Follow the land. Find the story.

Land records can reveal far more than who owned a particular piece of property. They can place an ancestor in a particular place and time, identify neighbours and family connections, reveal transfers between generations, and sometimes preserve correspondence and other details found nowhere else.

From Crown Grant to Title Deed: Researching Australian Land and Property Records is a practical, hands-on course designed to help family and house historians understand how Australian land records work — and, importantly, how to get started using them.

This course is about foundations: where to begin, what to look for, and what to do next. You'll learn the main types of land records and what each one tells you, the terminology and tenure systems you'll encounter, the difference between Old System and Torrens title, how to read parish and cadastral maps, and how to trace a property through successive transactions.

Because the colonies operated broadly similar land systems, these foundations apply wherever your research takes you. Real records and worked examples are drawn from across Australia.

The course combines explanation with practical exercises and hands-on searching. It is designed for both family historians tracing people through land and property records and house historians investigating the history of a particular property, with both rural and urban land covered.

State-specific sessions covering New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria are planned for 2027.