Edward Charles Lousada's first land is shown in the attached map provided by the West Gippsland Genealogical Society. It shows that the property almost touched Old Telegraph Road at its southern boundary and was bounded by West Jindivick Road to the west and north. The Old Telegraph Road gave the first settlers in this area access to this wooded undulating land. Blanche Skipper's land is shown to the west of West Jindivick Road.	Edward Charles Lousada applied on 22 May 1874 for his land under the Land Act 1869, one of the Victorian Selection Acts. Settlers agreed to pay for their selection of modest parcels of Crown Land at a uniform price of £1 per acre, part on signing and then paid rent on the balance. To obtain title to the land, settlers would have had to pay the balance of the purchase price and make certain improvements. The record above was captured at the Victorian Public Records Office land records file 1007/19.20 by Julian Land on 4 Nov 2013.	Edward Charles Lousada bought his land outright on 9 Sep 1878. The record was captured at the Victorian Public Records Office land records file 1007/19.20 by Julian Land on 4 Nov 2013.

The main purpose of the Selection Acts of the 1860s was closer land settlement. Through them squatters were forced to relinquish some of their land, and as a result his in-laws, the McHaffies, had their grazing run over Phillip Island 1842-68 reduced to 640 acres though this was well before his niece Elle Blanche Lousada 1883-1966 #274 married David McHaffie 1864-1940 #346 in 1903. But the Warragul land selected by Edward Charles Lousada was uncleared, and probably not subject to an earlier grazing lease. Some current-day scenes in the area may be found here.

Edward Charles Lousada was young at the time. He arrived in Australia in late 1871 or early 1872, and stayed for a while with his brothers at Hastings. One of his brothers was Howel Arthur, father of Elle Blanche. At this time, so ref 124 p8 tells us, the nearby Brandy Creek region was opened up in a rush of enthusiasm, no doubt due to its reported rich soil and good rainfall. Enquiries came from as far away as Salt Lake City with Brigham Young (a leader of the Mormons) wanting land for his 187 children to settle!  Edward Charles selected a little over 118 acres but paid for 119. Later, Edward Charles Lousada put up for auction on 30 Jun 1893 through his firm William Hamilton & Co a small (17a 3r 2p) parcel of land which aside from a probable typographical was the same size as the (18a 3r 2p) piece abutting the south end of his block shown above in the name of W Ayres. We infer that Edward Charles Lousada had earlier bought the parcel from W Ayres but that he was forced to sell - the auction notice stated the sale was by order of the mortgagee.

  Blanche Henrietta Skipper was a Barrow cousin of Edward Charles Lousada and leased land across West Jindivick Road (see map above left) on 18 Jan 1879 and finally bought it on 8 Feb 1901 (data from Victorian Public Records Office land records file 7759/19). However from ref 124 we learn that Herbert de Symons Skipper - a Barrow cousin - bought Edward Charles Lousada's block and Albert Poynter's selection after selecting elsewhere unsuccessfully (pages 43 and 47). As the historical notes indicate, Edward Charles left his block to Blanche when he left the district; so Herbert who died in 1901 must have been acting for his sister in these land transfers as well as in the case of her original block (as we observed in examining the original records). The grave of Herbert de Symons Skipper, his wife Ellen Caroline Rutherford, and his sister Blanche Henrietta Skipper are at the nearly Drouin West Cemetery on Old Sale Road. Blanche Skipper's death gave rise to some correspondence with General Sir George de Symons Barrow who was aware of his Australian Barrow and Lousada cousins.