Hobart - title searching - identifying when an old house was built

Hi All,

I've purchased an old house in Hobart which will settle in a couple of weeks. The house is old, I've been told circa 1890s. I'm interested in identifying when it was built and from there trying to piece together some of its history. It was one of the old farm houses but not heritage listed or anything like that.

There's no denying the house is old. The main house is double brick with no plumbing - there is an extension out the back that contains the kitchen, bathroom and laundry enclosing the area that would had contained the original outdoor ones. The house has 11ft ceilings and there are several fireplaces.

The current title survey is dated from the late 1950s and contains my house along with a subdivision next door plus couple of other previous subdivisions on the other side of the road. There are references all over the survey to a former folio/volume for the house (the old volume is only 3 digits so should be pretty old) and a similar one for a benefiting right of carriageway. Searching for either of these titles in List returns no results.

The description in the search reads like this...

City of Somewhere
Lot xxx on Diagram xxxxx (formerly being yyy-yy)
Derivation: Part of 123A-45-67BC Gtd to A. Name.
Prior CT: zzzz/zz

I managed to find a PDF of an aerial survey from 1954 that shows my house is still the only one on the road but the road has a different name. Actually, the road stops short and there's a squiggly line that goes up to the house, possibly a track. Nowadays it's a regular road lined on both sides with houses.

I also had a look through the Wise Post Office Directory but the first mention of the road name in the aerial survey is 1948 and only 1 person's name comes up.

Does anyone have any experience obtaining information about the original titles in scenarios like this where the old title is no longer current?

I'm hesitant to ask my solicitor about it since a) he's lazy and b) he'd probably charge me a fortune just to say it's too hard.

Cheers,
Dave

P.S. I don't wish to disclose the address nor specific title information in the public forum.

 

Try ringing the lands titles office they should be able to help point you in the right direction.
Land Titles Office

 

@Davothegreat - The local hysterical society or the hysterical officer at the local council may be able to assist. There is usually an officer or researcher in the main library branch or at the Council officers.

Council has published several books which may include some photos of the area of interest.

If you've got a photo upload it to the media section and a few will have a crack at it's style, age and colour of the wall paper.

 

It's quite possible some of the papers have been lost due to poor archival facilities of the past. There are some places in Tasmania where this is the case due to flood.

 

You've probably tried this but does the old owner have any more info? The previous owners of our place gave us all the research they did on our house and a whole lot of old pictures of it. Also, one neighbour across the road who is now 90 has lived there 60 odd years and the neighbours next to her nearly 40 so they know my house and history quite well.

 

A little update on this one. After settlement I contacted the Land Titles Office and the gentleman there was able to chain the land back to the original title, issued in 1880. There have been 7 titles over that time. However, none of the really old titles contain information about the dwelling itself. Land Titles suggested I contact the Office of the Valuer-General and enquire about valuation roles which may help to provide information about the dwelling or visit the history room in the Hobart Library.

I'll get onto the Valuer-General's Office first and see if they're able to help me.