Crown land

Crown land, also known as royal domain, is a territorial area belonging to the monarch, who personifies the Crown. It is the equivalent of an entailed estate and passes with the monarchy, being inseparable from it. Today, in Commonwealth realms, Crown land is considered public land and is not part of the monarch's private estate.

In Australia, public lands without a specific tenure (e.g. National Park or State Forest) are referred to as Crown land or State Land, which is described as being held in the "right of the Crown" by either an individual State or the Commonwealth of Australia (as Australia is a federation, there is no single "Crown" as a legal entity). Most Crown lands in Australia are held by the Crown in the right of a State. The only land held by the Commonwealth consists of land in the Northern Territory (surrendered by South Australia), the Australian Capital Territory, Jervis Bay Territory, and small areas acquired for airports, defence and other government purposes.

Each jurisdiction has its own policies towards the sale and use of Crown lands within the State. For example, New South Wales, where over half of all land is Crown land, passed a controversial reform in 2005 requiring Crown lands to be rated at market value. Crown lands include land set aside for various government or public purposes, development, town planning, as well as vacant land. Crown lands comprise around 23% of Australian land, of which the largest single category is vacant land, comprising 12.5% of the land.

Crown land is used for such things as airports, military grounds (Commonwealth), public utilities (usually State), or is sometimes unallocated and reserved for future development.

In Tasmania, Crown land is managed under the Crown Lands Act 1976. In Queensland, Unallocated State Land is managed under the Land Act 1994. In South Australia, the relevant Act is the Crown Land Management Act 2009. In Victoria, it is the Crown Land (Reserves) Act 1978 and the Land Act 1958.

From the late 18th century onwards, the territories acquired by the Austrian Habsburg monarchy were called crown lands (German: Kronländer). Initially ruled in personal union by the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, they played a vital role as constituent lands of the Habsburg nation-building and were ultimately reorganised as administrative divisions of the centralised Austrian Empire established in 1804. During the restoration period after the Revolutions of 1848, the Austrian crown lands were ruled by Statthalter governors directly subordinate to the Emperor according to the 1849 March Constitution.

By the 1861 February Patent, proclaimed by Emperor Franz Joseph I, the Austrian crown lands received a certain autonomy. The traditional Landstände (estates) assemblies were elevated to Landtage legislatures, partly elected according to the principle of census suffrage.

After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, the Kingdom of Hungary (with the Principality of Transylvania), the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia and Fiume became constituent parts of the Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen (Transleithania); ruled in real union with the remaining Austrian crown lands (officially: "The Kingdoms and Lands represented in the Imperial Council") of Cisleithania until the disintegration of the dual monarchy in 1918.