other lands.
Queensland - The average area of agricultural farms selected during the year 1908 was 378 acres
/at an average price of 16s. 7d. per acre ;
WA - (i.) Residential Conditional Purchase. Under this form of tenure any person over
the age of sixteen years may select from a minimum area of 100 acres to a maximum of
1000 acres in any part of the State. The usual price of the land is ten shillings an acre,
payable in twenty years by half-yearly instalments, or sooner, at the occupier's option.
Applications
(vi.) Free Homestead Farms. Every person who is not already the holder of more
than 100 acres of land within the State, and being the head of a family, or a male of
sixteen years of age and upwards, may select an area of from 10 to 160 acres as a free
homestead farm, on lands declared open for such selection within the South-West,
Central, or Eucla Divisions, not being within a goldfield. The application must he
accompanied by a statutory declaration with a one-shilling duty stamp and a fee of twenty
shillings; half the cost of survey must be paid in two instalments of thirty shillings
each, the first instalment with the application and the second within twelve months.
Upon approval of the application an occupation certificate for seven years is issued ; the
selector must take personal possession of the land within six months from the date of
such certificate, and must reside thereon for at least six months in each of the first five
years of the term, but residence on rural land held by the same person within twenty
miles of the free homestead farm is sufficient compliance with the above residence condition.
Residence of the holder's wife, parent, or child over sixteen years of age, may
be accepted at the Minister's discretion. Pour shillings per acre must be spent in
prescribed improvements during the first two years; a further six shillings per acre
during the next three years ; and an additional four shillings per acre during the last two
years. Not more than £30 of the amount spent on a habitable house will be allowed
towards the total amount of fourteen shillings per acre required to be expended upon
improvements. Half of the land must be fenced during the first five years, and the
whole must be enclosed with a great and small stock-proof fence by the end of the term
of seven years. Half the value of a sheep and cattle-proof exterior fence, and two-thirds
of the value of a rabbit or dog-proof exterior fence will be allowed towards the amount
required to be spent upon improvements after the fourth year of the term. A Crown
grant will be issued upon compliance with all the conditions and upon payment of a fee
of thirty shillings at the expiration of the term of seven years, but may be issued earlier
if the holder has completed twelve months' residence, has made all the required improvements,
and pays the sum of five shillings per acre for the land.
In 1908 it looks like land in the cities was around £1 for a quarter acre block, and around £30 to build a homestead sized house and farms cost 16 shillings per acre.
There's a huge amount of information there. I'd be interested to see what others can find in them.