[Editor: This anecdote, about a selector’s bad luck (or another selector’s good luck), was published in The Nowra Leader (Nowra, NSW), 25 May 1923.]
Luck of the Land Ballot.
Away back in 1874, when Comerong Island was thrown open for selection applicants had to take their chance at a ballot.
For one block one man nominated all his family — some nine persons — besides whom there was only one other applicant whose luck it was to be the successful drawer.
Source:
The Nowra Leader (Nowra, NSW), 25 May 1923, p. 6
Editor’s notes:
Comerong Island = an island which was formed during the construction of the Berrys Canal in 1822 (it is located between the Shoalhaven and the Crookhaven rivers, near Nowra on the South Coast of New South Wales)
See: 1) “Comerong Island Nature Reserve”, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service
2) “Shoalhaven River”, Wikipedia
free selection = land legislation in Australia in the1860s was passed by several colonies which enabled people to obtain land for farming, whereby they could nominate a limited area of land to rent or buy, being able to select land which had not yet been surveyed (hence the phrase “free selection before survey”) and even obtain land previously leased by squatters (although squatters were able to buy sections of their land, up to a designated limit; with many of them buying up further sections under the names of family members, friends, and employees)
selection = [see: free selection]
[Editor: The original text has been separated into paragraphs.]
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