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Showcase Record – January 2013
The gift of a school to Villers Bretonneux by Melbourne school children. The Villers-Bretonneux School Photograph Collection features items of various formats documenting the role of the Victorian Department of Education and the school children of Victoria in the rebuilding of the school at Villers-Bretonneux, France after its destruction in 1918 during World War 1. [...]
Stories found within the major shipping list project: 1852-1923
Public Record Office Victoria Volunteer, Liz Buckle, takes us on an historic journey capturing highlights from the enormous Shipping List project, which, after 24 years was finally completed in 2012. Inwards and Outwards shipping lists 1852–1923 When I was asked to present at this year’s end of year function, it was suggested that I should [...]
Indexing of overseas passenger lists – the end of an era
Earlier today, PROV held its annual Christmas function to recognise the magnificent achievements of our volunteers over the year. PROV volunteers are managed by the Collection Management Team and special thanks go to our Volunteers Team Leader Leigh Kinrade for another sterling year. This year’s function was significant because it marked the end of one [...]
Australia’s Pleasure Land: Luna Park and other amusements at St Kilda
The 13th of December marks 100 years since the opening of Luna Park in St Kilda. In seeking to find records in our collection about this Victorian icon, I also located information about the range of amusements that were on offer well into the 1960s. I started my search by consulting the detailed survey plans [...]
The origins of the Cup Day public holiday
At a racing themed party over the long weekend, my host ran a Melbourne Cup trivia quiz which included a question about when the public holiday was first held. The answer given was 1877 and I thought it would be interesting to locate the relevant file in our Collection. First I conducted some background research [...]
Citing the records featured in Behind Closed Doors feature in this month’s The Age Melbourne Magazine
Public Record Office Victoria or rather, some famous items from our Collection were proudly featured in The Age Melbourne Magazine’s Behind Closed Doors section which was published today. This posting provides you with some additional information, including citations, in case you are interested in viewing some of these items. Two of the larger items featured [...]
Furry Friends from the late 1930s – Be Kind to Animals week
Record of the Month – October 2012 The first week of October is Be Kind to Animals Week and to celebrate, Public Record Office Victoria brings you a photographic collection of beloved pets from yesteryear. The first thing I noticed about these images is that while human fashions may have changed over the last 100 [...]
September Record of the Month – State Bank Of Victoria House Plans and Designs
These house plans were produced by the State Savings Bank of Victoria (VA 1041) and are a few examples of the different and versatile designs that this financial institution had on offer to their clients. The State Savings Bank of Victoria provided [...]
What do those markings mean? Interpreting filing information on a key Ned Kelly record.
On Saturday 18 August, the Shepparton Times published an article about a copy of Ned Kelly’s Euroa Letter from our collection. This was loaned by PROV to the Robert O’Hara Burke Museum for use in the Ned Kelly Festival. I do not want my postings in this blog to be dominated by entries about [...]
Feathers, fur and fun: share your Melbourne Zoo memories
Do you have photographs or videos of your favourite moments at the Melbourne Zoo to contribute to an online exhibition? To celebrate Melbourne Zoo’s 150th anniversary this year, Public Record Office Victoria, Culture Victoria and the Melbourne Zoo are working together to create an online story which captures the changing face of the zoo over [...]
