Historical information

This letter book contains letters, plans and sketch maps dating from 1914 to 1917. 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 also engineers and worked in that capacity or as the Shire Secretary for the Shire of Warrnambool, with the Crawley family recording a total of 132 years of service to the Shire of Warrnambool. This Shire existed from 1863 to 1994. The letter book was passed on the John Crawley’s son, Rolf, engineer for the Shire of Warrnambool from 1935 to 1968. It then came into the possession of Michael Hand who took over the private surveying practice of Rolf Crawley in Warrnambool. The Warrnambool and District Historical Society has acquired the letter book, along with several other Crawley ledgers, from the Michael Hand estate.

Significance

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

Physical description

This is a brown hard cover letter book with leather binding on the edges of the cover and on the spine. The leather is worn away in several places. There is gold lettering on the spine. The book has 750 pages of handwritten letters, maps and plans. The inside cover is of a mottled blue colour. There is an alphabetical index at the beginning of the book.

Inscriptions & markings

‘6’
‘Letter Book 1914 to 1917’