by corruption and the acquisition of land by various schemes, such as the commissioning of selections to be passed eventually to squatters and the selection of key land such as land with access to water by squatters to maintain the viability of their pastoral leases. The Land Acts accelerated the alienation of crown land that had been acquired under the principle of terra nullius, and hence accelerated the dispossession of indigenous Australians. The Land Acts paralleled the demands for similar legislation amending the United States Preemption Act of 1841, culminating in the Homestead Act of 1862, and was succeeded by similar legislation in other Australian colonies in the 1860s and Canada's Dominion Lands Act of 1872. See also Nineteen Counties References 1861 in Australia New South Wales legislation 1861 in law 1861 in British law 1860s in New South Wales Crown land in Australia Squatting in Australia