A report from the Keeper of Public Records as required under section 21 (1) of the Public Records Act 1973 (Vic)
Public Record Office Victoria Annual Report 2021–22
Cover image: Box Hill Girls Technical School - Library Negatives of Photographs [Publications Branch].
99 Shiel Street North Melbourne VIC 3051
Published by Public Record Office Victoria
Public Record Office Victoria Annual Report 2021–22 September 2022 © Copyright State of Victoria through Public Record Office Victoria 2022
Except for any logos, emblems, and trademarks, this work (Public Record Office Victoria Annual Report 2021–22) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia license, to the extent that it is protected by Copyright. Authorship of this work must be attributed to Public Record Office Victoria. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/.
Tel (03) 9348 5600
Published on http://www.prov.vic.gov.au.
ISSN: 1320-8225
Public Record Office Victoria, VPRS 14517/P1, Unit 43, R277
Public Record Office Victoria Annual Report 2021–22
A report from the Keeper of Public Records as required under section 21 (1) of the Public Records Act 1973 (Vic)
Dear Minister
Danny Pearson
I am pleased to present a report on the carrying out of my functions under section 21(1) of the Public Records Act 1973 (Vic) for the year ending 30 June 2022.
Justine Heazlewood Director and Keeper of Public Records
Level 5, 1 Macarthur Street East Melbourne VIC 3002
Hon4
Minister for Government Services
Yours sincerely
5 Contents Vision and Purpose 7 Values 8 Message from the Director 9 Message from the Public Records Advisory Council President 10 Public Records Advisory Council 12 Overview 13 Organisational Structure 15 Contact 16 Highlights 18 Report on Performance 20 Strategic Initiatives 22 Improve Recordkeeping Practices Across the Public Sector 22 Increase Use of the Collection 23 Increase Community Engagement with Public Records 24 Build Our Profile 28 Identify and Preserve Records of State Significance 29 Strengthen Our Culture and Capability 30 Deliver, Embed and Leverage Our Systems 32 Output Measures 2021–22 34 Appendices 36 Appendix 1: Assets 36 Appendix 2: Financial Statement 36 Appendix 3: Workforce Data 37 Appendix 4: Standards and Advice 38 Appendix 5: Recordkeeping Standards Framework Documents Issued 2021–22 38 Appendix 6: Retention and Disposal Authority (RDA) Documents Issued or Varied 2021–22 38 Appendix 7: Approved Public Record Office Victoria Storage Suppliers (APROSS) 40 Appendix 8: Staff Achievements 40 Appendix 9: Victorian Community History Award Winners 42 Appendix 10: Local History Grant Recipients 43 Glossary 46
Box Hill Girls Technical School - Mechanical Drawing Negatives of Photographs [Publications Branch]. Public Record Office Victoria, VPRS 14517/P1, Unit 43, R284
• Utilisation: The records of Government are used by communities to connect to their history and culture.
Vision and Purpose
• Provide facilities for viewing, and make records in custody accessible
To support the effective management and use of the public records of the State of Victoria, to ensure that the Government is accountable to the community and that its historical memory is preserved, secure and accessible.
• Take public records into custody, preserve archives and provide security
Mission Statement
• Duplicate or reproduce and authenticate public records.
We will provide leadership to Government on the use and management of public records. We will ensure that the historical memory of the Victorian Government endures, is secure and accessible. We have identified three outcomes that represent the ongoing goals for the organisation:
• Classify records and publish indexes and guides to facilitate access
• Establish standards for the efficient management of public records, including creation, maintenance, security, selection of those worthy of preservation, transfer for archiving, and segregation or disposal of those not worthy of preservation
• Assist public officers to apply these standards to records under their control
• Management: The records of Government are managed to enable accountability, efficiency and innovation.
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Daily Operations
Public Record Office Victoria’s Vision Statement is ‘Public Records Publicly Available’. ‘Public Records Publicly Available’ expresses our vision that the records of Government be kept and protected so that all Victorians can have access to their history and important information about themselves.
Public Record Office Victoria (PROV) was established under section 3 of the Public Records Act 1973 (the Act), ‘for the better preservation, management and utilisation of the public records of the State’. The Act provides the legal framework within which PROV operates, and specifies the core functions of PROV and the Keeper of Public Records with respect to government records. These functions, pursuant to sections 7, 11 and 12 of the Act include:
• Preservation: The records of Government are preserved so that they are available and accessible for as long as they are required.
Purpose
Accountability
• We will account for all activities and results with honesty and transparency.
• We will treat all colleagues, clients, stakeholders and actions fairly, objectively and without bias.
• We will seek opportunities to enhance and improve our programs, processes and products.
• We will celebrate innovation, ideas and challenge, where it is positive and constructive.
• We will show courage in giving feedback, making requests and offering ideas.
• We will accept both personal and shared responsibility for all actions and ‘follow through’ to ensure agreed outcomes.
• We will facilitate the preservation and expression of the diversity of Victoria’s cultural heritage through our work.
• We will demonstrate and deliver best-practice recordkeeping across Government and our community.
• We will maintain the highest levels of quality and accuracy in our advice and service to our colleagues and clients.
Impartiality
• We will consider the security of our records and historical memory in our decisions.
• We will invite, encourage and value the views, contribution and capabilities of all colleagues.
• We will observe zero tolerance for harassment, bullying or discrimination.
• We will consider Human Rights in all our plans, decisions, advice and interactions and abide by all relevant legislation.
• We will show professional and personal respect, courtesy and positivity to all colleagues and clients.
• We will consult and engage through direct communication where possible.
Values
Responsiveness
Collaboration
• We will seek to engage and consult with internal and external stakeholders as ‘partners’ with shared objectives.
• We will consider the public good and the public purse in all activities and decisions.
Leadership
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• We will proactively promote and share our unique capability widely.
• We will seek opportunities to support and assist each other.
Human Rights
• We will be thoughtful and generous with praise and acknowledge a job well done.
• We will provide objective and impartial advice to all stakeholders.
• We will share knowledge, information and results willingly and openly.
The Public Administration Act 2004 (Vic) requires that public sector employees demonstrate public service values as outlined in the Code of Conduct for Victorian Public Sector Employees. Public Record Office Victoria actively implements, promotes and supports these values. PROV, as a public sector body, has developed the following set of values which are based on and consistent with the Code of Conduct:
Respect
• We will show leadership through demonstrating our values and unique behaviours at all times.
Integrity
The 2021–22 financial year was a significant one for staff who managed to complete major projects and programs of work that spanned years in the making, all while continuing to rise to the challenge of working through the COVID-19 pandemic. I want to congratulate all staff on their achievements, and volunteers for remaining engaged with our collection from home. I would also like to thank the Public Records Advisory Council (PRAC) members for their assistance and advice throughout the year.
Justinesystem.Heazlewood
Director and Keeper of Public Records
Achievements and acknowledgements
Recordkeeping standards
Our Corporate Plan concluded at the end of the 2021–22 financial year. The Corporate Plan provides strategic direction and articulates the objectives and initiatives outlined in this report. Our new strategy for the period 2022–26 reaffirms our vision: public records, publicly available and will form the basis for our next Annual Report.
With the new systems in place we were able to resume transfers with 169,593 digital and 121,646 physical items added to our collection throughout the year. We are looking forward to expanding our digital transfer program by developing creative and innovative solutions to capture and preserve records not previously possible, and position the PROV Digital Archive as a trusted digital repository for government information.
The completion of our Digital Archive Program of work and launch of our new systems was the biggest achievement for the 2021–22 financial year and will be explored further under the highlights section of this report.
Message from the Director
The 2021–22 financial year also saw the conclusion of our standards development project which included reducing the number of our standards from 8 to 6, specifications from 17 to 8 and mandatory requirements from 297 down to 75. Also as part of this process we merged the Recordkeeping Standards Framework and the VERS Standards Framework, and developed simpler and shorter document formats making all specifications and standards easier to navigate for record managers throughout the VPS.
The pages of this year’s Annual Report feature historic photographs from technical schools across Victoria. Technical school photographs will feature as part of an upcoming exhibition to celebrate the 150 year anniversary of public education in Victoria in 2022. These come from our collection of 18,000 Education Department Publication Branch photographs from circa 1950 to 1967. The series was transferred from the Education History Unit of the Department of Education and Training, and made available via our website in August 2021 with the completion of our Digital Archive Program and launch of our new online catalogue, ordering and copy request
Strategic planning
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Digital archive and transfers
I would like to thank all PRAC members as well as the Director and Keeper of Public Records, Justine Heazlewood, and PRAC secretary Rebecca Young for another successful year.
Again, COVID-19 and reduced on-site access to the Victorian Archives Centre meant the majority of meetings at the start of the reporting period were conducted online. The first in-person meeting of 2021–22, held in May at the Victorian Archives Centre, was especially welcome to Diane Gardiner AM who joined the Council this year, representing family history and genealogy. Diane has extensive knowledge of the records held at PROV and has used them extensively throughout her career. Diane previously worked at PROV as Manager, Community Access and then held the position of General Manager at the Old Treasury Building from 2010 through to 2015. She has also previously served as Chair of the board of the History Council of Victoria. Diane’s extensive experience in the museum and heritage sectors has given her Australia-wide experience and networks. She is regularly engaged to speak by cultural institutions and heritage societies as a prominent expert in the field.
Message10
President, Public Records Advisory Council
As President of PRAC, I was also pleased to be part of the virtual Victorian Community History Awards presentation of 2021, announcing category awards and introducing Catherine Andrews who presented the major prize, the Victorian Premier’s History Award. I again congratulate all shortlisted and winning historians on their fantastic contributions to the shared history of Victoria.
PresidentJudyMaddigan
from the Public Records Advisory Council
Throughout 2021–22, PRAC members continued to work closely with PROV and Department of Premier and Cabinet (DPC) to progress the review of the Public Records Act and submit a detailed proposal to the Minister on recommended changes to the Act. PROV and DPC are now working on a consensus brief that represents the views of all parties for the Minister to consider. Direction from the Minister will then inform next steps.
I was pleased to continue to serve as President of the Public Records Advisory Council (PRAC) for another year, alongside council members Rachel Cowling, David Brous, Belinda Ensor, Deidre Missingham, Prof. Keir Reeves, Bonnie Chew, Jodie Quilliam, Steve Stefanopoulos OAM and new member Diane Gardiner AM.
Box Hill Technical School - Drawing Room Negatives of Photographs [Publications Branch]. Public Record Office Victoria, VPRS 14517/P1, Unit 43, R269
Steve Stefanopoulos OAM, Local Government
(a) In consultation with the Keeper of Public Records, shall promote cooperation between Public Record Office Victoria and public offices.
The Council would like to thank the Director and Keeper of Public Records, Justine Heazlewood, and Council Secretary, Rebecca Young for their continued support throughout the year.
Bonnie Chew, Indigenous heritage
Section 4 (1A) of the Act requires that the Council consist of not more than ten members with knowledge and experience in such areas as public administration, local government, records management, business administration, historical research, Indigenous heritage and genealogical research. The current Council is comprised of:
Establishment and Functions
Council membership
(b) May report and make recommendations to the Minister on any matter relating to the administration of the Act.
Records Advisory Council
• 18 May 2022, Victorian Archives Centre
Deidre Missingham, Finance and business administration
Diane Gardiner AM, Family history and genealogy
David Brous, Public administration
• 20 October 2021, Video Conference
Rachel Cowling, Department of Premier and Cabinet representative
Judy Maddigan, President
• 20 July 2021, Victorian Archives Centre (out of session meeting to discuss the Public Records Act)
Council meetings
The Public Records Advisory Council was established under section 4 (1) of the Public Records Act 1973 (Vic). The functions of the Council, as specified in section 5 of the Act, require that it:
PROV provides support to the Council by preparing Council agenda papers, coordinating the scheduling of Council meetings, providing assistance with the appointment of new Council members, as well as providing assistance and administrative support for Council sub-committees.
Prof. Keir Reeves, Historical research (academic history)
Jodie Quilliam, Information management
Belinda Ensor, Historical research (public history)
Public12
• 23 March 2022, Video Conference
The Council met on seven occasions in 2021–22:
• 19 January 2022, Video Conference
• 18 August 2021, Video Conference
Rebecca Young, Secretary
Summary of Activities
PROV issues standards for records management and authorities for retention and disposal under section 12 of the Public Records Act 1973. A full list of current standards and authorities is provided on our website at www.prov.vic.gov.au/government and at our North Melbourne and Ballarat offices.
Regulations are made under section 23 of the Public Records Act 1973 and are known as the Public Records Regulations 2013. The Regulations prescribe fees for making and supplying copies of public records and set out conditions for the inspection of public records and use of facilities provided by PROV. All Regulations are available for inspection on our website www.prov.vic.gov.au/
Freedom of information
Freedom of Information Officer Public Record Office Victoria PO Box 2100 North Melbourne 3051
Public interest disclosure
The Public Interest Disclosure Act 2012 (Vic) encourages and facilitates making disclosures of improper conduct by public bodies or public sector employees, and protects persons who make those disclosures.
The Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Vic) gives members of the public a right to access documents held by Victorian Government agencies, including ForPROV.the 12 months ending 30 June 2021, PROV received no Freedom of Information applications. FOI requests for PROV agency documents should be addressed to:
ExecutiveOverview
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Act administered: Public Records Act 1973 (Vic)
The Department of Premier and Cabinet has portfolio responsibility for PROV. PROV is an administrative office under the Public Administration Act 2004
PROV’s operations are governed by the Public Records Act 1973, which defines the role of both the Keeper of Public Records and the organisation. The Act is available for inspection on the PROV website www.prov.vic.gov.au and at our North Melbourne and Ballarat offices.
Headed by Justine Heazlewood, Director and Keeper of Public Records, the executive team is located at 99 Shiel Street, North Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; phone (03) 9348 5600.
PROV is committed to the aims and objectives of the Act. PROV does not tolerate improper conduct by its staff or reprisals against those who come forward to disclose such conduct. The procedures for protecting people who make protected disclosures under the Public Interest Disclosure Act are available on our website authoritiesPublicabout-us/legislation-and-governancewww.prov.vic.gov.au/RecordOfficeVictoriastandardsand
Portfolioabout-usresponsibility
Regulations made and administered
• Issuing records in a manner that meets government needs and community expectations
• Communications and online engagement
Access14
The goal of Access Services is to ensure that our unique collection is widely known and accessible to the people and Government of Victoria. This is achieved through:
• Appraising government functions and their associated records to specify the records required as state archives and to authorise the disposal of records not required as archives
• Human resource management
• Describing permanent value records and transferring them to PROV in collaboration with agencies
• Information management
• A program of digitisation to improve access to our collection and services through our website
Corporate Services
• Delivering a program of recordkeeping awareness and recognition events
• Developing mandatory standards and specifications, associated advice and guidance products
• Engaging in committees and partnering with organisations on projects and initiatives designed to improve recordkeeping
• Investigating and reporting on recordkeeping in Victoria, including the challenges and issues.
• Budgeting, financial management and reporting
• Strategic planning and reporting
Corporate Services supports staff across PROV through the provision of the following services:
• A program of exhibitions, publications, educational resources and outreach activities.
• Transmitting information to clients about the collection
• Environmental planning and reporting
• Information communication technology
• Organisational development.
• The provision of public reading room services and online access to PROV’s collection and research tools
• Risk management
Government Services issues standards to regulate the management, disposal and preservation of public records and provides recordkeeping advice and services to all Victorian public sector agencies. We do this by;
Services
• Developing and providing advice, guidelines, case studies, online learning and tools to support good recordkeeping by agencies
• Preserving archives within their region of origin, ensuring equality of access for communities in regional Victoria
• Managing the PROV archival control model so that public records and their context are described within a systematic framework to ensure their original purpose and evidence of government administration is preserved
• Managing and promoting the Victorian Electronic Records Strategy (VERS) to support digital recordkeeping by agencies
Government Services
• Providing culturally appropriate services, procedures and tools that enhance access by the Koorie community
15 Organisational StructurePublicRecordsAdvisoryCouncilMinister for Government PublicCabinetPremierPremierDepartmentSecretaryServicesof&CabinetDeputySecretaryDepartmentof&CabinetCommunicationsandCorporateDirectorandKeeperofPublicRecordsRecordOfficeVictoria Corporate Services Finance & Risk OnlineCommunicationsFacilitiesManagement&EngagementTechnicalServicesPeople&Culture Access Services Digital Projects Collection Services Community Engagement Government Services Standards & Policy Government Recordkeeping
Joan Hunt Reading Room at the Eureka Centre 102 Stawell Street South Ballarat Central VIC 3350
Phone: (03) 9348 5678
Corporate Services
Assistant Director: Lara Pasquale
As at 30 June 2022, PROV operated two public reading rooms and had 51.1 staff members (FTE).
Assistant Director: David Taylor
Email: david.taylor@prov.vic.gov.au
Phone: (03) 5333 0306
Email: julie.mccormack@prov.vic.gov.au
Acting Assistant Director: Alison McNulty
Phone: (03) 9348 5711
Email: alison.mcnulty@prov.vic.gov.au
Assistant Director: Nicole Tighe
Follow us on Facebook @PublicRecordOfficeVictoria Twitter @PRO_Vic Instagram @vic_archives
Public enquiries: enquiries@prov.vic.gov.au
Victorian Archives Centre
Phone: (03) 9348 5681
Email: Contactnicole.tighe@prov.vic.gov.au
Phone: (03) 9348 5600
Phone: (03) 9348 5630
Harry Nunn Reading Room 99 Shiel Street North Melbourne VIC 3051
Public Reading Rooms
Email: enquiries@prov.vic.gov.au Website: prov.vic.gov.au
Agency enquiries: agency.queries@prov.vic.gov.au
Phone: (03) 9348 5725
People & Culture
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Public enquiries: enquiries@prov.vic.gov.au
Ballarat Archives Centre
Access Services
Acting Assistant Director: Julie McCormack
Government Services
Email: lara.pasquale@prov.vic.gov.au
Box Hill Technical School - Electrical Class Negatives of Photographs [Publications Branch]. Public Record Office Victoria, VPRS 14517/P1, Unit 43, R270
These new systems now allow us to advance our digital transfer program by developing creative and innovative solutions to capture and preserve records not previously possible, and position the PROV Digital Archive as a trusted digital repository for government information. Not only does our new Digital Archive enhance our digital preservation capability, it aligns our preservation goals with the digital strategy of the Victorian Government; supporting the digital workplace, service delivery, data sharing, release and access to government information by citizens.
• Enhanced record ordering features and services for public users of North Melbourne and Bendigo records, with services for Ballarat to be rolled out in the next financial year.
• A new archival management system to support the new archival control model
the Digital Archive Program began in 2015 beginning with a review of our archival control and preservation model to enhance our records description practice. This was the first major rethink in a generation, with the aim to have our conceptual approach supported by technology, rather than the other way around, so our description, preservation and access requirements would be central to the new system design. As a result of this ground work, we can describe records and their context, regardless of medium, within the same conceptual framework making them accessible via full integrated preservation systems.
In August 2021 we completed our Digital Archive Program of work, replacing our entire archival management and digital preservation environment that had been in place since 2005. Our archival management and online systems are integral to providing ongoing preservation and access to the 600,000 digital record objects and around 100kms of hardcopy records we hold in our collection.
This program represents a key initiative of the Victorian Electronic Records Strategy (VERS) to ensure continuous access to complete, authentic and meaningful digital records now and into the
• An updated online catalogue
• The ability to transfer larger digital file sizes and a broader range of file formats including our next generation VERS 3 VEOs
DigitalHighlights18ArchiveProgram
• A new secondary asset management system for faster access to digitised records
This has resulted in:
• New digital content with more than 25,000 new digital images released with the launch in August 2021.
• A new warehouse management system for our physical collection
• Faster access to digital content via the online catalogue
Recordkeeping standards redevelopment project
From there we undertook a complete redevelopment of all of our archival management, storage and access systems. In particular we built and implemented:
Under the Public Records Act 1973, the Keeper of Public Records is responsible for issuing mandatory standards for Victorian public offices. A complete set of standards and specifications was developed by PROV with the input of many public office records management professionals between 2009–11, in addition to the Victorian Electronic Record Strategy (VERS) Standard Framework which was already in place. The recordkeeping standards and specifications were periodically reviewed over the years but few changes were made. The VERS standard and specifications underwent major redevelopment in 2015.
Finally we are hopeful our Digital Archive will benefit all Victorians; allowing individuals and communities to research, reconnect, and preserve identity and memory and to facilitate recovery, redress, and reconciliation.
• Faster ingest times for agency digital record transfers, increasing ingest from hundreds of records per day to several thousand
• Enhanced descriptions of records in the PROV catalogue, facilitating searching and identifying records of interest via the online catalogue
• A new Digital Archive infrastructure capable of preserving and supporting access to modern digital records
Workfuture.on
A project to completely redevelop the standards and specifications was undertaken and concluded in 2021–22 with the issue of the new Disposal Standard. This work was assisted by Stakeholder Advisory Groups, consisting of records management professionals from across Government. In addition, input was given on different aspects by targeted stakeholders and drafts were published and disseminated to enable all those interested to give Outcomesfeedback.
PROV.KateFollington
of the redevelopment have included the merging of the Recordkeeping Standards Framework and the VERS Standards Framework, the development of simpler and shorter document formats and requirements which can be applied to all systems and storage environments. Through this process the number of standards has been reduced from 8 to 6, specifications from 17 to 8 and mandatory requirements from 297 to 75. A rigorous review program will be implemented from 2022–23 to ensure the standards and specifications remain current.
In March 2022 we launched our Look history in the eye podcast series with a set of six initial episodes over five weeks telling stories from Melbourne’s past. Episodes were hosted by the PROV communications team of Kate Follington, Natasha Cantwell and Tara Oldfield, with guests including historians Barbara Minchinton, Derham Groves, Seamus O’Hanlon and Katie Wood, food writer Michael Harden, restaurateur Tiberio Donnini, economist John Nieuwenhuysen, archaeologists Adam Ford and Geoff Hewitt, and crime writer Susanna Lobez.
introduced a method we now know as one of humanity’s most brutal forms of punishment.
• Pioneer girls and flappers, the final episode of 2021–22, was a live recording of our International Women’s Day event about the women who worked in the Footscray munitions factory before and during World War I.
Major findings from a survey of public offices in 2016 were that, while the standards were comprehensive and useful, having to comply with two frameworks was difficult, there were too many documents and requirements, and they were not easily applicable to the wide range of systems and storage environments where digital records are held.
• They called her Madame B is the third episode of the podcast. Little was known of famous 19th Century Melbourne business woman Madame Brussels, that is until Barbara Minchinton researched her family tree.
• Deadtown to musictown explores the story behind how food and music culture became the lifeblood of the City. Some claim it’s all thanks to a person called John.
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• Monuments for the masses, episode two of the series, explores the reasons why Melbourne was desperate for a landmark in the 1970s and where it all went wrong.
• The silent prison, episode one of the podcast, is about the convergence of ideology and design. Pentridge Prison, in Melbourne, and its on-site panopticons, were the physical manifestation of criminal reform ideas in the 1800s. Radical concepts of that time were designed into the architectural vision for the prison and
Look history in the eye podcast launch
• Pentridge prison escape, episode five, is about the 1955 escape of five prisoners. Yet this was not the first escape from Pentridge and it would not be the last.
recording the Look history in the eye podcast.
The podcast had a total of 3,446 listens between March and June 2022 bringing stories of the archives to a wider audience in a new format for
Corporate Plan 2017–18 to 2020–21
• Strengthen our culture and capability: Our programs over the next four years will ensure that our staff are equipped and supported to work in our changing technology environment. We will strive to be a leader in diversity and inclusion and develop an employee value proposition.
• Build our profile: Our reputation as an inspiring, accessible and educational agency will be further increased with targeted communication campaigns to highlight the importance of government recordkeeping to the state and to the public, and our important service to the public and community, online and offline.
Initiatives
• Deliver, embed and leverage our systems: We will complete the development and implementation of a new digital archive that is capable of supporting our electronic recordkeeping standard, and deliver additional business solutions to improve the efficiency and delivery of our service to government and the Detailedpublic.information about our activities under each of these initiatives can be found in the next section of the report.
Report20 on Performance
• Improve recordkeeping practices across the public sector: We will continue to support effective recordkeeping in agencies by creating and mandating standards, promoting their implementation, and surveying and reporting on agency adherence and practice.
PROV’s Corporate Plan provides the strategic direction for the period 2017–18 to 2020–21, and was extended through to the 2021–22 financial year. The Plan articulates the mission, primary strategic objectives and values of PROV; describes our current and emerging operating environment; and details our three overarching outcomes and strategic initiatives. It also details the guiding principles that we use when implementing these initiatives.
• Identify and preserve records of state significance: We will work with agencies to identify records of significance, determine how long records should be kept to meet the government’s needs, support organisational accountability and meet community expectations.
• Increase use of the collection: We will continue to make our collection more accessible and ensure the needs of different communities accessing the collection are met.
• Increase community engagement with public records: By supporting communities and engaging in community interaction, we will increase usage of the PROV collection and encourage good community collection management practices.
Box Hill Girls Technical School - Library Negatives of Photographs [Publications Branch]. Public Record Office Victoria, VPRS 14517/P1, Unit 43, R278
To ensure the records arising from VAD are retained to support trust in government decision making whilst protecting the privacy of individuals, PROV and the Department of Health appraised the records in consultation with stakeholders to authorise their disposal. Our appraisal recommendations were endorsed by the Public Records Advisory Council and the resulting RDAs approved by the Keeper of Public Records.
appraisal and consultation with both the agency partners of Service Victoria and many external stakeholders a new RDA was issued to cover the records generated by the identity verification and customer service functions.
Records Management Network
Victoria was the first state in Australia to pass voluntary assisted dying (VAD) laws. The Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2017 provides a legal framework for Victorians who are at the end of life and meet strict eligibility criteria to request access to voluntary assisted dying. The Act came into effect in Victoria on 19 June 2019.
During 2020–21 PROV undertook a series of projects to appraise and authorise disposal of records across a diverse range of government functions. This year we issued new disposal authorities for the Office of Chief Parliamentary Counsel, Service Victoria, Energy Safety, the Legal Aid Commission, Small Owner Operators (exempt sex workers) and the Electricity Generation function. Highlights included the appraisal of records associated with two new and emerging areas for government, the oversight of voluntary assisted dying and records generated by the unique functions of Service Victoria.
We also worked with Service Victoria to appraise and authorise the disposal of records generated through Service Victoria’s unique functions, as determined by the Service Victoria Act 2018 Our work brought together many government transactions in one place, making it simpler, easier and faster for Victorians to interact with government. This project was of particular interest due to Service Victoria’s role in the provision of digital infrastructure to support contact tracing during the COVID-19 pandemic. After extensive
PROV is responsible for the establishment of standards for the management of public records under Section 12 of the Public Records Act 1973. This includes the issuing of retention and disposal authorities (RDAs) to authorise the disposal of public records.
Improve Recordkeeping Practices Across the Public Sector
Strategic22
Initiatives
Standards, specifications and policies
Under the Public Records Act 1973, the Keeper of Public Records is responsible for issuing mandatory standards for Victorian public offices. Specifications detailing technical requirements and policies clarifying PROV’s position on complex issues are also issued.
The Records Management Network (RMN) provides a forum for knowledge exchange and discussion of issues affecting records management within the VPS. We held two RMN events in 2021–22 online via TheZoom.event held in November 2021 was focused on providing attendees with an update on PROV activities that would impact or assist records managers across the Victorian Government. Topics included an overview of the new Digital Archive and details on the relaunch of our transfer program, an update on the review of PROV standards and specifications, information about our recordkeeping assessment tool and Places of Deposit program, and a summary of Microsoft Office 365 functional specifications for recordkeeping. 151 people tuned in for the event with an additional 197 watching it online afterwards.
Appraisal program
The May 2022 RMN was headlined by Digital Victoria staff who provided an update on the Victorian Government Digital Strategy and the challenges for recordkeeping. Other presenters from Victoria University, the Environmental Protection Agency and Fire Rescue Victoria shared their experiences of digital strategy and records and information management. 170 people participated with an additional 57 watching online in June.
In 2021–22, PROV revised and issued the Disposal Standard, the Specification for Places Appointed to Store and Manage State Archives and the Class B Places of Deposit Requirements Specification The Disposal Standard sets the principles and requirements that Victorian public offices must meet when disposing of digital or physical records. The specifications set requirements for places
This year has highlighted the strengths and resilience of our volunteer cohort as we were unable to offer on-site activities due to the pandemic. We continued to develop our relationships via Zoom, even celebrating the retirement of a volunteer after 33 years of service at PROV which is an incredible achievement! We also said goodbye to Meg Jenkins who has been the Volunteer Team Leader for the past four years.
Led by PROV, the Council of Australasian Archives and Records Authorities’ Digital Recordkeeping Initiative Group (ADRI) released a paper entitled Functional Requirements for Information in M365 in October 2021. The paper provides the high-level records management principles and requirements to assist government agencies in implementing Microsoft Office 365 (M365).
Functional Requirements for Information in M365
PROV’s first remote volunteer project has been the transcription of a single volume of correspondence and reports from the station manager at Coranderrk between 1898 and 1924. This project is a collaboration with the Research Unit at Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation, and will help to increase accessibility of this record for researchers and First Peoples in particular. In addition, volunteers helped PROV rectify maps and plans from our historical collection using the Map Warper tool.
More information, additional resources, and a copy of the ADRI paper can be found on our website.
Increase Use of the Collection
Recordkeeping capability can vary depending on the software service used, type of license held and any third part integration, such as an electronic document and records management system or enterprise content management system. Effective records management can be achieved by working across M365 services and (where necessary) through integration with other systems to build records management functionality and associated Forprocesses.Victorian
Now in its fourth year, the University Outreach Program continues to offer course-specific presentations to tertiary students across Victoria, helping them with the fundamentals of archival research. Due to the pandemic, all presentations were held online in 2021–22 and our focus was on PROV’s website and digitised collections which could be easily accessed by students working from home.
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The future of the program is new and exciting and this year we took this opportunity to test an online model of volunteering. We hope to develop new ways for volunteers to contribute remotely as well as on site into the future.
Government agencies, M365 must be implemented and managed in compliance with all PROV standards. Requirements include those for system maintenance, storage of digital content, migration, metadata, format, minimum required retention periods, and governance.
We also began the next step in our program, which is producing video content tailored to specific research areas. These short online videos provide the basics to students, allowing our University Outreach team to spend their time delivering presentations that are more in-depth and specific to the students’ coursework. In 2021–22 we created an overview video, an introduction to crime research and an introduction to researching land and property. The videos are available to everyone via the Deep Dive Subject Research section on our YouTube channel. They have been viewed a total
The Keeper of Public Records also issued the Value and Risk Policy, setting out PROV’s position on how public offices should take a value and risk-based approach to implementing the requirements in the recordkeeping standards, and the Approvals Processes Policy, setting out PROV’s position on how public offices should ensure approvals for decisions and actions are properly captured. The Standards Documentation Framework was also revised in 2021–22.
appointed by the Minister for Government Services to hold particular categories of records.
University outreach
PROV volunteers
Ideally, records management controls should be included during the planning and configuration stage, as the ability to adjust configuration settings may be limited post implementation.
Out of this world at the Victorian Archives Centre.
Increase Community Engagement with Public ExhibitionsRecords
Our photographic collections are increasingly appearing on displays in the local communities in which they were taken, bringing history home. The Arden Street construction site in North Melbourne, just a short walk from the Victorian Archives Centre, became a temporary home to a historical display in March 2022. Entitled True north, the colourful hoardings were created by the Metro Tunnel Creative Program, North and North West Melbourne Association and the Hotham
programming exploring Australia’s role in the space race. The next exhibition planned for the Victorian Archives Centre Gallery is a technical schools exhibit coming later in 2022 as part of the 150 anniversary of public education celebrations.
Local activations
of 1,061 times and have generated positive feedback from both the academic sector, as well as general researchers.
Throughout 2021, our In the Shadows photography exhibition curated in 2019 remained on display in the Victorian Archives Centre Gallery to allow visitors who missed out on seeing it during the pandemic time to explore the photographs depicting shadows of the past. In April 2022, the National Archives of Australia (NAA) moved their traveling exhibition in. Entitled Out of this world, the exhibition displays the cutting edge scientific research, architecture, design, and even television
The launch of our new website and copy request system in August 2021 has seen a significant rise in the number of copy requests from the public. Our team has been working to bed down our new systems and processes and train additional internal staff to help out with the increased workload.
Digitising program
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A big advantage of the new systems is that any copy request can be published to the website, meaning both the requesting researcher and others can access the newly digitised record. This is in line with the principle of using digitisation to minimise handling of the original record. Alongside these new mechanisms, we conducted a public survey in late 2022 on public attitudes to the publication of wills, probate and inquest records; files that may contain recent personal or graphic information. We are using the results of that consultation to inform our digitised record publication policy and processes. More information about this survey and its results can be found under the Deliver, Embed and Leverage our Systems section of this report.
Although most of our time was spent providing copies of records through the copy service, we continue to publish internally digitised records as we can. Examples include patient records from former state-run asylums and the very start of publication of digitised wills (VPRS 7591) for the period 1926–1950. We also published records digitised by the Education Department as part of their project to commemorate and reflect on 150 years of public education in Victoria.
PROV-partnered exhibitions at Old Treasury Building in 2021–2022 included the Lost jobs and Protest Melbourne exhibitions. Have you ever heard of a ‘nightman’, ‘scoop boy’, ‘fairy tapper’, a telegrapher, ‘dolly boy’ or a lumper? These were all jobs that were once common, but have disappeared completely. The world of work is always changing. The Lost jobs exhibition about the lost jobs of Melbourne features records from the state archival collection including Town Clerk’s Files, Ward Registers, and the Duty Diary of Assistant Inspector of Nuisances, to name a few. The Protest Melbourne exhibition traces the history of protests in Melbourne starting as far back as the 1840s and includes protest posters, and petitions from PROV’s collection. These exhibitions were visited by approximately 9,275 people.
• Dr Adrian Jones OAM, Associate Professor of History, La Trobe University
man executed in the new colony of Victoria, after separation from New South Wales. Mary’s story graphically reveals the intergenerational impact and legacy of family and gendered violence in Australia’s history.
Provenance is PROV’s free online journal, published annually at prov.vic.gov.au
25 History Project Team and feature a timeline of the area. PROV provided photographs of local historical relevance from our collection including the prison register of Elsie Williams who lived in the old Dudley RailwayFlats.negatives
Provenance
• Dr David ‘Fred’ Cahir, Associate Professor of Aboriginal History, Federation University Australia
from our collection were also featured as part of the Glen Eira City Council’s Lighting the past series of nostalgic projections across sites in Carnegie, Elsternwick and Bentleigh in May 2022.
Lastly, PROVs senior collection advisor, Charlie Farrugia, provides an archival perspective and context for the creation and use of the historic ‘parish and township plans’ now held at PROV, a popular yet relatively poorly understood part of the collection. The article demonstrates how the information and knowledge provided by archivists can play an significant role in how records are used and understood by researchers.
• Tsari Anderson, Editor, Provenance; Coordinator, Koorie Records Unit, Public Record Office Victoria
• Dr Seamus O’Hanlon, Associate Professor of History, Monash University
• Dr Sebastian Gurciullo, Assistant Editor, Provenance; Community Archives Officer, Public Record Office Victoria
Provenance issue 19, 2021 includes three peerreviewed articles and four forum articles based on research drawing on records in the state archives’ Inholdings.‘Policing gender nonconformity in Victoria, 1900–1940’ Adrien McCrory makes an important contribution to the understudied history of trans and gender diverse people and their experiences with the criminal justice system, providing context for our own understanding of the issues facing some members of the trans and gender diverse community today. Catherine Gay’s article ‘Matters of life and death: girls’ voices in nineteenth-century coronial inquest files’ demonstrates the value inquest proceedings can have to reveal the often hidden experiences of girls at a time when many children did not survive to adulthood. Christina Twomey’s forum article ‘Nasty talk’ examines the brutal assault and killing of Mary Kennedy by her husband in 1851: Patrick Kennedy was the first
The Arden Street ‘True North’ display featuring PROV records.
Rebecca Le Get’s article ‘Therapeutic labour and the sanatorium farm at Greenvale (1912–1918)’ describes what was probably the first tuberculosis facility of its kind to operate in Australia, with farm labour undertaken at an unprecedented scale both as a form of patient therapy but also to support the financial viability of the institution. David Radcliffe discusses the work of building firm Ross, Fraser and Patience and its contribution to the often overlooked role of contracting companies in the construction of Victoria’s infrastructure during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In ‘Affect and the archive’ Amanda Lourie reflects on the emotional impact of the physicality and content of the historical records she works with as a nonAboriginal historian of Indigenous-settler relations.
• Mike Jones, Deputy Director Research Centre for Deep History, Australian National University
We acknowledge the anonymous peer reviewers, our copyeditor Rani Kerin, as well as the editorial board which supports the production of Provenance each year:
• Dr Judith Smart, Adjunct Professor, RMIT University; Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne
Since launching the PROV Map Warper service in 2019 the public, staff and volunteers have rectified (or geoplaced) 7,373 maps out of 12,091. Importantly 2,938 maps from the nationally significant VPRS 8168 Historic Plan Collection have been rectified. In addition to the rectification service, in 2021–22 we developed an annotation service that allows anyone to annotate maps with historical details such as building types, flora, building construction materials. Users can then perform searches across these annotations, making finding historic maps for specific areas of research much easier. Map Warper has proven so popular a service that we can now boast 1,150 registered users all working hard to geoplace and annotate thousands of maps and parish plans. This all constitutes our first foray into crowdsourcing the processing of records.
The Koorie Records Unit (KRU) promotes awareness of Victorian Government records about Aboriginal Victorians within the PROV collection, and aims to improve accessibility of these records to First Peoples in appropriate and culturally respectful Theways.KRU
Koorie Records Unit
Map Warper
Throughout the year we provided advice and assistance to support a broad range of requests from individuals, organisations and service providers relating to family and community history research, with eligible clients receiving free copies of relevant records. Operating remotely for most of the year due to the impact of the pandemic, we adapted our joint Koorie Reference Service with the National Archives of Australia so as to be able to continue to assist people to access our Aboriginal name indexes and to locate information about themselves and their family members within the PROV and National Archives collections. We continued to provide mostly online workshops, talks and information for First Peoples organisations, community groups and support services, as well as university and archives
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provides dedicated services and support for First Peoples, in particular the Stolen Generations and their families, wishing to access historic Victorian government records relating to themselves. This includes a Koorie Reference Service in collaboration with the National Archives of Australia’s Victorian office, as Victorian Aboriginal Affairs records are held in both collections.
we were able to commence an exciting online transcription project with skilled volunteers to enhance the accessibility of a volume of correspondence relating to Coranderrk The(1898–1924).KRUalso provided support, advice and input into the following external programs and initiatives during the year: the Yoorrook Justice Commission, the Yoorrook Justice Commission Whole-OfVictorian Government Working Group, the Victorian Stolen Generations Reparations Package, the First Peoples Assembly of Victoria, and the Council of Australasian Archives and Records Authorities (CAARA) First Nations Special Interest Group.
Grants and awards
• Dr Rachel Standfield, Lecturer, Indigenous Studies, The University of Melbourne
Successful grant applicants were announced in August 2021 with 52 projects receiving a share of $350,000 to preserve, record and share Victoria’s local history. Recipients included Melbourne’s Museum of Chinese Australian History, who received funding for a podcast on Chinese Australian family stories. Chinese Australian Whispers will explore the historical lives of families
• Katherine Sheedy, Professional Historians Association (Vic) Inc.
We particularly acknowledge outgoing board member, Dr Dianne Reilly AM, for her significant and valuable contribution to Provenance since 2009. We thank her for her support of the journal’s aims to foster access to PROV’s archival holdings and broaden its relevance to the wider Victorian community.
We run grants and awards programs each year to provide funding and recognition for those who preserve and share local history and heritage for all Victorians. Both the Local History Grants Program and Victorian Community History Awards are supported by the Victorian Government through the Community Support Fund.
Althoughaudiences.volunteer input into the Koorie Index of Names was suspended due to the pandemic,
The rich history of Victoria’s Muslim community will be explored through a project by the Forum on Australia’s Islamic Relations. They will create video stories highlighting the challenges faced by Turkish migrants in Shepparton, Mildura and Melbourne from 1968–1974. The Palais Arts Fund received support to capture oral histories that tell stories of events at Geelong’s Palais, set against the backdrop of the city’s evolution into a multicultural city. Other successful projects will help Victoria’s history reach everyone in the community through interactive online exhibitions, podcasts, e-books, history apps and oral histories.
The Victorian Community History Awards are presented by PROV and the Royal Historical Society of Victoria, to recognise the work of individuals and organisations that preserve and share Victoria’s Seehistory.the Appendix for the full list of award categories and winners.
PROV’s Places of Deposit (POD) program encompasses regional archives which manage and provide access to public records in their local community. In particular, we have a close relationship with the Bendigo Regional Archives Centre (BRAC) run in partnership with the City of Greater Bendigo and the Goldfields Library AfterCorporation.theNorth
27 with Chinese background in Victoria and reflect on recent family experiences across the state.
In October 2021 the Victorian Community History Awards were presented online and viewed by 507 people across both PROV and Royal Historical Society channels. A documentary shining a light on the first Aboriginal filmmaker won the top prize. Tiriki Onus, Alec Morgan and Tom Zubrycki received the prestigious Victorian Premier’s History Award for their documentary Ablaze, which tells the story of Indigenous cultural leader and Aboriginal filmmaker William (Bill) Onus. Described by judges as “history at its best”, the feature length
See the Appendix for the full list of recipients.
Places of Deposit Program and the Bendigo Regional Archives Centre
This year has also seen BRAC’s Nolan street repository reappointed as a Class A POD. A new Storage Standard (PROS 20/02 S2) sets the requirements which must be met to obtain and retain appointment as a Class A Place of Deposit. Council and library staff have worked to ensure their repository meets the requirements to hold permanent public records in line with the new AnotherStandard.highlight
Melbourne roll-out in August, the new search and online ordering system was also implemented for Bendigo record ordering in May 2022 allowing a more streamlined way for BRAC users to order and manage record requests.
for BRAC has been an increased focus on audience engagement as well as public access through a range of highly successful events and workshops. Events ranged from exploring the bitter and the sweet of the world of regional chocolate and confectionery to how Bendigo managed the unavoidable problem of nightsoil removal. Throughout 2021–22 approximately 260
Bill Onus as featured in the Victorian Premier’s Award winning documentary Ablaze
Paul Paffen and Richard Broinowski were also recognised at the Awards, sharing the Judges’ Special Prize for their respective books For the Fallen and Under the Rainbow. Other winning entries included a history of LGBTQI+ in Victoria, an oral history on Gippsland Lakes Fishermen and a documentary theatre production on prominent Goldfields businesswoman Fanny Finch.
documentary traces the origins of 1940s footage found within the National Film and Sound Archive.
people attended these fascinating events with 1,368 people now engaged on Facebook and 721 signed up to BRAC’s newsletter.
Social media
Our Places of Deposit program now sees 102 organisations accredited as Class B PODs including newly appointed groups Rushworth Museum, Ambulance Historical Society Inc Victoria and Port Albert Maritime Museum. This network of PODs now services the majority of Victoria, preserving and promoting public records in their communities.
Events and partnerships
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The PROV website, built on a Drupal CMS, was significantly enhanced this year when the collections catalogue was merged with the rest of the site (thousands of record, series and agency entity pages) as part of the Digital Archive program of work. The former catalogue was retired and now each record entity landing page is published with a unique URL, enabling us to measure collections usage in greater detail.
In 2021–22 we grew our online community from 27,365 in June 2021 to 28,888 in June 2022 across Facebook, multiple Twitter channels, Instagram, Linked In and YouTube. Content across our two main Facebook and Twitter channels resulted in more than 70,245 engagements (comments, shares and likes). We focused specific attention on developing our use of YouTube and Instagram in 2021–22 as a means to visually present our collection to new researchers via tutorials and archival snapshot “Reels”. As a result, our YouTube page has increased
The website team is now focused on improving known navigation issues. A new homepage redesign aims to improve navigation to our subject search guides, and place PROV services directly on the homepage instead of hidden within the master menu.
Build our MainstreamProfilemedia
PROV’s programs, events and records from our collection appeared in the media approximately 238 times throughout 2021–22, with coverage ranging from online to radio, television, print and podcasting. Highlights included: approximately 65 pieces of media coverage for the Victorian Community History Awards and more than 30 about our Local History Grants program across local newspapers, history blogs and e-newsletters; 10 items about the launch of our new online systems within history and stakeholder publications; features in Traces Magazine, Herald Sun In Black and White and The Age’s Places that Inspire, as well as coverage for our Section 9 record openings across ABC online channels. Recordkeeping updates were regularly provided to RIMPA iQ, PS News and other industry newsletters. Our records were also used and discussed in the new Casefile podcast Searching for Sarah, and in Archive Fever Media mentions such as these highlight the significance of our collection and place records in front of wider audiences, generating awareness among people who may otherwise not know about PROV and what we do.
from approximately 600 to 784 followers in the last year with videos loaded in 2021–22 watched a total of 7,176 times. Instagram has seen followers increase from 1,900 to 2,850.
Website
The most popular sections of the site included wills and probates, passenger records, and online collections pages. In addition, our online blog is a section of the website where latest news and stories from the archives are told. The most popular blog posts of the year included Section 9 news, education photos blog and website news.
The COVID-19 pandemic saw a continued need for virtual events throughout 2021–22, with PROV delivering a diverse range of online programming. Highlights included a new online tour for Open House Melbourne in partnership with the Victorian branch of the National Archives of Australia. The video tour took viewers behind the scenes of the
We saw significant uptake of our digitisation services following the new automatic digitisation request and pay capabilities (as described in the digitisation section of this report), and thumbnails added to the catalogue results pages have made it easier for users to distinguish already digitised records. The publication of thousands of photographs was a particular milestone this year, particularly the Melbourne Harbour Trust collection and the Education Publications Branch collection which offer history lovers a century of Melbourne streetscapes from 1880 until 1980. Overall visitation this year was 992,675.
Identify and Preserve Records of State
talks have many advantages, in particular enabling us to reach audiences who have previously been unable to attend events at our North Melbourne site, it has also been exciting to welcome guests back to the Victorian Archives Centre in 2022. For our first public talk at the Victorian Archives Centre since 2019, we presented Charles Troedel Archive: When the past meets the present by Amanda Scardamaglia, who’s book Printed on stone: The lithographs of Charles Troedel, won the Victorian Premier’s History Award in 2020. Amanda’s talk, attended by 60 people, explored nineteenth century Melbourne through the lens of advertising and was complemented by an exhibition of rare artefacts, kindly loaned to PROV by the Troedel Family. This talk was part of Melbourne Design Week, which PROV has been proud to be involved with since 2018.
We were also pleased to welcome author Hazel Edwards’ writing class back to the Victorian Archives Centre in June 2022 after two years
International Women’s Day was celebrated by another live online talk, this time by Katie Wood from La Trobe University and Peter Haffenden from Melbourne’s Living Museum of the West. Their talk Pioneer girls and flappers looked at the young women who found employment at Footscray’s Colonial Ammunition Company from the 1890s through to World War II. Katie and Peter explored the transformational and often surprising ways in which these women and their work broke through the bias. Both our Melbourne Writers Festival and International Women’s Day talks generated a fantastic response from the combined live audience of 389 people, who inundated our speakers with many insightful and interesting questions. Recordings of both events were later added to our YouTube channel and went on to be viewed 249
Ingest to the new PROV digital archive commenced late 2021, providing increased ingest capacity and greater flexibility in the types of records that can be preserved, and the ability to preserve more complex records.
Amanda’s Scardamaglia presented Printed on stone at the Victorian Archives Centre Design Week event.
Whiletimes.online
learning online. The partnership with Hazel sees new writers introduced to our collection each year, as they work on their non-fiction books and family Inhistories.addition to our online and Victorian Archives Centre events we were pleased to partner with the National Archives of Australia to present a regional seminar as part of the Ballarat Heritage Festival in May 2022. Researching places: Finding Ballarat history and heritage in the archives was a half day of talks at the Eureka Centre, providing approximately 35 attendees with advice on how to research historic homes and navigate both collections.
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Victorian Archives Centre and showcased records in our collections with a focus on the theme of For‘reconnection.’Melbourne Writers Festival we held a live online talk by popular author Gideon Haigh. The literature of inquests saw Gideon dig deep into PROV’s inquest collection to present a collection of stories that showed that truth is often more fascinating than fiction, and that we can gain much insight into the lives of people of the past, by examining the circumstances of their deaths.
DigitalSignificancerecords transfers
from Land Use Victoria. These plans date from 1963 to 1984 and add to subdivision plans dating from 1863 already in PROV custody. PROV has also been working closely with Land Use Victoria to prepare for the transfer of historic records relating to ‘General Law land’ - land alienated by the Crown prior to the operation of the Transfer of Land Act in 1862 and the commencement of the Torrens title system. Records include memorial books and Crown grants dating from 1838 and are forecast to be transferred in the 2022–23 financial year.
• Utilisation: Government records are used by communities to connect to their history and culture and by government for the public good
Physical record transfers
Other transfers of note included the transfer of 2017 and 2018 probate records from the Supreme Court. These transfers consisted of over 43,000 probate files, adding to our extensive existing collection of probate records. Records of the Queen Victoria Medical Centre were also transferred this year from Monash Health. These records included correspondence, minutes, annual reports, newsletters and staff registers dating from 1896.
The accessioning of physical records into the PROV collection recommenced from December 2021 utilising our new archival management and warehouse management systems. The availability of the new systems enabled transfers to be finalised and many new transfer projects to
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Work continued on the transfer of certified plans of subdivision, consolidation, strata and cluster plans
A large scale project has commenced to document and transfer historic mine and survey records of Geological Survey Victoria (GSV) currently stored at the GSV Drill Core Library at Werribee. This work has been commissioned by the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions and will occur over the course of 2022–23.
Thecommence.transfer
In total, 169,593 digital records were transferred and ingested into the PROV digital archive in 2021–22.
The permanent records of the Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants (RCMPI), Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System (RCMH) and Royal Commission into the Casino Operator and Licence (RCCOL) have now been transferred to PROV from the Department of Premier and Cabinet in accordance with the Inquiries Act 2014. Records of the Inquiry into Hotel Quarantine are scheduled to be transferred during the 2022–23 financial year.
• Preservation: Government records are preserved so that they are available and accessible for as long as they are required
In total, 121,646 physical records were transferred to PROV in 2021–22.
The annual transfer of Cabinet-in-Confidence (CiC) records to PROV from Cabinet Office and the departments continued during 2021–22. All departments have now achieved capability to capture and transfer digital CiC records in accordance with our VERS requirements and all departments are now participating in the annual CiC transfer program.
With our Corporate Plan concluding this year, we developed our new strategy for the period 2022–26. The PROV Strategic Plan 2022–26 reaffirms our vision for public records, publicly available and confirms the outcomes we are working to achieve:
• Management: Government records are managed to enable accountability, efficiency and innovation
• and a new enabling outcome An efficient and effective organisation: Efficient and effective internal operations enable us to be a modern and valued government agency.
This plan clearly defines where we will focus our efforts to make a difference for the Victorian community and our public sector colleagues, and articulates how we will achieve our outcomes. It will enable us to continue to modernise our operations by focusing on improving public office compliance,
Strengthen or Culture and Capability Developing our new Strategic Plan
of the historic records of Ports Victoria and predecessor agencies including the Melbourne Harbor Trust Commissioners, the Ports and Harbours Branch of the Public Works Department, the Geelong Harbor Trust, and the Port of Melbourne Authority, from the Queenscliffe Maritime Museum, concluded in May 2022. The transfer project commenced in 2019 and primarily consisted of maps and plans dating back to the nineteenth century.
PROV’s Gender Equality Action Plan was written following a review of gender equality and intersectionality data and after a series of staff consultations. Findings show the percentage of women who work at PROV is higher than the Victorian Public Sector average (64 per cent compared to 59 per cent) and over half our workforce is taking up flexible working arrangements including hybrid working, part time working and compressed working hours. Improvements made to our employee leave entitlements including the introduction of family violence leave and changes to our parental leave policies were also acknowledged as being inclusive of trans and non-binary staff.
• Supporting our people in a changing environment
People and culture
The plan was developed through a series of steps, including environmental scanning, strategy workshops with our senior management group, ideas from all staff about key focus areas and internal and external consultation including gaining feedback from our government colleagues, community stakeholders and the broader community. Implementation of our Strategic Plan commences 1 July 2022 and we will report on our progress through future annual reports.
enhance the value of the State’s archival data, make use of new technology by improving our own digital capability, and focus on expanding partnerships and improving the ways we present, promote and provide access to public records.
virtual sessions on how mindfulness can boost physical, emotional, and social wellbeing as well as regularly encouraged activities that promote mental and physical wellbeing. COVID-19 policy updates were held virtually and fortnightly emails sent to keep people informed of work being done to provide a safe work environment and to highlight support and services available. There was also increased communication with links to resources and toolkits designed to make sure our people were taking care of themselves in their home environments, both physically and mentally.
3. Building our capabilities as a workplace where all people feel safe and respected and experience consistent equity and inclusion in the workplace.
Overall, People Matter Wellbeing Survey results were very positive, with 92 per cent proud to tell others they work for PROV. Additionally, 98 per cent of survey respondents understood how their job contributes to the organisation’s purpose and 88 per cent felt their job allowed them to utilise their skills, knowledge and abilities. 81 per cent felt senior leaders support staff to work in an environment of change.
We have taken a multi-faceted approach to support our people with the physical and mental health impacts of COVID-19 including promoting policies and benefits as well as a range of initiatives to keep people healthy, positive and engaged. These included paid leave to enable and encourage people to get vaccinated, additional arrangements for those isolating where they were unable to conduct their work from home, and providing free influenza vaccination sessions. We offered a number of
• Wellbeing, health and safety
As the pandemic continued to impact our lives there was a clear need in 2021–22 to remain focused on improving employee wellbeing and build on our flexible work arrangements to ensure an inclusive, high-performing and engaged workforce.
• Diversity and inclusion
There has been a significant amount of change this year. Implementing a new Digital Archive during a pandemic presented numerous challenges and
1. Improving our gender and intersectionality data collection systems and processes to enable us to make plans based on evidence
Our annual People Matter Wellbeing Survey was leveraged as an important feedback channel from our people in addition to more real-time feedback from local pulse surveys. With participation rates above 80 per cent, these provided important insights to help us understand where we were doing well and identify areas that needed more work.
Key focus areas in 2020–21 included:
2. Progressing equity in recruitment and career development by identifying and addressing barriers that limit access and inclusion
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After analysis we have established we are in a good position but there are three key areas that need further development for a more gender equitable workplace. These form our Action Plan which is focused on:
Following the overall success of remote working, we are now embedding more flexible work practices and procedures into normal business. Much work has been done to harmonise policies, procedures and systems to reinforce a positive workplace where our people feel empowered and supported regardless of their location. This includes improvements made to deliver onboarding in a virtual environment, which has increased the quality, consistency and inclusivity of the
Key themes to come out of the responses were:
One time user 35
Historian or other professional researcher 120
Student 32
Non-for-profit 93
• Users are comfortable with older probate files being published. The proportion of people comfortable with publishing a probate file over 50 years old more than doubled, and more people than not were comfortable publishing a 25 year old file.
We recognise that some kinds of frequently copied records may not be suitable to publish, and in 2021–22 we asked our users for their thoughts to help us better understand their needs and expectations around easy online access to these records.
• A CCTV upgrade of the 70+ cameras located around the Victorian Archives Centre. These cameras now provide an unparalleled view of the facility, key entrance points and building perimeters
Employment sector
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scans, feedback from internal surveys and focus groups exploring our employee’s personal experiences with hybrid working are also being used to consolidate best practice recommendations for teams and individuals.
Deliver, Embed and Leverage our Systems
Casual private researcher 268
Government agency 136 Commercial business 25 Educational institution 52
• Users are happy to see public records online. Just over three quarters (77 per cent) of people said they were happy to see public records online while 14 per cent had concerns about misuse of information and the privacy of living people.
Victorian Government employee seeking records management support 48
In 2021–22 a Facilities Strategy was approved which focuses on environmental sustainability and improving supporting systems and knowledge at the Victorian Archives Centre. Other facilities management works throughout the year included:
• We achieved a 72 per cent rating of all waste being recycled. We also recycled 1200 kilograms of metal and over 30,000 kilograms of paper
• After a black water (raw sewerage) flood in a key administration area of the building which houses PROV and the NAA, we completed repairs including replacement of floor and wall tiles, carpet, and repairs to internal walls.
Type of user
Regular private researcher 137
Environmentalexperience.
support mechanisms were put in place to ensure people felt well supported during this period of learning, development and change.
Facilities
• Users have a significant level of discomfort with publishing recent probate files. While 41 per cent were comfortable with publishing recent files, just as many were not, with a high percentage being unsure. People not familiar with PROV’s public access services (first time users and Government records managers) recorded a slightly lower level of comfort than other groups.
Online publishing
• As there is some concern over publishing records with graphic content, users expect to see guidance or sensitivity warning notifications for these published records. Most respondents (72 per cent) told us that they expected to see some kind of pop-up mechanism to flag distressing material.
• Concern over publishing records does not appear to be strongly linked to any relationship the file has with the user. While a small number of comments were in favour of the relatives of those mentioned in records being involved in publishing decisions, in general, respondents indicated the age of the file is the most important factor in their level of comfort with it appearing online.
The survey results have been important in helping PROV to better understand the needs and expectations of the community. In early 2022 we began developing guidelines around what and how to publish and will have these finalised in the next financial year.
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Andrew Joyce digitising records for publishing on the PROV website.
Output Measures 2021–22
Access Services
Permanent value records transferred Shelf metres 250 1,479
Corporate Services
2 Delivery of digitised records was affected by POST implementation and restricted access to VAC in particular during the first two quarters.
Volunteer hours Number 1,400 297
Digital records preserved Gigabytes 30 55
Records deaccessioned from the PROV collection Shelf metres 2,250 683
OUTPUT Unit of measure 2021–22
Number of Reading Room visitors Number 3,000 4,175
Full2021–22YearTarget Full2021–22YearActual
Performance measure
Online visitors to website Number 930,000 992,675
Physical and digital records utilised by public and government users
Provision of services within timeframespublished
PROV 2021–22 Annual Report Measures
2021–22 BP3 Measures
Retention and disposal authorities issued Number 5 5
Satisfaction with services provided by Public Records Office Victoria to government agencies and to the public
Collection storage meeting industry standard Per cent 95 95
Number of participants undertaking records management training Number 1,800 2,641
Quantity number 5,400,000 4,744,796 -12% 1
Timeliness per cent 95 83 -12%2
Staff hours spent on L&D activities Hours 1,500 1,538
Full Year Target 2021–22 Full Year Actual Government Services
1 Lower than forecast downloads of images from third party genealogy sites. Also, after a significant increase in online usage during the COVID-19 pandemic we estimated that usage would reduce but not to pre-COVID level. The last two quarters saw similar figures to pre-COVID level.
PROV34
Digital records accessioned Number 25,000 169,5933
Transfer projects completed Number 8 10
Variance (%)
TimelinessQuality,Quantity, Unit measureof
Number of visitors to PROV exhibitions and events Number 4,650 7,953
3 The target was exceeded because of the large quantity of very small files which are quick to process. Additional resources were also applied to ingest.
Quality per cent 90 91 1%
Number of KRU enquiries received Number 115 98 Storage efficiency meterage Shelf metres 50 15
2020–212020–21 2021–222021–2228,8083,255201 67531 3,181 29,7283,768396 350 45 3,386
Public Record Office Victoria operates two public reading rooms; one at the Victorian Archives Centre in North Melbourne and the other at the Ballarat Archives Centre at the Eureka Centre in Ballarat. Records can also be accessed at the Bendigo Regional Archives Centre within Bendigo Library, the Geelong Library Heritage Centre and (by appointment only) at the Burke Museum in Beechworth.
During 2021–22, 4,177 visitors utilised the reading rooms to view public records. 29,728 records were issued to visitors and an additional 3,768 were issued to Government Agencies and for internal PROV use.
Number of visitorsVisitors to Reading Rooms
Victorian Archives Centre
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In 2021–22 reference queries were managed through our online enquiry system which received an average 271 queries per month; providing a consistent and seamless approach to customer service.
Number of records
Records Issued
Public users
Ballarat Archives Centre Bendigo Regional Archives Centre Geelong Heritage Centre
Government users
Reading Room and Record Retrievals
Expenditure 15,538,19213,980,22013,740,92814,827,182 Trust Fund OpeningBalance Revenue FY 2021-22 Expenditure FY 2021-22 BalanceClosing DTF - Community Support Fund (Victorian Community History Awards and Local History Grants Program) 11,281423,000416,420 17,861 DJPR GSV Archiving project 402,247 0 26,705375,542 Other Trust Funds 106,644 528 24,500 82,671
Appendix 2: Financial Statement
Our assets include both community and operating assets in the following four categories:
Motor vehicles
Operating 5,271,0154,009,7153,732,9684,323,483
Community assets
Plant and operating equipment
Depreciation 2,044,2461,957,9371,989,0852,410,195
Operating assets are used for the upkeep of the physical and digital repositories so that public records can be stored safely and made available for public inspection.
Sub-total 12,000,28210,921,41111,062,16812,056,649
Total
Salary and on-costs 6,729,2676,911,6967,329,2007,733,166
Records repositories for storage of the State Archives and the State Government’s non-current records are located at North Melbourne and Ballarat. The Victorian Archives Centre in North Melbourne, including land, was valued at $88.3m in June 2017.
Building assets
These assets are the State’s archival collection. The physical collection was valued at $299.9m. The digital collection is valued at $16.7m.
PROV operates one vehicle: a midsize SUV.
2018–192019–202020–212021–22
Capital 1,493,6641,100,872689,675360,338
AppendixAppendices361:Assets
Ongoing Employees (Headcount)Number (Headcount)Full-time (Headcount)Part-time FTE FTE
Grade
Ongoing Fixed-term&Casual Ongoing Fixed-term&Casual (Headcount)Number FTE FTE (Headcount)Number FTE FTE
45-54
37
Grade
7
Gender Female 40 34.65 2.2 35 30.9 6.6 Male 16 15.2 8 20 19.2 7 Self described 1 1 0 1 1 0 Age Under 25 0 0 0 0 0 0 25-34 10 9.2 2.6 9 8.7 6.8 35-44 12 11.2 3.6 14 12.6 2.4 17 14.95 3 18 16.1 4 55-64 12 10.7 1 10 9.3 0.4 Over 65 6 4.8 0 5 4.4 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 STS 1 0.7 0 1 0.7 0 6 6.7 2 8 7.7 1 6.7 2 8 7.7 2 10.5 0 12 10.7 3 11.4 2.6 12 11.1 4.8 2 13.85 3.6 14 12.2 2.8
June 2021 June 2022
Appendix 3: Data
Classification Executive
Fixed-term&Casual
June 2021 57 33 24 50.85 10.2 June 2022 56 36 20 51.1 13.6
Workforce
17
Grade 5 7
Grade 4 12
Grade 3 12
PROS 20/02 S3 Class B Places of Deposit Requirements Specification 25/10/2021
Name Issued Date
Standards and specifications issued
PROS 21/01 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of Records of the Magistrates’ Court of Victoria Variation 1 10/12/2021
PROS 21/05 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of Service Victoria 10/11/2021
Section 12 of the Public Records Act 1973 requires the Keeper of Public Records to establish standards for the efficient management of public records and assist public offices in the application of those standards to records under their control. The Act requires public offices to implement records management programs in accordance with the standards established by the Keeper. All standards are available on the PROV website: Appendixwww.prov.vic.gov.au/recordkeeping-government/standards-policies-rdas6:RetentionandDisposalAuthority(RDA)DocumentsIssued
PROS 22/03 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of Electrcity Generation Function 29/03/2022
Appendix 5: Recordkeeping Standards Framework Documents Issued 2021–22
RDAsNumberStandardvaried
PROS 07/01 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of Common Administrative VariationFunctions7 15/02/2021
Name Issued Date
Number Name Issued Date
PROS 22/05 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of the Legal Aid Function 10/06/2022
PROS 22/02 S2 Places Appointed to Store and Manage State Archives Specification 19/08/2021
4: Standards and Advice
or Varied
PROS 22/02 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of the Office of the Chief Parliamentary Counsel 11/01/2022
PROS 08/10 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of the Curriculum and Assessment Functions Variation 2 13/12/2021
New2021–22RDAsStandardNumber
Appendix38
PROS 22/04 Disposal Standard 31/05/2022
PROS 22/01 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of the Energy Safety Function 12/01/2022
PROS 11/04 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of Consumer Affairs VariationFunctions3 10/05/2022
39
PROS 99/02 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of the Department of Treasury and Finance Variation 9 13/12/2021
PROS 08/15 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of Public Health Function Variation 3 13/12/2021
PROS 01/01 Retention and Disposal Authority for School Records Variation 11 14/01/2022
PROS 08/11 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of the Legal Services VariationCommissioner2 13/12/2021
PROS 11/08 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of Liquor Licensing Function created to 31 December 1998 (inclusive) Variation 1
13/12/2021
NumberStandard Name Issued Date
PROS 12/05 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of Statewide Health VariationServices 3 13/12/2021
PROS 09/02 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of the Legal Services VariationBoard2 13/12/2021
PROS 20/04 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of the County Court Variation 1 11/03/2022
PROS 12/02 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of Corrections Victoria Variation 2 17/12/2021
PROS 12/04 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of State Revenue Office Variation 1 13/12/2021
PROS 12/01 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of Integrity System Oversight Function Variation 1 13/12/2021
PROS 12/03 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of Adult Parole Board Variation 1 17/12/2021
PROS 07/09 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of the Office of the VariationRegistrar-General2 14/04/2022
PROS 09/08 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of Vehicle Registration and Driver Licensing Variation 3 11/05/2022
Xander Hunter: professional member (ARIM), Records and Information Management Professionals Australasia (RIMPA or RIM Professionals Australasia); member VPS Pride Network and Trans & Gender Diverse Group; member, Australian Anthropological Society; member, Australasian Digital Recordkeeping Initiative.
Peter Francis: member, Australasian Digital Recordkeeping Initiative; member, Association of Computing Machinery; member, Microsoft IRMS M365 Customer Advisory Board; member, Microsoft RIMPA M365 Customer Advisory Board Working Group; member, Standards Australia Information Migration Working Group (IT-021-15).
Nicole Tighe: member, Australian Human Resources Institute; member, Department of Premier and Cabinet Human Resources Working Group; member, VPS Human Resources Working Group.
Dr Sebastian Gurciullo: editorial board member, Archives and Manuscripts; editorial board member and assistant editor, Provenance Journal; webmaster and steering committee member of the Section on Literary and Artistic Archives of the International Council on Archives; board member, Course Advisory Board, Bachelor of Arts, La Trobe University.
Kate Follington, Dr Sebastian Gurciullo and Alexia Bushby
Appendix 7: Approved Public Record Office Victoria Storage Suppliers (APROSS)
Professional committees
Justine Heazlewood: chair, Australasian Digital Recordkeeping Initiative; chair, Australian Libraries and Archives Copyright Coalition; member, Council of Australasian Archives and Records Authorities; member, Standards Australia, Records and Document Management Systems Committee (IT21); member, Stolen Generations Historical Records Taskforce, Healing Foundation; member, Whyte Bequest Advisory Committee.
Conference and seminar presentations
Researching records at PROV Various presentations across Melbourne Melbourne,Universities2021–22
Charlie Farrugia: member, Victorian Association of Family History Organisations Committee; member, Geelong Heritage Centre Collection Advisory Committee.
8: Staff Achievements
APROSS sites are commercial facilities that have been inspected by PROV and approved for the storage of temporary and un-sentenced public records. For a complete list of APROSS sites see our website: www.prov.vic.gov.au/recordkeeping-government/certified-suppliers-vendors/apross-for-agenciesAPROSS APROSS facilities
32
Facilities approved in 2021–22 0 Reappointments 0 Number of current approved
David Taylor: member, Steering Committee International Council on Archives Section for Local, Municipal and Territorial Archives.
Alison McNulty: member, Australasian Digital Recordkeeping Initiative; member, CAARA Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse Working Group; member, Standards Australia, Recordkeeping Compliance Review Committee (IT-021-17).
Appendix40
Julie McCormack: member, Australasian Digital Recordkeeping Initiative; PROV delegate, Australian Society of Archivists; committee member, Government Archivists Special Interest Group, Australian Society of Archivists; PROV delegate, Digital Preservation Coalition Australasia Stakeholder Group.
Tsari Anderson: editor, Provenance journal; member, Professional Historians Association; member, Council of Australasian Archives and Records Authorities (CAARA) First Nations Special Interest Group.
Tara Oldfield: board member, History Council of Victoria; member, North Melbourne Agency Collective.
Dr Sebastian Gurciullo and Alexia Bushby
Presentation for GLAWAC GunaiKurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal MelbourneCorporation(online), December 2021
Asa Letourneau
Piers, ports and paddles. 100 years of port history Traces Magazine, September 2021 Kate Follington
Records and services for Aboriginal people at PROV La Trobe University, Making History course Melbourne (online), August 2021
Restoring the archival perspective: “parish and township plans” held by Public Record Office Victoria Provenance: The Journal of Public Record Office Victoria, issue no. 19, 2021 Charlie Farrugia
Peter Francis
Introduction to records about Aboriginal people in the PROV collection
Advanced reporting for the Recordkeeping Assessment Tool (RKAT) Records Management Network Melbourne (Online), November 2021
Daniel Wilksch
Julie McCormack, Emma Fowler, and David Fowler Functional requirements for managing records in Microsoft 365 Records Management Network Melbourne (Online), November 2021
Tsari Anderson, Daniel Wilksch, and Emily Hobson
Tara Oldfield
Digitisation and description with volunteers: using lightweight systems to get a lot done Archives Amplified: Australian Society of Archives Conference 2021 Brisbane (Online), September 2021
41
VACCA Morwell Elders Healing Group Melbourne (online), May 2022 Georgia Harris
Functional requirements for managing records in M365 Office 365 - Then and Now: RIMPA Vic/Tas branch Melbournewebinar (Online), August 2021
Peter Francis
Tsari Anderson
Koorie Records Unit – services and resources for Aboriginal family history at the Victorian Archives Centre
Historic Victorian schools photographic collection released Ancestor Magazine, September 2021 Kate Follington
La Trobe University, Aboriginal Australian history Melbournecourse (online), April 2022
Peter Francis
David Fowler, Tsari Anderson, Grace Kinrade and Emily Hobson
Social media at PROV Government Social Media Working Group Melbourne (Online), March 2022
Digital forever: Preserving Victoria’s records Records Management Network Melbourne (Online), November 2021
Where will digital life be half a century from now? Australian Museums and Galleries Association: Victorian Museums and Galleries Forum 2021 Melbourne (online), July 2021
PROV Map Warper Geelong Family History Group Inc Geelong (Online), March 2022
Tsari Anderson
Introduction to PROV Various presentations to local and community groups across Victoria Melbourne (Online), 2021–22
Records and services for Aboriginal people at the Victorian Archives Centre RIMPA Vic/Tas webinar ‘Recordkeeping Rights-People Perspectives’ Melbourne (online), July 2021
Accessing the PROV collection Presentation to Yoorrook Justice Commission Whole-Of-Victorian Government Working Group Melbourne (online), October 2021
Tsari Anderson
Papers
The modernist touch on tuberculosis Traces Magazine, September 2021 Kate Follington
Daniel Wilksch
Sarah Pinto Places of HistoryCommemoratingReconciliation:IndigenousintheHeartofMelbourne
A History of LGBTIQ+ Victoria in 100 Places and Objects Collaborative Community History $2000Award
Commonplace Productions (Bill Garner and Sue Gore) with Kacey Sinclair, Alice Garner, Pat Furze and the Band Friends of Wendy Cotton
Ablaze - A Feature Documentary Victorian Premier’s History Award $5000
Graham Willett, Angela Bailey, Timothy W Jones & Sarah Rood (For Australian Queer Archives)
In the Shadow of the Prom History Publication Award $2000
Finding Fanny Finch Historical Interpretation Award $1500 Lynda LakesrepresentingMitchelson-Twigg,theGippslandCommercial
Atalanti Dionysus / Atalanti Films A Miscarriage of Justice Digital Storytelling Award $1500
Chinese Australian Family Historians of Victoria (CAFHOV)
Richard Broinowski Under the Rainbow: The Life and Times of EW Cole Judges’ Special Prize $500
Roy Henry Patterson and Jennifer Jones
On Taungurung Land: Sharing History and Culture Community Diversity Award $1500
End of an Era: The Last Gippsland Lakes Fishermen
Oral History Award (presented with Oral History $1500Victoria)
Victorian CEDT Index Local History Project Award $2000
Local History – Small Publication $1500Award
Barbara Minchinton
Project Awarded
Judges’ Special Prize $500
Alec Morgan, Tiriki Onus and Tom Zubrycki
Michael McCarthy
The Rise and Fall of Lady Gillott in Melbourne’s Turn-of-the-Century Society
Appendix 9: Victorian Community History Award winners
42Recipient
History Article Award $500
For the Fallen: The 1921–1922 Melbourne Public Library Mural Competition within the setting of Decorative Painting in Australian Art
Paul Paffen
The Victorian Community History Awards are held annually in partnership with the Royal Historical Society of Victoria. Winners announced via the October 2021 video announcement were:
Australian Cardijn Institute Cooperative Ltd Documenting Highett YCW History: Cataloguing, Digitising and Oral History $1,842
Bendigo Regional Genealogical Society Inc
Coal Creek Community Park and Museum "Small profit and quick returns" The story of Oliver Gilpin's drapery chain. $1,538
Dunmunkle Sump Oilers machinery preservation inc Public Photo Display $500
Footscray Primary School 'Tell it Like It Was' Oral History Project $14,080
Forum On Australia's Islamic Relations Hosh Bulduk ("We are welcomed"): A Turkish Migration Story $14,750
Friends of Lake Modewarre A brief history of Lake Modewarre and its environs $2,300 Gasworks Arts Park Gasworks Arts Park Historical Tours $9,000
Berriwillock Memory Bank Significance assessment report for the Berriwillock Memory Bank $4,900
Barham-Koondrook Historical Society, Inc.
City of Greater Dandenong We built this City: a collaborative interpretation project celebrating the div. $15,000
The Local History Grant recipients for the 2021 round were:
All The Queens Men Dispatches from the Frontline $14,000 Arapiles Historical Society Purchase & installation of Museum quality protective display cabinets. $7,470
Brunswick Women's Choir 30 Years of the Brunswick Womens Choir: Digitising our audio visual archives $1,860
East Loddon Historical Society Inc Dingee Bush Nursing Centre Centenary 1923–2023 Digitisation Conservation Project $7,723
Fort Queenscliff Heritage Association Inc
Fort Queenscliff tour guides portable PA system $3,300
Benalla Historical Society Inc. Digitisation of "Benalla Standard" newspapers 1932–1940 $15,000
3CR Community Radio Underfoot: The Facility $8,000
Recipient Project Awarded
43
Beeac Progress Association Inc Digitisation of Minute Book dating back to 1922 $490 Beleura House & Garden Interpreting Beleura's Collection $6,400
Appendix 10: Local History Grant Recipients
The Elmore Standard digitisation project 1912–1920 $5,000
Preserving Victorian History in Koondrook $3,148
Bunyip Historical Society Inc Bunyip Garfield Express Digitisation $11,748 Castlemaine Historical Society Inc Conservation and preservation of significant historic records and archives $2,348
Chewton Domain Society Chewton People and Places Collection of the 1851 Gold Rush onwards and its susta $6,050
Project Awarded
Hopetoun & District Historical Society
Selby Community House Finding the People's Voice: the Untold History of Selby Community House $5,000
The Duldig Gallery Inc. T/a Duldig Studio - Museum + Sculpture Garden
Gippstown Reserve Committee of Management Horse-Drawn Vehicles Signage $2,497
Palais Arts Fund Inc Palais Oral History Project $14,904 Red Rock Progress Association Cororooke Open Space History Trail discriptive signs and Diprotodon footprints. $4,379
Maryborough Midlands Historical Society
John Pierce Centre
Rosa Outtrim's Album $2,860
Trentham and District Historical Society
Duldig Studio Museum & Sculpture Garden Photography Archive Project $6,200
Trentham and District Historical Society website $4,682
Yalinguth mobile app & augmented reality experience $15,000
Glen Eira Historical Society
Golden Plains Shire Council Golden Plains Stories: Community History Interactive Web Exhibition Project $14,822 Heidelberg Historical Society Inc. Conservation treatment of Heidelberg's Busy Bee Signature Quilt $7,550
KNOW THE PAST - Hopetoun's History on View Information succinctly available $4,153
JPC Deaf Community Victoria Archives Project $7,160 Kilmore Historical Society Transposing Cassette Audio tapes into MP3 format $1,536 Maldon Museum & Archives Association Inc Mining Maldon's Tarrangower Times $11,551
Caulfield Historical Society Newsletter digitisation project $500
Mornington Museum: Interpretive Panels and Vinyl Cut Lettering $3,036 Murchison & District Historical Society Inc. Art Captured - an eBook $1,850
Mornington and District Historical Society Inc.
Robina Scott Kindergarten Digitisation of Robina Scott Kindergarten Historic Photographs $2,615
44Recipient
Mirboo and District Historical Society Incorporated Photographs for Cataloguing Collection $879
Significance assessment, Omeo Courthous document collection $6,000
Storyscape
The Boite (Vic) Inc
The Boite Digitisation Project $6,622
Museum of Chinese Australian History Chinese Australian Whispers: A podcast about Chinese Australian family stories $15,000 Nagambie Historical Society Inc. Nagambie Times digitisation project $11,408 Omeo Historical Society
Warracknabeal Cemetery Trust Warracknabeal Cemetery Public Historical Record $6,288 Wellsprings for Women Migrant Women Shaping the Cultural Landscape of Dandenong $15,000
Wooragee Landcare Group Inc Wooragee Landcare Oral History and Digitisation Project $5,952
Victorian Jazz Archive t/a Australian Jazz Museum Victorian Jazz Musicians Video oral history project 2021 $6,000
Bulldog Museum Collection Storage project $4,986
Victorian Goldfields Railway Integration of audio into exhibits - VGR Heritage Interpretation Centre $5,000
Recipient Project Awarded
Western Bulldogs Heritage Working Group
45
Glossary46
disposal authority A legal document that defines the retention periods and consequent disposal actions authorised for specific classes of records (AS 4390.1 -1996).
permanent records Records which have been appraised as being of permanent value to the State of Victoria and which must be kept forever.
advice A document issued by PROV providing advice to Victorian agencies on a recordkeeping issue. (Includes formal advice about standards as well as forms and other tools to help Victorian Government agencies manage and use public records).
A location approved by the Victorian Government Minister responsible for PROV for the storage by community groups of temporary records of local value.
A principle that involves establishing the administrative context in which records were created and used. The provenance of records includes their original creators and users, and the subsequent administrators who were responsible for the recordkeeping system in which the records were kept (Private lives, public records). Note: the word Provenance is also used in this document to refer to the title of our annual online journal.
APROSS
consignment A consignment comprises record items belonging to a single record series that has been transferred to the custody of PROV as part of the one accession. A consignment may comprise the whole or part of a series. Each consignment is identified by a code (e.g. VPRS 1234/P1).
provenance
place of deposit (POD)
digitised record / digital image An electronic reproduction of a picture, photograph or physical item (e.g. letter or document) that can be stored on computer or disk, and can be viewed, transmitted, manipulated and/or printed via computer. A subset of digital records (Private lives, public records).
Approved Public Record Office Storage Supplier – the PROV program for the storage of records which the Keeper of Public Records has approved for eventual destruction or which are awaiting a decision as to their archival value.
archive The whole body of records of continuing value to an organisation or individual. Sometimes called ‘corporate memory’ (AS 4390.1 -1996).
accession A group of records from the same transferring agency taken into PROV custody at the same time. The records may be formally arranged and described into records series and consignments or they may be unarranged and undescribed. Accessioning refers to the process of formally accepting and recording the receipt of records into custody (Keeping Archives1).
archives Records considered to have continuing or permanent value that have been, or will be, transferred to the custody of an archival organisation; also used to refer to the buildings in which archival records are stored and to organisations that have responsibility for archival records (Private lives, public records2).
disposal A range of processes associated with implementing appraisal decisions. These include the retention, deletion or destruction of records in or from recordkeeping systems. They may also include the migration or transmission of records between recordkeeping systems, and the transfer of custody or ownership of records.
Within the Victorian Public Sector, records are appraised to determine their significance (business, legal or historical) and then judged to be either of temporary or permanent value to the state. Government bodies are guided by standards or schedules issued by PROV to regulate the disposal of records.
digital / electronic record A record produced, housed or transmitted by electronic means rather than physical means. A record expressed in an electronic digital format. A record stored in a form that only a computer can process.
• A film, negative, tape or other device in which one or more visual images is embodied so as to be capable (as aforesaid) of being reproduced therefrom
A set of criteria that states a level of legal requirement for Victorian agencies. Standards are established by the Keeper of Public Records under the Public Records Act 1973
Field of management responsible for the efficient and systematic control of the creation, receipt, maintenance, use and disposal of records, including processes for capturing and maintaining evidence of and information about business activities and transactions in the form of records (AS ISO 15489.1).
• A label marking or other writing which identifies or describes anything of which it forms part, or to which it is attached by any means whatsoever
reading room Area set aside at PROV centres for public access to records (Private lives, public records).
recordkeeping Making and maintaining complete, accurate and reliable evidence of business transactions in the form of recorded information.
• are in the same numerical, alphabetical, chronological or other identifiable sequence; or • result from the same accumulation or filing process, perform the same function or may be of similar physical shape or information content.
Records which have not yet been appraised and whose status is therefore not yet determined (Public Records Act 1973).
47
B. Fensham et al., Private lives, public records, 2004, Public Record Office Victoria, Australia.
A group of records which are recorded or maintained by the same agency or agencies and which:
public record A record made or received by any person employed in a public office while carrying out his or her public duties (Public Records Act 1973).
public records Information or documents created as part of the activities of state government departments, agencies and local government (Private lives, public records).
standard
temporary records Records which are appraised as being of value for a bounded time span and which may be legally destroyed once they are older than that time span.
record Something that documents a particular event or decision, or a document and its contents that have some evidentiary value. A record can take many forms:
1 J. Ellis (ed.), Keeping Archives, 1993, The Australian Society of Archivists Inc., Australia.
repository The building (or part of the building) in which the collection/holdings are housed.
• A photograph
managementrecords
• A book, map, plan, graph or drawing
• A disc, tape, soundtrack or other device in which sounds or other data (not being visual images) are embodied so as to be capable (with or without the aid of some other equipment) of being reproduced therefrom
VPRS An abbreviation for Victorian Public Record Series. A VPRS number is allocated to each record series when it is transferred to PROV.
transfer The removal of public records from the offices which have created or inherited them. The custody, ownership and/or responsibility for the records is migrated to the recipient (e.g. from the office to PROV) (see AS ISO 15489.1).
recordsunsentenced
• A document in writing
2
• Anything whatsoever on which is marked any words, figures, letters or symbols which are capable of carrying a definite meaning to persons conversant with them (AS ISO 15489.1).
series
Victorian Archives Centre 99 Shiel Street North (andMonday10am–4.30pmMelbournetoFridaythe2ndand last Saturday of the month) 03enquiries@prov.vic.gov.auprov.vic.gov.au93485600 Ballarat Archives Centre Eureka Centre 102 Stawell Street South Ballarat Monday10am–4.30pmCentraltoThursday Bendigo Regional Archives Centre 1st Floor Bendigo Library 251-259 Hargreaves Street Wednesday10am–4pmBendigo and Thursday Geelong Heritage Centre Geelong Library and Heritage Centre 51 Little Malop Street CheckGeelongwebsite for hours Days and hours may vary. Please check our website for the most up to date information. Public Record Office Victoria acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the lands across Victoria, and their continuing connections to land, culture and community. We acknowledge and pay our respects to their Elders past and present.
