News from Access Services at Public Record Office Victoria
December 2004 – Number 8

rEsearch is a bi-monthly update on public access news at Public Record Office Victoria (PROV). Current and past editions of rEsearch are available online here and are also emailed to subscribers. Email a request to ask.prov@dvc.vic.gov.au if you want to be included on our subscriber list.

Contents
1. Local History Grants Program Recipients Listed Online
2. Provenance - Read it Online
3. Koorie Records News
4. Exhibitions
- Transported Back
- Forgotten Faces - Chinese and the Law
5. Seminars 2005
- Archival Support Program
- Seminar Series
6. What's New
- Online Indexes (New Zealand)
- Archives@Victoria
7. Saturday Openings 2005
8. PROV and NAA Christmas and New Year Closure
9. Calendar
10. Feedback
11. About this publication

1. Local History Grants Program Recipients Listed Online

The Minister for Victorian Communities, the Hon. John Thwaites, announced in a ceremony on 10 December 2004, the successful applicants for grants made available through the Local History Grants Program. A full list of Local History Grant Program (LHGP) recipients, together with details of their projects, is now available on the PROV website (http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/lhgp).

In this fourth round of the LHGP, sixty local history projects across Victoria were selected to receive funds from a pool totaling $250,000. The successful projects represent a wide variety of community groups, from schoolchildren to senior citizens, and range from small conservation initiatives to significant multimedia exhibitions.

2. Provenance – Now Available Online

The 2004 issue of Provenance, the journal of Public Record Office Victoria is now available online.

Articles appearing in the new issue are: ‘Death, Decency and the Dead-House: The City Morgue in Colonial Melbourne’, by Andrew Brown-May and Simon Cooke; ‘Keeping Order: Motor-Car Regulation and the Defeat of Victoria’s 1905 Motor-Car Bill’, by Rick Clapton; and ‘Home Truths - Stories from the Nineteenth-Century Castlemaine Police Courts’, by Heather Holst.

Provenance is a free, scholarly refereed journal that is now published only online. We are also calling for papers to be submitted for the 2005 issue, and a brief for authors is available on the Provenance web page.

To read or download Provenance, free of charge, visit PROV’s website (http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/provenance). The first two issues of Provenance are available online and in print (copies may be collected, at no charge, from VAC during office hours).

3. Koorie Records News

The Koorie Records Unit promotes Aboriginal records within PROV’s collection and is involved in projects to improve the accessibility of PROV’s collection for Indigenous people. In recent years, many enquiries and reports have called for the under-representation of Indigenous people in the field of archives and records management in Australia to be addressed.

In response, PROV announced in November that it was offering two YES (Youth Employment Scheme) traineeships for young Indigenous people to work at PROV for twelve months. The trainees will divide their time at PROV between the Reading Room at Victorian Archives Centre and the Koorie Records Unit. One of their tasks will be to work on a new project, indexing nineteenth-century Protectorate records. The YES trainees will also undertake off-the-job training of one day per week, to complete a Certificate III qualification in Library and Information Services. Look out for two new faces in the VAC Reading Room from early 2005.

4. Exhibitions at the Victorian Archives Centre

Transported Back
PROV’s free exhibition of black and white photography from the Public Transport Corporation collection, Transported Back, was officially launched on 17 November by President of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria, Prof. Weston Bate. The exhibition’s sponsorship by Metlink was also announced during the event, and by now many of you will have seen the distinctive sepia Metcards featuring an image of the Spirit of Progress and promoting Transported Back, being dispensed around Melbourne. The exhibition will be on view at the Victorian Archives Centre until mid-February 2005, so don’t forget to jump on a bus, train or tram, buy your Metcard and visit the exhibition!

Forgotten Faces – Chinese and the Law
Following Transported Back, PROV’s first exhibition for 2005, mounted in conjunction with the Golden Dragon Museum in Bendigo, will be Forgotten Faces – Chinese and the Law. The exhibition is a haunting display of black and white images of Chinese men, selected from nineteenth century prison registers held at PROV (VPRS 522 and VPRS 515).
Tens of thousands of Chinese arrived in Victoria during the 1850s and 1860s – a place they called Hsin Chin Shan (New Gold Mountain). While New Gold Mountain revealed its riches to many, some were less lucky and a few – through whatever cause – very unlucky indeed. Of the small number of Chinese who were imprisoned, only a few hundred prison photographs remain. These photographs, and prison registers, are among the scant evidence that remains of the lives of the Chinese in nineteenth-century Victoria. The exhibition Forgotten Faces endeavours to discover some of the individual stories behind the faces captured by the camera, and describe the conditions faced by the Chinese community in nineteenth century Victoria, particularly those individuals caught within the prison and legal system.

Forgotten Faces – Chinese and the Law will be on display on Level 3 at the VAC from late February to June 2005, and at the Golden Dragon Museum, Bendigo, in July 2005.

5. Seminars 2005

- Archival Support Program, February - November 2005
The Archival Support Program is a joint initiative of PROV, and the Australian Society of Archivists, supported by the National Archives of Australia. Brochures are available from PROV reading rooms and online at http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/events/patrn.asp

- Seminar Series, February - June 2005
The PROV Seminar Series February - June 2005 covers a variety of topics including education records, research at VAC using PROV and NAA records, building and plan records and immigration records. Brochures are available from PROV reading rooms and online at
http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/events/patrn.asp

6. What’s New

- Online Indexes – New Zealand
The index to inward passengers from New Zealand ports, 1852–1923 (which includes the names of all passengers who sailed from New Zealand to Victorian ports in the period specified), and the first part of the index to passengers who departed Victorian ports in the period 1852–56 have recently been made available online.

The online indexes available from PROV’s website now cover all unassisted passenger arrivals from British, New Zealand and other foreign ports, for the period 1852–1923, all British assisted immigrants for the period 1839–71 and those who departed Victoria from 1852-56

To use PROV’s online immigration indexes, visit http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/access/online.asp.

- Archives@Victoria
Victorian Public Record Series (VPRS) are occasionally reprocessed as research by PROV archivists uncover more about the records and their context. The lists appearing below may include some reprocessed series, as well as new accessions and transfers of additional consignments to existing series. The lists may also include records that are closed (in part or whole) to general public access in PROV reading rooms. If a record has been closed under section 9 or section 10 of the Public Records Act, you will need to apply for access under Freedom of Information. To do this, you will need to know which Government department is responsible for the particular records.
You could also apply for Special Access to records by writing to the Keeper of Public Records for permission. PROVguide 14 has information on how to go about this.

For further information, please visit http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/archivesvictoria or contact PROV reference staff on ask.prov@dvc.vic.gov.au

Department of Education & Training
VA 1225 Registered Schools Board current creating agency (multiple agencies)
VPRS 11353/P1 Registered Schools Board Minutes, 1906-1938

VA 3098 Department of Education II current creating agency (multiple agencies)
VPRS 11374/P1 Estate General Files 1948-1995
VPRS 11468/P1 Office of the Executive Minutes 1989-1995
VPRS 11396/P1 Audit Committee Minutes – Office of Schools Review 1988-1996
VPRS 11793/P1 Office of Training & Further Education Briefings 1991-1996
VPRS 12934/P1 Office of Training & Further Education Briefing Register 1991-1996

VA 3082 Technical & Further Education Accreditation Board
VPRS 11403/P1 General Subject Correspondence Files: Two Numbered System (TAFE Board) 1983-1987

VA 1112 Ministry of Education & Training
VPRS 11551/P1 Victorian TAFE Teaching Service Registration Board – Policy Documents 1990-1992

VA 714 Education Department
VPRS 12836/P1 Information Technology Branch Minutes 1978-1985
VPRS 8819/P2 School Building General Correspondence Files, Single Number System 1949-1982

VA 2311 Teachers Tribunal
VPRS 12838/P1 Teachers’ Tribunal Procedure Book 1975-1977
VPRS 12839/P1 Teachers’ Tribunal Policy Book c1948-c1976

VA 3098 Department of Education II
VPRS 11409/P1 Student Resource Index 1993-1994
VPRS 11411/P1 School Global Budget Research Project Files 1994-1997
VPRS 11412/P1 Minutes of Executive Meetings of Office of Strategic Planning & Administrative Services 1996-1997

VA 899 Apprenticeship Commission & VA 900 Industrial Training Commission
VPRS 6625/P1& P2 Register of General Correspondence and Policy Files 1963-1981
VPRS 6626/P/P1&P2 Index to General Correspondence and Policy Files (Apprenticeship Commission) 1963-1981

VA 3195 Boort (Primary School No. 1796)
VPRS 8985/P3 School Records (Boort Primary) 1877-1893

VA 714 Education Department
VPRS 11380/P1 Enrolment Registers 1952-1978
VPRS 11460/P1 Record of Teacher Training Details 1878-1909
VPRS 11461/P1 Register of Conveyance Deeds 1873-1909
VPRS 11469/P1 School Address Book 1930-1940

VA 3098 Department of Education II current creating agency (multiple agencies)
VPRS 11388/P1& 2 School Property Files 1902-1996
VPRS 11463/P1 Overseas Program Files 1987-1993

VA 2311 Teachers Tribunal
VPRS 11415/P1 Registers of Inward Correspondence (Teachers Tribunal) 1946-1977

VA 4368 Elmhurst (Primary School No. 959)
VPRS 11465/P1 School Records (Elmhurst) 1969-1879

VA 1112 Ministry of Education & Training
VPRS 11475/P1 Register of Papers-Chief General Manager’s Meetings 1990-1991
VPRS 11849/P1 Changes to School Entry Age Project Files 1990-1991 (Section 10 closure)

VA 1027 Department of Labour & Industry & VA 704 Ministry of Employment & Training
VPRS 6348/P2-P3 General Correspondence Files 1963-1984

VA 3066 Victoria Post-Secondary Education Accreditation Board final creating agency (multiple agencies)
VPRS 8536/P2-P4 General Subject Correspondence Files 1980-1996

VA 3002 State Training Board final creating agency (multiple agencies)
VPRS 11383/P1-P2 General Subject Correspondence Files: Annual Single Number 1982-1988

VA 900 Industrial Training Commission & VA 3002 State Training Board
VPRS 11758/P1 Training Operations Board Apprentice & Employer Data Reports
1973-1994

VA 899 Apprenticeship Commission & VA 900 Industrial Training Commission
VPRS 11538/P1-P2 Apprentice History Cards 1929-1976 (Section 9 closure)
VPRS 11548/P1 Apprenticeship Termination History Files 1929-1985 (Section 9 closure)

VA 3002 State Training Board final creating agency (multiple agencies)
VPRS 11540/P1 Army Apprentice Cards 1972-1988 Section 9 closure

VA 1112 Ministry of Education & Training & VA 3098 Department of Education II
VPRS 11535/P1 Schools of the Future Project Files 1991-1995 (Section 10 closure)

VA 714 Education Department & VA 1112 Ministry of Education & Training
VPRS 11536/P1 General Correspondence Files (Tullamarine Regional Office) 1948-1988 (Section 10 closure)

Forest Commission Minutes
VA 534 Department of State Forests (Forest Commission)
VPRS 3222 Minutes of Meetings 1919-1984
VPRS 13963 Agenda of Meetings 1920-1984
VPRS 13989 Ministerial Recommendations of the Commission 1973-1985
VPRS 13990 Schedule of Decisions (of the Forest Commission) 1984-1987

Swinburne University Examination Results
VA 4669 Swinburne University of Technology
VPRS 14019/P1 Examination Results 1909-1975 (Section 9 closure)
VPRS 14020/P1 Examination Results (Higher Education Division) 1975-1996 (Section 9 closure)
VPRS 14021 Examination Results (TAFE Division) 1975-1996 (Section 9 closure)
VPRS 14022 Examination Results (Master List) 1936-1983 (Section 9 closure)
VPRS 14023 Examination Results (Summer School) 1989-1996 (Section 9 Closure)
VPRS 14115 Examination Papers 1927-1975
VPRS 14116 Examination Papers (Higher Education Division) 1975-1996
VPRS 14117 Examination Papers (TAFE Division) 1975-1996

7. Saturday Openings, January – March 2005

The Victorian Archives Centre Reading Room is open on the second and last Saturday of each month, excepting long weekends. Saturday openings for January to March are 8 January, 29 January, 12 February, 26 February. There are no Saturday openings for March 2005.

8. Christmas and New Year Closure

The VAC and BAC Reading Rooms will be closed to the public from 25 December 2004 through to 3 January 2005 inclusive. This applies to both Public Record Office Victoria and National Archives of Australia operations.

9. PROV Calendar December 2004 - February 2005

The PROV calendar for speaking engagements and other dates is available at: http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/events/patrn.asp#speaking

10. Feedback

We welcome your feedback and suggestions on the content of this newsletter via <ask.prov@dvc.vic.gov.au>. If you know someone who would be interested in receiving rEsearch, they can subscribe by emailing a request to <ask.prov@dvc.vic.gov.au>.

11. About this publication

We have included you on our mailing list because you already receive news publications from PROV, or because you have indicated interest in receiving email information. However, if you do not wish to receive this newsletter, please email us at ask.prov@dvc.vic.gov.au or phone PROV Reception (03) 9348 5600 and we will remove you from the list.

ISSN 1449-0331
Copyright © 2004 Public Record Office Victoria

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