Australian cadastres: The role of adverse possession of part parcels

Abstract

A comprehensive land information management system should ideally disclose the complete legal status of all land with disclosure of all public and private rights and restrictions, including rights acquired under adverse possession. Recognizing trends to develop national spatial data sets, if a national cadastre is ever to be considered, a basic requirement will be a unified national law regarding land ownership. In turn this will require a unified approach to the issue of adverse possession of registered title land and particularly adverse possession of part of a land parcel, which is, in the authors' view, a major obstacle in achieving this vision.

With this in mind a review is given of current Australian (particularly Victorian and NSW) schemes regarding adverse possession of part of a registered title land parcel to indicate those fundamental differences requiring possible resolution.