Historical information

This letter book contains letters and maps and dates from 1912 to 1923. 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. Hs father, brother and son were also engineers and worked in that capacity or as the Shire Secretary in the Shire of Warrnambool, with the Crawley family recording a total of 132 years of service to the Shire. The Shire of Warrnambool existed from 1863 to 1994. The letter book was passed on to John Crawley’s son, Rolf who was the engineer for the Shire of Warrnambool from 1935 to 1968. It then passed into the possession of Michael Hand who took over the private surveying practice of Rolf Crawley in Warrnambool. The Warrnambool and District Historical Society acquired the letter book, along with several other Crawley ledgers, from the estate of Michael Hand.

Significance

This letter book is of considerable interest as it contains letters and maps drawn up by John William Crawley, a Shire of Warrnambool engineer for 40 years. It will be helpful to researchers.

Physical description

This is a black hard cover letter book with brown binding on the cover edges and the spine. Parts of the cover have been worn away. The spine once had gold lettering but this is mostly worn away. The book has 743 pages of handwritten letters and maps and an alphabetical index at the front. The pages are water stained.

Inscriptions & markings

‘Letter Book 1912, 1923’