He is Ulvik, a soft toy troll from Gudvangen in Norway. He lives in Melba now and here he is reading, obviously thrilled, an item in Wednesday's column about a celebrity soft toy troll owned and doted on, all his life, by the great Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg.

But we hasten on to the newsworthy subject, with the full list of Mr Fluffy homes just published, of Canberra housing. Coincidentally, causing this history-conscious column to prick up its ears, ArchivesACT has dusted off some files concerning Canberra's first four lease auctions. The first three auctions were in December 1924, May 1926 and April 1927 respectively and the fourth was in July 1951.*

Just to set the scene and as ArchivesACT reminds us, when the Commonwealth established the capital territory it decreed that we would have a unique leasehold land tenure system. It prevails today. Land in Canberra is rented from the Commonwealth for 99 years.

Now the very first auction of these leases came to pass on 12 December 1924. It was conducted by estate agents Woodgers and Calthorpe. About 300 souls attended, attracted by the 289 residential and 104 business blocks up for lease. One hundred and fifty blocks were sold, harvesting the Commonwealth £60,000.

In his speech at the third lease auction held in exciting times on 9 April 1927 (with the gorgeous great wedding cake of the new federal parliament house soon to open), auctioneer T. E. Woodger gave a speech in which he almost seems to have burst into song about the budding city. His rhapsody contained reminiscences of the first two auctions.

"In 1924, Canberra was a place of paddocks. Today [since then] a mighty development has taken place. It has been phenomenal. Those who bought at the first sale were fortunate and those who bought at the last sale were also fortunate. Within a month [parliament's official opening was to be on 9 May] Canberra will enter into her own as the new seat of the Government of Australia ... Canberra will grow in leaps and bounds during the next few years until a population of 30,000 or 40,000 is reached, and will go on increasing as Australia increases."

Woodger (did his audience murmur among themselves that Mr Woodger was getting carried away?), had a vision of an accelerating Australian population.

"After the 10 million mark has been reached, 15 million will come quickly," he enthused.

You'd think from the gladsome tone of Woodger's speech that there were thousands of leases for auction at that 1927 occasion but in fact there were just 63 residential leases and 20 business leases. All 20 business blocks were sold, and 38 residential blocks, for a total of £69,825.

There were to be no more public lease auctions for for 24 years, not until a momentous one in 1951. The ArchivesACT's dusted-off file "Department of the Interior - Fourth Auction Sale ACT Business and Residentual Sites - Albert Hall 14th July 1951" yields some quaintnesses.

We were still not very multicultural in the 1950s and it paid to be British. In anticipation of the 1951 auction there was some correspondence between four tradesmen, Dutchmen, and the Department. The four were all residents of the Turner Hostel and were applying to the Department "for permission to bid for home site building blocks" at the 14 July occasion.

Their long letter steered an artful course between pleading and demanding. It was cap-in-hand in its requesting of a chance to bid, but a bit bolshie in its implied threat that if they couldn't bid and buy they'd pick up their tools and go somewhere where they'd be more appreciated.

"We wish to submit the following details in support of our application. We are of Dutch nationality, now permanently resident in Canberra, and in order that we might live more comfortably have decided to build should the building lots in question be sold at a reasonable price. For your information we are all qualified tradesmen in the building trade and wish to build homes in Canberra. We consider that it is not only in our interest that tradesmen should be encouraged to reside permanently in Canberra, but also in the interest of a community which is suffering from an acute shortage of houses. Should you not see fit to accede to our request we will be forced to seek more favourable conditions in some other locality."

Their passionate letter earned a passionless reply from The Assistant Secretary (Development), informing the hopeful foreigners that "Bids will be accepted from all bidders on the day of auction but the grant of a lease to persons who are not British or naturalised British subjects is dependent on the approval of the Minister."

We do not know what became of the ambitions of the Dutchmen, labouring under the disadvantage of their Britishlessness. It is symbolic of the way in which things have changed for the better that Ulvik, though a Norwegian, has been effortlessly accepted into today's Canberra without the need for any ministerial approval.

Marion Alexander took the picture of Ulvik making his discerning choice of reading matter. She reports that "Ulvik found me when I was in Norway with my parents during university holidays a few years ago."

*Read more at http://www.archives.act.gov.au/educational_resource/find_of_the_month