A guide to Victorian Government publications
|
|
|
Government offices Treasury Place
|
The gazettes are the government's method of notifying the general public of its decisions and activities. They contain information on everything from land transactions, bankruptcies, reward notices and new acts of parliament, to tenders, patent applications, unclaimed letters and monies, shipping and emigration notices, and more.
The Port Phillip government notices started publication in 1843, and became the Port Phillip government gazette in 1844. It became the Victoria government gazette in 1851, when the Colony of Victoria was established.
In 1966 public service vacancies and appointments were moved into a separate publication – Victorian Public Service notices. Since 2001 this has only been available online.
Up to about the early 1990s, registers for several professions such as medicine and architecture were published in the gazette. Most registers are now published online by the appropriate professional body. For more on occupations see the separate tab above.
Since 1987 the gazette has been published in three series: General (G, weekly), Periodical (P, lengthy non-urgent notices, irregular), and Special (S, irregular).
Lists of unclaimed monies appear in almost every issue of the weekly (General gazette) and one Periodical gazette each year is devoted to unclaimed Telstra dividends. The State Revenue Office Victoria also has an unclaimed money search facility on their website.
Other titles related to the Victoria government gazette or those called gazettes are the Victorian Public Service notices, the Victoria education gazette and the Victoria police gazette.
1998 to current
1836 to 1999
Victoria government gazette via AUSTLII
1836 to 1997
Victoria government gazette - online archive 1836-1997
The Help section for the online archive contains a link to the gazette via AUSTLII along with some instructions for searching the full text.
1851-1901
Victoria government gazette via Find my past (accessible onsite at the Library)
The print versions of the Victoria gazettes are held by the Library but the online version should be used in preference (see above).
A vast range of information is printed in the gazette.
Below is a notice of a reward for the capture of escapees from Pentridge Prison printed in the Victoria government gazette (10 Sept, 1851 p. 443) available online from 1836 (see box below at left).
