Subject Search Guides

Explore and search using our Subject Guides
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An image of an archived will from 1876

Wills and probates

Fashion Shot, VPRS 12903/P1 Box 356-03

Family history

two athletes hug

Melbourne 1956 Olympics

Church plan for Aboriginal Reserve, Framlingham, May 1931, VPRS 3686/P1 Unit 370

Aboriginal Victorians (1830s – 1970s)

External view of the Victorian Archives Centre
About Us

About Public Record Office Victoria

Public Record Office Victoria (PROV) is the archive of State and Local Governments in Victoria. We hold over 100 km of digital and physical records from 1836 to the present day. Many records are accessible to the public either online or for viewing in our Reading Rooms. PROV also sets mandatory recordkeeping standards for state and local government agencies and provides advice on recordkeeping to government.

Learn more about PROV
books lines up
Victorian Community History Awards

Winners announced

Presented by Public Record Office Victoria in partnership with the Royal Historical Society of Victoria, the Victorian Community History Awards are held annually to celebrate the people involved in community history. Described by judges as “an artwork in itself”, Letters to a Critic: Alan McCulloch’s World of Art by Rodney James, won the Victorian Premier’s History Award. Another 10 prizes were awarded to the best of Victorian history. 

See the full list of winners

Visit us

Our Locations
Plan your visit
Victorian Archives Centre
99 Shiel Street, North Melbourne

Monday to Friday 10am to 4:30pm and every second and last Saturday of the month. Closed public holidays. Visit

Ballarat Archives Centre
Eureka Centre, 102 Stawell St, South Ballarat Central

Monday to Thursday 10am to 4:30pm. Closed public holidays. Visit

Bendigo Regional Archives Centre
1st Floor Bendigo Library, 251-259 Hargreaves Street, Bendigo

Wednesday and Thursday 10am to 4pm. Closed public holidays. Visit

Geelong Library and Heritage Centre
51 Little Malop Street, Geelong

Tuesday to Friday 10am to 4pm. Closed weekends, Mondays and public holidays. Visit

Before your visit please check the individual location for opening times and any upcoming closures.

What's On

Events, talks, exhibitions and publications
All events
Bendigo School of Mines
Talk

Bendigo Regional Archives Centre events

The Bendigo Regional Archives Centre (BRAC) is a repository and research centre for North Central and Western Victorian history based in the Bendigo Library. BRAC provides a variety of events that showcase the history of the Bendigo region and the breadth of the region's archival collection.
01 Jan 17:30 PM - 01 May 17:30 PM
Figure 3: A zoomed-in portion of part of the information for Chapman Street in 1871. PROV, Melbourne (Town 1842–1847; City 1847-ct) (VA511), VPRS 5707/P0000, Rate Books (Hotham/North Melbourne), 1855.
Article

The value of rate books and multi-scale analysis

Imagine there was a document from nineteenth-century Victoria that could tell you where a person lived and what their house was like, whether they owned it or rented, how big it was, what it was made of and what their occupation was? And what if that document could also tell you all that information about all of their neighbours? And the whole local government area? Such an archive does exist: the rate books held by Public Record Office Victoria (PROV).
16 Feb 13:26 PM - 18 Feb 13:26 PM
a 1940s ad of a woman with a camera and the word 'kodak'
Exhibition

Belongings: objects of a family life

We’re surrounded by objects, but have you thought about how important these things are in your life, or what they represent? This exhibition at the Old Treasury Building looks at the stories behind some of the objects that have shaped the family in Australia over the decades. It considers how families make and preserve cultural traditions through craft, food, and belief.
03 Jan 10:00 AM - 31 Dec 16:00 PM
Figure 2: Excerpt from the ‘Bibbs map’, c. 1856, PROV, VPRS 8168/P3 Historic Plan Collection, item MELBRL12.
Article

Antonio Azzopardi, Australia’s first Maltese immigrant

Although Antonio Azzopardi (1805–1881) was almost certainly not the first to arrive, he was the first Maltese person who willingly migrated to the Australian colonies. Read author, Charlie Farrugia's, research journey as he undertook to find records about Antonio held by Public Record Office Victoria (PROV) for a National Archives of Australia (NAA) exhibition celebrating Maltese immigration.
16 Feb 12:52 PM - 18 Feb 12:52 PM