South Australia
Dr Ulrich Hübbe
Dr Ulrich Hübbe (around 1880)
Photo source: Portrait Collection [B 9042], State Library of South Australia.
In January 1858 the South Australian parliament passed into law the "Real Property Act". The Hamburg-born lawyer Dr Ulrich Hübbe had a key role in the development of this legislation, commonly known as the Torrens Title System, a system for the registration and transfer of land titles when property is bought and sold. It replaced the cumbersome and complicated English Deeds System. The Torrens System was adopted by the other Australian colonies, New Zealand, some US states and other countries.
Hübbe had studied law at the universities of Jena, Berlin and Kiel, and had worked as a lawyer in the Prussian Civil Service. In Hamburg he had also helped Lutherans to emigrate to South Australia (e.g. Pastor Fritzsche's group) and to the USA. Having arrived in Adelaide on the 15th October 1842 on the Taglione, he worked as a farmer (unsuccessfully), teacher, journalist, government interpreter and translator, and land agent. The parliamentarian Robert Torrens, wishing to reform the laws for transfer of property, heard of Hübbe's detailed knowledge of the simpler system that had been in use for centuries in Hamburg and the other Hansa cities of the north German coast. Torrens had Hübbe's advice at every step of the way during the development of the legislation and Hübbe wrote a detailed description of a variety of property transfer systems around the world for South Australian parliamentarians to persuade them of the benefits of the proposed new system.
Robert Torrens said in parliament:
No one in this House will assert that this which is accomplished by Germans in Hamburg cannot be accomplished by German and English colonists in South Australia.
Robert Torrens
One parliamentarian, Anthony Forster, wrote to his niece:
... it never could have been brought to a final consummation but for the efficient help of a German lawyer, Dr Hübbe ... The provisions of the Bill were settled by Mr Torrens and a few friends and put into proper form by Dr Hübbe ...
Anthony Forster
Anthony Forster was a member of the Legislative Council in the South Australian Parliament, and played an important role in order that the Council accepted the new law. Many years later Rudolph Henning said in the parliament:[1]
It was perfectly well known at the time that Sir R. R. Torrens brought in the Real Property Act, that Dr. Hübbe provided the ideas, the brains, and the work of the measure.
Rudolph Henning M.P. (1880)
Later, when Hübbe's eyesight was failing and he was in financial difficulty, friends petitioned the SA parliament, who granted him a special pension in 1884 in recognition of his work on the Real Property Act.
Hübbe died at Mount Barker on 8 February, 1892 at the age of 86, and his grave is in the Hahndorf cemetery.
♦ Notes:
1. Rudolph Henning M.P. - S.A. Parliamentary Debates, House of Assembly, 20 July 1880, cited in Bogna (2021).
♦ References:
Bogna, Rita. (2021). Dr Ulrich Hübbe LLD (1805–1892) and the true origins of the Real Property Act. The Bulletin. Law Society of South Australia. Juni 2021. (Online article)
Harmstorf, Ian. (1994). Some common misconceptions about South Australia's Germans. In: Insights into South Australian History, vol. 2, South Australia’s German History and Heritage. Historical Society of South Australia Inc. p.27
Kelly, David St Leger. (1972). 'Hübbe, Ulrich (1805–1892)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, (online here), published first in hardcopy 1972, accessed online 30 August 2022.
Lücke, Horst. (2011). The man of the law: Ulrich Hübbe. In: Monteath, Peter (ed.). (2011). Germans: travellers, settlers and their descendants in South Australia. Kent Town (S.A.): Wakefield Press. pp.166-187