Historical information

This letter book contains letters, sketch maps and plans and dates from 1929 to 1934. It came from the office of John William Crawley Junior, an engineer, surveyor, and architect 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, working 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. 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 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 estate of Michael Hand.

Significance

This letter book is of considerable importance as it contains letters and maps from the late 1920s and 1930s and was compiled by John Crawley Junior, an engineer in the Shire of Warrnambool for 40 years. It will be a useful research tool.

Physical description

This is a hard-cover letter book of 1005 pages. It contains an alphabetical index at the front, handwritten letters, sketch maps and plans and some loose sheets. It has brown leather binding on the corners of the cover and on the spine but the spine covering is completely detached. The gold lettering on the spine is now almost completely obliterated. The cover is scuffed and torn.

Inscriptions & markings

‘Private Book’
‘1929 to 1934’