The Australian state of
Queensland employed land ballots as a way to encourage settlement of marginal agricultural land during the 20th century. The "ballot box system" was introduced by
T. J. Ryan's state government in 1916, with ballots advertised by sales maps which provided details about the land to be released and where the ballot would be held. Each applicant would receive a corresponding numbered marble, with a marble being drawn for each block made available. The scheme continued until the late 1960s. In most cases, only "landless men with limited financial resources were eligible to apply" for the ballot and the winning applicants would acquire an initial
leasehold of five to seven years, contingent on their maintaining residence on the land and meeting development criteria. In
Western Australia, the ballot system was used to allocate
Crown land in the
North-West in the 21st century, with
LandCorp conducting random draws from a barrel. ==References==