Special Surveys

1 chain = 22 yards
1 square chain = 22 x 22 yards = 484 square yards
1 acre = 10 square chains = 4,840 square yards
640 acres = 1 square mile
5120 acres = 8 square miles

Original grant was 8 square miles (5120 acres).

Payment required was: 1 pound per acre (well below the value of the land at that time)

Amended by Gipps:

5 miles from a surveyed township (Melbourne, Williamstown, Geelong, and Portland)
1 mile of water boundary for every 4 square miles (measured by straight line land distance) (so, 2 miles of water boundary).

Special Surveys was a scheme under which in August 1840, the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners of the British Government decided to allow the purchase of land anywhere in the Port Phillip District of New South Wales – now Victoria, Australia. 5,120 acres (2,070 ha), or eight square miles, could be purchased for £1 per acre. This price was significantly below the value of the land at that time.

To restrict the sale of valuable land, Governor Gipps introduced regulations in March 1841 that required the land to be more than 5 miles (8.0 km) from a surveyed township, and to restrict the water-frontage to one mile per four square miles of area.
http://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/view.cgi?year=1841&class=general&page_num=321&state=N&classNum=G18&searchCode=2060279
http://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/view.cgi?year=1841&class=general&page_num=784&state=N&classNum=G45&searchCode=2060279
http://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/view.cgi?year=1843&class=general&page_num=1209&state=N&classNum=G78&searchCode=2060869