History of the Land Court

The Land Court is the second oldest continually functioning court in Queensland.

It was established in 1898 to deal mainly with issues relating to Crown leasehold land, such as the determination of rentals, compensation for the resumption of leasehold tenures, the value of improvements on leases and compliance with leasing conditions.

The jurisdiction of the Land Court has expanded over time. In 2007, the Land and Resources Tribunal was effectively abolished and its jurisdiction transferred to the Land Court. This further extended the Land Court’s jurisdiction to include mining and petroleum matters, cultural heritage and other Indigenous issues.

Since 2008, former Land Court President John Trickett has written a section recording the history of the Land Court in each volume of the annual reports.

See Land Court annual report 2008–09 (PDF, 1.5 MB) for a more detailed history of the Land Court.