Provenance is part of the website of Public Record Office Victoria. The current issue is featured on the main page http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/provenance/default.asp. Links to previous issues can be found on the Past Issues page.

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Imperial to metric measures

Money

£1 comprised 20 shillings, each of 12 pence. A penny could be divided into two halfpennies or four farthings. A crown equaled 5 shillings, a half-crown was 2s 6d.

At the adoption of decimal currency £1 = $2.

Weight

The imperial pound (lb) was the most common unit of weight.

1 pound = 454 grams

1 pound was comprised of 16 ounces (oz), 14 pounds = 1 stone, 8 stones = 100-weight (cwt), 20 cwt = 1 ton (1.01 tonnes), 1 ton = 2240 lbs.

Length

The foot was the common measure of length.

1 foot (ft) = 30.48 centimetres.

1 foot comprised 12 inches (in). There were 3 ft in a yard, 1760 yards in a mile (1.61 kms). 1 chain = 100 links = 66 ft or 22 yards.

Area

The standard measure was the acre.

1 rood = 40 perches = 1201 square yards = ¼ acre.

1 acre = 10 square chains = 0.404 hectare.

1 square mile = 640 acres = 258.99 hectares.

Smaller areas were measured in square feet or square yards.

Capacity

The pint was the basic measure of liquids.

1 pint = 586 ml, 8 pints = 1 gallon = 4.55 litres.

Spirituous liquor was often measured by the gill, which was a quarter of a pint. The bushel, equivalent to 8 gallons (36.4 litres), was used as a measure of grain.