Showing 629 items
matching public records office
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Public Record Office VictoriaLetter, 22 October 1854
... Public Record Office Victoria 99 Shiel Street North ...VA 856 Colonial Secretary's OfficeEureka Stockade:Commissioner Rede reports arrest of 2 men concerned in the latest outragetrial -
Public Record Office VictoriaResolution, 13 March 1855
... Public Record Office Victoria 99 Shiel Street North ...VA 466 Governor (including Lieutenant Governor 1851-1855 and Governor's Office)Eureka Stockade:Bendigo Reform League call for the abandonment of the State Trialtrial, robert benson -
Public Record Office VictoriaCourt Record, 17 January 1855
... Public Record Office Victoria 99 Shiel Street North ...VA 475 Chief Secretary's DepartmentEureka Stockade:Proceedings of the Supreme Court in the matter of Queen v. Hayes and otherstrial, supreme court, eureka, eureka stockade -
Public Record Office VictoriaDeposition, 30 November 1854
... Public Record Office Victoria 99 Shiel Street North ...VA 2825 Attorney-General's Department (previously known as the Law Department)Eureka Stockade:Depositions taken against William Bryan for Breach of the Peace charge/Gravel Pits Riottrial -
Public Record Office VictoriaLetter, 30 November 1854
... Public Record Office Victoria 99 Shiel Street North ...VA 466 Governor (including Lieutenant Governor 1851-1855 and Governor's Office)Eureka Stockade:Letter from Patrick Smyth to Hotham requesting temporary suspension of licence fee to avoid bloodshed -
Public Record Office VictoriaPetition, 1855
... Public Record Office Victoria 99 Shiel Street North ...VA 856 Colonial Secretary's OfficeEureka Stockade:Petition to Lieutenant-Governor Hotham from concerned citizens of Melbourne 1855 -
Public Record Office VictoriaLetter, 4 October 1855
... Public Record Office Victoria 99 Shiel Street North ...The ArgusEureka Stockade:Peter Lalor's Narrativecharles hotham, peter lalor -
Public Record Office Victoria
Deposition, 1855
... Public Record Office Victoria 99 Shiel Street North ...VA 2825 Attorney-General\'s Department (previously known as the Law Department)Eureka Stockade:Summary of the Trials of the thirteen Eureka prisoners charged with high treasontrial -
Public Record Office VictoriaBrief for the Prosecution, 1854
... Public Record Office Victoria 99 Shiel Street North ...VA 2825 Attorney-General's Department (previously known as the Law Department)Eureka Stockade:Brief for the Prosecution, Case no.16, Criminal Sessions Melbournetrial -
Public Record Office VictoriaDeposition, 26 January 1855
... Public Record Office Victoria 99 Shiel Street North ...VA 2825 Attorney-General's Department (previously known as the Law Department)Eureka Stockade:Depositions VPRS 5527/P Unit 2, Item 8trial, circus -
Public Record Office VictoriaDeposition, 16 January 1855
... Public Record Office Victoria 99 Shiel Street North ...VA 2825 Attorney-General's Department (previously known as the Law Department)Eureka Stockade:Depositions VPRS 5527/P Unit 2, Item 9trial -
Public Record Office VictoriaLetter, 1 December 1854
... Public Record Office Victoria 99 Shiel Street North ...VA 856 Colonial Secretary's OfficeEureka Stockade:Hotham's reply to Rede's report 30th November -
Public Record Office VictoriaPoster, 1854
... Public Record Office Victoria 99 Shiel Street North ...VA 2825 Attorney-General's Department (previously known as the Law Department)Eureka Stockade:Bakery Hill Meeting Postertrial, bakery hill -
Public Record Office Victoria
Transcript, 19 January 1855
... Public Record Office Victoria 99 Shiel Street North ...The ArgusEureka Stockade:The Trial of Arthur Akehursttrial -
Public Record Office Victoria
Legal record (item) - Criminal Trial Brief for Harry Bruin and Benjamin Morris
... Public Record Office Victoria 99 Shiel Street North ...This collection of approximately 20 letters between Melbourne men Ben Morris and Harry Bruin, covering a period of several months in 1919, consists of original letters handwritten by Morris and carbon copies of Bruin’s replies. Love letters between men from this period are extremely rare in an Australian context, and globally. They were seized by police from Bruin’s home in Harcourt Street, Auburn in October 1919. The police were investigating a report that Bruin and Morris were conducting an intimate affair. The relationship came to light when the mother of one of Morris’ friends, having failed in her attempt to blackmail Bruin, went to the police. Blackmail was an ever-present danger to homosexual men at that time. Homosexual sex was against the law and even gossip alone could ruin reputations, careers and social standing. In refusing the demands of his attempted blackmailer, Bruin took an enormous risk. However, Morris and Bruin were lucky that their letters contained no descriptions of sex acts. It was not illegal to express love for a person of the same sex and when the matter came before the court, the police had no choice but to let the matter drop without laying charges. Letters like these are rare as potentially incriminating correspondence between men was usually destroyed by the writers or the recipients, to prevent it falling into the hands of the authorities, blackmailers, or disapproving third parties. These letters survived only because they were seized by the authorities for the purpose of prosecution. Morris and Bruin’s letters are also important because, together with the statements taken from the two men and others involved in the case by police prosecutors, they provide insight into the development of the liaison over an extended period. The emotional letters provide rare evidence of a deep romantic affection between two men in their own words. Quoted from "A History of LGBTIQ+ Victoria in 100 Places and Objects" by Graham Willett, Angela Bailey, Timothy W. Jones and Sarah Rood. -
Public Record Office VictoriaDocument (item) - The 'Monster' Women’s Suffrage Petition
... Public Record Office Victoria 99 Shiel Street North ...It took just six weeks in the spring of 1891 to collect nearly 30,000 signatures on the ‘Monster Petition’ for women’s suffrage. Dedicated suffragists collected an average of 5,000 signatures a week (over 700 per day) before the petition was presented to the Victorian Parliament in September 1891. The six-week drive proved the determination of the suffragists, and was one of first major steps along the road to 1908 and the achievement of women’s franchise. Now a prized possession of the State of Victoria, the petition itself was truly a ‘monster’, running 20 centimetres across and 260 metres in length. Several men were required to carry it into Parliament. Its sheer size and unique shape make it a marvel; a stack of paper with an equal number of signatures would not be nearly as impressive as the huge, winding roll presented to Premier James Munro. Quoted from the article ‘The “Monster Petition” and the Women of Davis Street’ by Brienne Callahan, in Provenance: The Journal of Public Record Office Victoria, issue no. 7. -
Public Record Office Victoria
Legal record (item) - Divorce Papers for Frank Paice and Florence Paice (otherwise Cox)
... Public Record Office Victoria 99 Shiel Street North ...A file previously held in the collection of the Supreme Court of Victoria and now in Public Record Office Victoria contains records of the annulment of the marriage of Florence Cox in 1919. As the earliest known record of a person with intersex variations in Victorian history, Cox’s story – and this record – are of unique historical significance to the LGBTIQ+ history of the State. Florence Cox (1887–1950) had a middle-class upbringing in Melbourne. In 1914 she travelled to Bengal to marry her fiancé Frank Paice and to join him in his missionary work for the Baptist church. The couple returned to Melbourne in 1918 and the following year the Supreme Court of Victoria, at Paice’s request, annulled their marriage. The Supreme Court file reveals that Paice declared he had been unable to consummate the marriage, due to ‘a malformation frigidity or other defect of the parts of generation’ of his wife. Both Paice and Cox were subject to medical examination, which established that Cox had what is recognised today as the intersex condition complete androgen insensitivity syndrome. The court determined that marital intercourse, as it was understood at the time, was impossible for Paice and Cox, and granted the request for an annulment. Paice remarried, fathered children and led a successful professional and civic life, serving a period as Mayor of Nunawading, in the middle- class eastern suburbs of Melbourne. Cox’s life was very different. It is unlikely that anyone in her life would have known what had prompted the end of the marriage, but gossip would certainly have focussed on her part in it. She never remarried and, although she remained connected to her family, her story was rarely discussed. Cox was admitted to Mont Park Mental Hospital in Melbourne’s northern suburbs in 1945, where she died five years later. The Supreme Court file preserves one of the most detailed medical descriptions of a person with intersex variations from that period. It is particularly striking that following the court case, the file was closed ‘forever’. This indicates how seriously the court took the case, and its determination to protect Cox and Paice from public scrutiny. It speaks loudly to the thinking of the time on a matter that was rarely, if ever, raised in public. In 1997, Cox’s great-nephew Ian Richardson set out to investigate the secrecy surrounding his great-aunt Florrie. Following a relentless, two-year campaign by Richardson and other descendants of Cox and Paice, the Supreme Court file was finally opened to the public. Richardson’s book, God’s Triangle, recounts his quest and brings Cox’s story out of the archives and into the light. Quoted from "A History of LGBTIQ+ Victoria in 100 Places and Objects" by Graham Willett, Angela Bailey, Timothy W. Jones and Sarah Rood. -
Public Record Office Victoria
Document (item) - The prison letters of George Bateson
... Public Record Office Victoria 99 Shiel Street North ...In Victoria’s State archives there is a remarkable cache of letters written by George Bateson, who was arrested and convicted of sodomy in late 1860. There are some 200 letters addressed to notable Victorians including the governor, premier, inspector-general of penal establishments, members of parliament, and lawyers. These rare documents provide powerful evidence of homosexual life and the impacts of mid-nineteenth century laws relating to sodomy. The story begins on an evening in November 1860, when 19-year-old William Gardner went to the police to complain that the previous evening, when he was staying at a city hotel with George Bateson, he had been subjected to Bateson’s sexual advances. The police asked Gardner to meet with Bateson again the following evening and when their sexual connection was sufficiently advanced, Gardner should cough twice. He agreed to the plan, and when Gardner coughed the police emerged from a closet in the hallway, catching the two men in the act. Bateson was convicted of sodomy in 1860, but his death sentence was recorded rather than pronounced. In due course the Governor of Victoria commuted the sentence, as was usual for the crime, and instead sentenced Bateson to 15 years’ hard labour, with the first three years to be spent in chains. In 1871, Bateson was released, having spent four years less in prison than his original sentence. During and after his time in prison, Bateson wrote letters to the authorities to assert that he was innocent, falsely accused and the victim of a conspiracy. He demanded that this terrible miscarriage of justice should be reversed and a pardon granted to him. Bateson was not the first man in Victoria to be convicted and sentenced in this way; nor was he the first to petition for redress. But the extent of his letters and the scope of the issues raised in them offer a remarkable insight into homosexual life in the mid-nineteenth century, such as how men might meet each other, and approaches to police and punish homosexual behaviour. Bateson’s letters provide crucial evidence to expand our understanding of Victoria’s queer past. Quoted from "A History of LGBTIQ+ Victoria in 100 Places and Objects" by Graham Willett, Angela Bailey, Timothy W. Jones and Sarah Rood. -
Public Record Office Victoria
Letter (item) - Mr Cleal’s Letter to the Chief Commissioner of Police
... Public Record Office Victoria 99 Shiel Street North ...In October 1901, Mr B. Cleal wrote to the Chief Commissioner of Police complaining about the large number of effeminate young men using ‘various conveniences’ for ‘an evil of the most terrible description’. Mr Cleal’s letter is part of a remarkable collection of documents held by Public Record Office Victoria that are valuable to LGBTIQ+ history and heritage in providing unparalleled insight into where and how beats operated in and around the city at that time. By ‘conveniences’ Cleal meant public toilets, and he listed the busiest of them: the corner of Rathdowne and Victoria streets; Lansdowne Street, East Melbourne; under the viaduct opposite the Customs House in Flinders Street; at the rear of the old City Court in Little Collins Street; and under the viaduct at the foot of King Street. Cleal described in detail how these beats worked: ‘One cannot enter but two or three of the above fellows rush in and on pretence of using same will pass some disgusting remark concerning one’s person etc’. The Chief Commissioner despatched one of his officers, Sergeant Canty, to investigate. Canty’s report provides further detail and description of who he encountered at the public toilets. He reported that men ‘known by the term “Pufters” [sic], are generally well dressed, sober, quiet in their manner and some of them very well connected’. Canty further noted about these men: 'it is often very difficult for the police to catch them offending, and if they do at any time make filthy or indecent overtures to any man, they believe him to be similarly inclined, but should they make a mistake the man insulted never thinks of giving any of them in charge [complaining to the police], but sometimes gives the offender a well-deserved blow or kick instead, of which the recipient never complains.' Sergeant Canty admitted that the problem had existed for some time. But, he added, ‘I don’t think the evil complained of is as great as said in attached [Cleal’s letter]’. In reviewing the file, Canty’s supervisor noted that Cleal, ‘appears to have given these resorts considerable attention’. Much of the evidence for same-sex activity in Melbourne in the early twentieth century comes from court cases and sensationalist news reports. With their eyewitness accounts of the use of local beats, these documents in the collection of Public Record Office Victoria provide a more detailed, understated account, making them some of the more unusual and historically significant records in Melbourne’s queer history. Quoted from "A History of LGBTIQ+ Victoria in 100 Places and Objects" by Graham Willett, Angela Bailey, Timothy W. Jones and Sarah Rood. -
Friends of Ballarat Botanical Gardens History GroupWork on paper - Suburban Allotments (west of) Ballaarat, Wendouree or Yuille's Swamp, County of Grenville 30/4/1856, 30/4/1856. No date given for photocopy
... Public Record Office of Victoria... Allotments 1856 County of Grenville Public Record Office of Victoria ...This map of the 1856 survey shows the numbered suburban allotments and the boundaries surrounding this area including Wendouree or Yuilles's Swamp close to where the Ballarat Botanical Gardens and the Lake exist today. This map gives a clear idea of an early survey of this western area and directions to areas of Ballarat surrounding these allotments.2 pages of the same map, except p.2 shows the Township Reserve on the lefthand side of the page. On the back of p.2, righthand corner is the Public Records Stamp.P2, righthand corner is the citation in pencil.john garner, doctor john garner, ballarat botanical gardens, friends of ballarat botanical gardens, map of western suburban allotments 1856, county of grenville, public record office of victoria, john garner collection, gardens, ballarat -
Melton City LibrariesNewspaper, Get the good oil here…, 2001
"A court was established in Melton by 1864, when the first recorded case was heard before Mr BA Porter JP, with Mr A Carroll as the Clerk of Courts. John James was convicted of being drunk, for which he was fined five shillings or 24 hours imprisonment. The court was held in the ‘long room’ of the old Melton Hotel, before moving to rented accommodation at the Raglan Hotel, and finally to the Roads Board office. Tenders for construction of the present building were called for by the Public Works Department on 13th February 1892. The architect Samuel Edward Brindley was born in Birmingham, England, in 1842. He was articled to the local architect, J.R. Botham, FRIBA, before emigrating to Victoria where he was employed as an architect in the Education Department from 18 August 1873. With the amalgamation of the architectural branch of the Education Department with the Public Works Department in 1884, Bindley was placed in charge of Victorian government building design for the North-Western District. In 1975, the Melton and District Historical Society became concerned at hearsay that the court house was to be demolished to make way for carparking space. Melton had been declared a ‘satellite city’ and was developing rapidly. A new shopping centre had recently been built at a setback of 60 feet (c.18 metre) from 323-329 High Street, and the court house, together with the adjacent weatherboard police station, had been left standing alone. A new police station was planned, and the weatherboard police station was subsequently demolished. In its nomination of the building for National Trust classification the Society argued that the Court House was ‘the best of two early buildings left in the main street’ (the other being a bluestone hotel) and that its loss would be ‘tragic’. However the nomination was unsuccessful, the National Trust at the time judging that it was of no particular ‘distinction’ or ‘antiquity’. The building continued to be used as a court house at least until 1991 when the Department of Housing and Construction (formerly the PWD) conducted a heritage study of court houses. By this time Federation-era architecture had achieved acceptance within the heritage movement. The building was recognised as being ‘the only surviving example in brick of the Federation Queen Anne style which was used for court houses only twice.’ Twenty years later when it was proposed to modify the eastern façade of the building to accommodate a café, the M&DHS was again concerned. This time the National Trust objected that the proposed extension would be an over-development of the site, and questioned the changes to the interior court room furnishings and fittings. The site never appears to have been nominated to the Victorian Heritage Register. It has since been converted into the Shire of Melton Tourist Information Centre". Opening of the Visitor Centre in Meltoncouncil, local architecture -
Tarnagulla History Archive
Deputy Registrar's Certificate For Undertaker, 1872
A large lot of papers, including this and many other birth, death and burial records, were apparently found in the ceiling cavity of the Sandy Creek/Tarnagulla Post and Telegraph Office in the later 20th Century, during building works. Donald Clark Collection. Transcript of document (partly printed, partly handwritten): Deputy Registrar's Certificate For Undertaker SCHEDULE [E.] I, P.K. Lucker, Deputy Registrar of Births, Deaths in the District of Tarnagulla do hereby certify that the death of Elenor Haughton was duly registered by me on this day. WITNESS my hand this 8th June 1872 PK Lucker, Deputy Registrar. -
Tarnagulla History Archive
Deputy Registrar's Certificate For Undertaker, 1872
A large lot of papers, including this and many other birth, death and burial records, were apparently found in the ceiling cavity of the Sandy Creek/Tarnagulla Post and Telegraph Office in the later 20th Century, during building works. Donald Clark Collection. Transcript of document (partly printed, partly handwritten): Deputy Registrar's Certificate For Undertaker SCHEDULE [E.] I, P.K. Lucker, Deputy Registrar of Births, Deaths in the District of Tarnagulla do hereby certify that the death of Charles Gray was duly registered by me on this day. WITNESS my hand this 11th June 1872 PK Lucker, Deputy Registrar. -
Tarnagulla History Archive
Deputy Registrar's Certificate For Undertaker, 1872
A large lot of papers, including this and many other birth, death and burial records, were apparently found in the ceiling cavity of the Sandy Creek/Tarnagulla Post and Telegraph Office in the later 20th Century, during building works. Donald Clark Collection. Transcript of document (partly printed, partly handwritten): Deputy Registrar's Certificate For Undertaker SCHEDULE [E.] I, P.K. Lucker, Deputy Registrar of Births, Deaths in the District of Tarnagulla do hereby certify that the death of Charles Wesley Williams was duly registered by me on this day. WITNESS my hand this 15th June 1872 PK Lucker, Deputy Registrar. -
Tarnagulla History Archive
Certificate Of Burial, 1872
A large lot of papers, including this and many other birth, death and burial records, were apparently found in the ceiling cavity of the Sandy Creek/Tarnagulla Post and Telegraph Office in the later 20th Century, during building works. Donald Clark Collection. Transcript of document (partly printed, partly handwritten): Certificate Of Burial SCHEDULE [G.] I, John Hamilton of Newbridge, Undertaker do hereby certify that the body of Charles Gray who died at Newbridge , was on the 12th day of June 1872 duly buried at Newbridge Cemetery, in _________ presence. WITNESS our hands this 12th day of June 1872 John Hamilton (partial signature) -
Tarnagulla History Archive
Certificate Of Burial, 1872
A large lot of papers, including this and many other birth, death and burial records, were apparently found in the ceiling cavity of the Sandy Creek/Tarnagulla Post and Telegraph Office in the later 20th Century, during building works. Donald Clark Collection. Transcript of document (partly printed, partly handwritten): Certificate Of Burial SCHEDULE [G.] I, Wesley Williams of Tarnagulla, Undertaker do hereby certify that the body of Charles Wesley Williams who died at Tarnagulla , was on the 17th day of June 1872 duly buried at Tarnagulla Cemetery, in _________ presence. [section missing] day of June ____ Williams (partial signature) Wesleyan Minister (Name and Religion) -
Tarnagulla History Archive
Deputy Registrar's Certificate For Undertaker, 1872
A large lot of papers, including this and many other birth, death and burial records, were apparently found in the ceiling cavity of the Sandy Creek/Tarnagulla Post and Telegraph Office in the later 20th Century, during building works. Donald Clark Collection. Transcript of document (partly printed, partly handwritten): Deputy Registrar's Certificate For Undertaker SCHEDULE [E.] I, P.K. Lucker, Deputy Registrar of Births, Deaths in the District of Tarnagulla do hereby certify that the death of William Sayers was duly registered by me on this day. WITNESS my hand this 10th June 1872 PK Lucker, Deputy Registrar. -
Tarnagulla History Archive
Certificate Of Burial, 1872
A large lot of papers, including this and many other birth, death and burial records, were apparently found in the ceiling cavity of the Sandy Creek/Tarnagulla Post and Telegraph Office in the later 20th Century, during building works. Donald Clark Collection. Transcript of document (partly printed, partly handwritten): Certificate Of Burial SCHEDULE [G.] I, WH Burton of Tarnagulla, Undertaker do hereby certify that the body of Elenor Haughton who died at Tarnagulla , was on the 18th day of June 1872 duly buried at Tarnagulla Cemetery, in _________ presence. Witness our hands this ___ day of ______ [bottom section missing] -
Tarnagulla History Archive
Certificate Of Burial, 1872
A large lot of papers, including this and many other birth, death and burial records, were apparently found in the ceiling cavity of the Sandy Creek/Tarnagulla Post and Telegraph Office in the later 20th Century, during building works. Donald Clark Collection. Transcript of document (partly printed, partly handwritten): Certificate Of Burial SCHEDULE [G.] I, Peter Hutchinson of Newbridge, Contracter and Undertaker do hereby certify that the body of William Sayers who died at Newbridge , was on the 11th day of June 1872 duly buried at Newbridge, in _________ presence. Witness our hands this 13th day of June, 1872. Peter Hutchinson Undertaker -
Tarnagulla History Archive
Deputy Registrar's Certificate For Undertaker and Certificate Of Burial, 1872
A large lot of papers, including this and many other birth, death and burial records, were apparently found in the ceiling cavity of the Sandy Creek/Tarnagulla Post and Telegraph Office in the later 20th Century, during building works. Donald Clark Collection. Transcript of document (partly printed, partly handwritten): Deputy Registrar's Certificate For Undertaker SCHEDULE [E.] I, P.K. Lucker, Deputy Registrar of Births, Deaths in the District of Tarnagulla do hereby certify that the death of James Cook was duly registered by me on this day. WITNESS my hand this 20th April 1872 PK Lucker, Deputy Registrar. Certificate Of Burial SCHEDULE [G.] I, Philip Masters of Tarnagulla, Undertaker do hereby certify that the body of James Cook who died at Tarnagulla , was on the 21st day of April 1872 duly buried at Tarnagulla Cemetery, in _________ presence. Witness our hands this 22nd day of April, 1872.
