This document discusses the concept of land ownership and its boundaries. It poses questions about who owns resources like water, trees, minerals, and airspace above and below the surface. Students are asked to go on a walk and identify different land components. Legal cases are referenced regarding allowable building heights and land depth. Water rights are vested with the state under Queensland law. Indigenous art is contrasted that shows different concepts of land and ownership.

1. LA2015 – Week 1, 2014
What is Land?

2. WHAT IS LAND?
It is property but is it land?

3. Working out the boundary of what
is owned

4. Excursion
• Take a walk around the campus
• Identify as many parts of the ‘land’ as
you can (or what you think would be
part of the land)
• Take a photo/describe
• Return here within 15 minutes ready to
discuss

5. What is land?
Where’s the
boundary?
Who owns
the water?
Who owns
the trees?
Who owns the
minerals?
Who owns
the air
above?
Who owns the
chattels?

6. cuius est solum, eius
est usque ad
coelum, et ad
inferos
[look this up in your legal dictionary!]

7. Exosphere(>500km
above the surface:
satellites up to
1000km)
Thermosphere
(80-110km
above the
surface)
Mesosphere
(50-80km above
the surface)
Stratosphere (up
to 50km: the
ozone layer)
Troposphere (up to
11km: where
weather happens)
lot on
earth’s
surface
How far UP?

8. Bernstein v Skyviews [1978] QB 479

9. Wandsworth
Board of Works
v United
Telephone Co
Ltd (1884) 13
QBD 904

10. Uniting Church v Immer
Building A
Allowable
height
Excess
unusable
height Building B
Excess height
put to good
use

11. How far down is still ‘my’ land?
image adapted from http://www.uh.edu/~jbutler/physical/chapter19.html, at
10/2/05.
lot on
earth’s
surface

12. Truncated
survey plan:
Shows lot
boundaries
with reference
to survey
points (small
circles)
Illustration for
teaching
purposes only

13. Contrast this
Freddie Jones Kngwarreye ‘Caterpillar Dreaming’ (2000) Alyawarr; Sandover Region,
Utopia, NT: petaappleyardgallery.com.au.
http://www.utopianaboriginalart.com.au/artists/freddy_kngwarreye_jones.php

14. 19 Rights in all water vests in
State
All rights to the use, flow and
control of all water in
Queensland are vested in the
State.
Water Act (2000) Qld
What is water?

15. Can you draw water from the
creek on your land?
• What is water?
• Who owns water?
• Who has rights to the water?
• How are those rights derived?

17. Can owners fence the
beach?

18. Lake Alexandrina, SA – whose land
now?