Historical information

This letter book has maps, letters and plans dating from 1902 to 1905. It came from the office of John William Crawley, Junior, an engineer, architect and surveyor in private practice in Warrnambool and also the engineer for the Shire of Warrnambool from 1895 to 1935. His father, brother and son were all engineers and worked in that capacity or as Shire Secretary for the Shire of Warrnambool, with the Crawley family recording a total of 132 years of service to the Shire of Warrnambool. The Shire of Warrnambool existed from 1863 to 1994. This letter book was passed on to John Crawley’s son, Rolf, engineer for the Shire of Warrnambool from 1935 to 1968. The letter book then came into the possession of Michael Hand who took over the private surveying business of Rolf Crawley in Warrnambool. The Warrnambool and District Historical Society acquired the letter book, along with several other Crawley ledgers, from the Michael Hand estate.

Significance

This letter book is of considerable importance as it contains the letters, maps and plans produced by John William Crawley Junior, a Shire of Warrnambool engineer for 40 years. It will be useful to researchers.

Physical description

This is a black hard cover letter book of 505 pages, plus an alphabetical index at the back of the book. The letter book contains handwritten letters, sketch maps and plans. There is gold lettering on the spine.

Inscriptions & markings

‘1’
‘Invoice’
‘Chadwick Copying Book Co. Springfield Mass.’