... derived from the land itself and from anything found on it' (Wik Peoples v Queensland (1996) per Gummow J), and constitutes effectively the 'local equivalent of full ownership' (ibid, per Kirby J). The tenant of an unencumbered estate in fee simple has, without question, the largest possible 'bundle of rights' exercisable with respect to land (Minister of State for the Army v Dalziel (1944) per Rich J). Walsingham's Case (1573) '[H]e who has a fee-simple in land has a time in the land without end, or the land for time without end.' The fee simple was (and still is) capable, more or less indefinitely, of transfer inter vivos or of devolution on death. The owners of the fee simple estate may come and go but the estate remains, since it is of potentially infinite duration. Each new owner merely steps into the shoes of his or her predecessor - the modern effect ...

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