VIC Carriageway Purposes

[RuralNeighbour]

I have questions regarding the rights of the dominant and servient tenements for an easement "appropriated or set aside for carriageway purposes". The easement connects our 'back paddock' to the government road. Currently there are gates on the road side of the easement (placed there by previous owners of the servient land). Can we enforce the use of locks on the gates (sharing keys with the neighbour) to reduce the use of the easement by other people? The servient tenement would like to remove the locks and keep the gates open. This leads me to my next question: who can the servient tenement allow to use the easement? The servient tenement wants to keep the gates open to allow paid guests to stay on their land and use the easement to access the back of their land rather than driving through the middle of their land.
Thank you

 

[Tim W]

Which one are you?

 

[RuralNeighbour]

Hi, we own the dominant property.

 

[Tim W]

As a general thing, an easement does not confer property rights.
An easement only confers rights of use (such as for access).

An easement itself is not part of the dominant land. That is, not part of your property.
It's still their land. All you have is a right to cross their land to get to yours.
So, as long as your own access is not obstructed,
you basically don't have any rights, nor do you get any say
over what the owner of the burdened land does with... their own land.

 

[RuralNeighbour]

Hi Tim,

Thank you. That's what I thought.