Public Record Office Victoria Annual Report 2018–19
A report from the Keeper of Public Records as required under section 21 (1) of the Public Records Act 1973 (Vic) Published by Public Record Office Victoria 99 Shiel Street North Melbourne VIC 3051 Tel (03) 9348 5600 Public Record Office Victoria Annual Report to the Minister 2018–19 September 2019 © Copyright State of Victoria through Public Record Office Victoria 2019
Except for any logos, emblems, and trademarks, this work (Public Record Office Victoria Annual Report to the Minister 2018–19) 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, visithttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/ . Published on http://www.prov.vic.gov.au.
ISSN: 1320-8225
Cover image: Woman In Black, State Transport Authority, Photographic Collection (c.1900–c.2000). Down St Albans ramp at Footscray Station with passenger traffic Platform 3, No date. Public Record Office Victoria, VPRS 12800/P3, Unit 121, Item ADV 1353 Public Record Office Victoria Annual Report 2018–19
A report from the Keeper of Public Records as required under section 21 (1) of the Public Records Act 1973 (Vic) Hon Gavin Jennings Special Minister of State Level 1, 1 Treasury Place East Melbourne VIC 3002
Dear Minister
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 2019.
Yours sincerely
Justine Heazlewood Director and Keeper of Public Records
4 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 11 Overview 12 Organisational Structure 14 Contact 15 Highlights 17 Report on Performance 19 Strategic Initiatives 20 Improve Recordkeeping Practices Across the Public Sector 20 Increase Use of the Collection 22 Increase Community Engagement with Public Records 24 Build Our Profile 28 Identify and Preserve Records of State Significance 29 Strengthen Our Culture and Capability 29 Deliver, Embed and Leverage Our Systems 31 Output Measures 2018–19 33 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 2018–19 38 Appendix 6: Retention and Disposal Authority (RDA) Documents Issued or Varied 2018–19 38 Appendix 7: Approved Public Record Office Victoria Storage Suppliers (APROSS) 41 Appendix 8: Staff Achievements 41 Appendix 9: Volunteers 45 Appendix 10: Local History Grants Program Recipients 46 Appendix 11: Victorian Community History Award Winners 48 Glossary 50
5 How we roll, Southbank, 2017. Photography by Janice Ward. ‘Many times when I was out shooting in the city at night, I came across this gentleman and his little dogs, one of them is crippled and gets around on a set of wheels. He certainly doesn’t let his disability keep him standing still.’
6 Vision and Purpose
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.
Purpose
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.
Daily Operations Mission Statement Public Record Office Victoria (PROV) was We will provide leadership to Government on the established under section 3 of the Public Records use and management of public records. We will Act 1973 (the Act), ‘for the better preservation, ensure that the historical memory of the Victorian management and utilisation of the public records Government endures, is secure and accessible. We of the State’. The Act provides the legal framework have identified three outcomes that represent the within which PROV operates, and specifies the ongoing goals for the organisation: core functions of PROV and the Keeper of Public • Preservation: The records of Government are Records with respect to government records. These preserved so that they are available and functions, pursuant to sections 7, 11 and 12 of the accessible for as long as they are required. Act include: • Management: The records of Government are • Establish standards for the efficient managed to enable accountability, efficiency management of public records, including and innovation. creation, maintenance, security, selection of those worthy of preservation, transfer for • Utilisation: The records of Government are used archiving, and segregation or disposal of those by communities to connect to their history and not worthy of preservation culture. • Assist public officers to apply these standards to records under their control • Take public records into custody, preserve archives and provide security • Classify records and publish indexes and guides to facilitate access • Provide facilities for viewing, and make records in custody accessible • Duplicate or reproduce and authenticate public records.
7 Values
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:
Responsiveness Leadership • We will demonstrate and deliver best-practice • We will proactively promote and share our recordkeeping across Government and our unique capability widely. community. • We will seek opportunities to enhance and • We will maintain the highest levels of quality improve our programs, processes and products. and accuracy in our advice and service to our • We will show leadership through demonstrating colleagues and clients. our values and unique behaviours at all times. • We will celebrate innovation, ideas and Human Rights challenge, where it is positive and constructive. • We will consider Human Rights in all our plans, Integrity decisions, advice and interactions and abide by • We will show courage in giving feedback, making all relevant legislation. requests and offering ideas. • We will observe zero tolerance for harassment, • We will share knowledge, information and bullying or discrimination. results willingly and openly. • We will facilitate the preservation and • We will consider the security of our records and expression of the diversity of Victoria’s cultural historical memory in our decisions. heritage through our work. Impartiality Collaboration • We will invite, encourage and value the views, • We will seek to engage and consult with internal contribution and capabilities of all colleagues. and external stakeholders as ‘partners’ with shared objectives. • We will provide objective and impartial advice to all stakeholders. • We will seek opportunities to support and assist each other. • We will account for all activities and results with honesty and transparency. • We will consult and engage through direct communication where possible. Accountability • We will accept both personal and shared responsibility for all actions and ‘follow through’ to ensure agreed outcomes. • We will consider the public good and the public purse in all activities and decisions. Respect • We will show professional and personal respect, courtesy and positivity to all colleagues and clients. • We will be thoughtful and generous with praise and acknowledge a job well done. • We will treat all colleagues, clients, stakeholders and actions fairly, objectively and without bias.
8 Message from the Director
The pages of this year’s Annual Report feature photographs from the 2018–19 Moving Melbourne exhibition showcased in our Victorian Archives Centre Gallery. Half the photographs used in the exhibition are from the collections of PROV and the National Archives of Australia (NAA), while the other half were submitted by present-day street photographers of Melbourne. The submitted street photographs now form part of our collection and also feature in this Report.
In 2017–18 our new Corporate Plan came into effect. This year’s Annual Report outlines the strides made in 2018–19 to achieve our goals, with particular highlights including the launch of a beta version of our catalogue and Map Warper online, and a large-scale project to review all of our recordkeeping standards. We also say farewell to the current Family Search missionaries who have been based at the Victorian Archives Centre completing digitisation projects to make our collection more accessible. All of these milestones are described in detail under the Highlights section of this Report. Other areas of significance at PROV in 2018–19 included:
Our digital presence Recordkeeping in government The redevelopment of our digital presence has been As it is every year, ensuring the improvement of a key focus for us over the last few years and was recordkeeping practices throughout the public again in 2018–19. Last year we reported that we service has also been high on our agenda. We were designing a new catalogue and order and copy continued our successful Records Management request system. While we were thrilled to see a beta Network series of events, hosting three sessions in (test version) of the catalogue search launched this the last year including one specifically devoted to year, we are taking the time to further refine and how we and Victorian Government departments are develop a new ordering and copy request system addressing the recordkeeping recommendations which we now anticipate launching in 2020. from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse – we go into detail Ballarat relocation on the activities we’ve been undertaking in relation We have operated the Ballarat Archives Centre at to this further on in the Annual Report. We also the State Government Offices in Mair Street since completed our Information Management Maturity the early 1980s including a reading room and Measurement (IM3) program and commenced a repository. Over the years, the facility has suffered review of all of our recordkeeping standards. from numerous issues related to the building’s Achievements and acknowledgements structure with the facility coming to the end of its useful life. So, in June this year we said goodbye to Thank you to all staff and volunteers for another the old building and moved the Ballarat Archives successful and productive year, particularly for Centre reading room into the Eureka Centre in continuing outstanding work to improve our online Stawell Street where we now share a research ‘hub’ services while tackling other big essential projects with the Ballarat Libraries’ Australiana Research such as relocations and reviews. I would also like to Collection. Our Ballarat collection has also been thank the Public Records Advisory Council (PRAC) moved to a State Library of Victoria storage facility members for all their assistance. I look forward to nearby, while closed records are now stored at another successful year in 2019–20. the Victorian Archives Centre in North Melbourne. This relocation required a lot of planning and work by our staff, particularly Merrick Morris, and Liz Denny and Gertie Cotterill in Ballarat, and has been a success in ensuring the safe storage of the collection and provision of updated facilities and increased opening hours for researchers.
Justine Heazlewood Director and Keeper of Public Records
9 Message from the Public Records Advisory Council President
I was pleased to serve as the President of the Public Records Advisory Council (PRAC) for another year, alongside our Public Records Advisory Council members Jeremi Moule, David Brous, Belinda Ensor, Deidre Missingham, Prof. Keir Reeves, Susie Zada and Bonnie Chew.
I would like to thank all the members of PRAC In 2018–19 PRAC also played an integral part in the as well as the Keeper of Public Records, Justine development of an issues paper related to reviewing Heazlewood, and PRAC secretary Jill Broomhall for the Public Records Act 1973. We look forward to another successful year. Also a special thank you continuing to support PROV with this and other and farewell to Kathryn Dan whose last meeting as significant recordkeeping and archival projects in PRAC member was in August 2018. the coming year. In 2018–19 we continued our Council visits to regional towns across Victoria to hear from local groups and historical societies about what matters most to them when it comes to archives, recordkeeping and historical research. In August 2018 we visited Ballarat and in April 2019 we visited Emerald. In conjunction with our Council meetings we were pleased that PROV staff were able to conduct information sessions for the local community, sharing tips on how to access the PROV collection. These regional meetings came off the back of successful visits to Geelong, Sale and Narre Warren in 2017–18 and Box Hill in 2016. I was also pleased to again assist in hosting duties at the Victorian Community History Awards run by PROV in partnership with the Royal Historical Society of Victoria. The Awards are important in recognising the people who use archival collections across Victoria to tell stories of our history, and it’s fantastic to see firsthand just how much the recognition means to historians. Attendees were captivated by a special performance by composer Jessie Lloyd who spoke about her research into Aboriginal Mission Songs. Her talk was interspersed with musical performance, demonstrating how history can be shared in a variety of different ways – even song. To end the event I was pleased to present the Victorian Premier’s History Award to Jill Giese who wrote a book called The Maddest Place on Earth, detailing the history of mental health during the gold rush in Victoria. A great event I look forward to being part of again in October 2019.
Judy Maddigan President, Public Records Advisory Council
10 Public Records Advisory Council
Establishment and Functions Summary of Activities The Public Records Advisory Council was The Council met on five occasions in 2018–19: established under section 4 (1) of the Public • 22 August 2018, Ballarat Town Hall, Ballarat Records Act 1973 (Vic). The functions of the Council, as specified in section 5 of the Act, require that it: • 10 October 2018, Victorian Archives Centre (a) In consultation with the Keeper of Public • 6 February 2019, Victorian Archives Centre Records, shall promote cooperation between • 10 April 2019, Emerald RSL, Emerald Public Record Office Victoria and public offices. • 19 June 2019, Victorian Archives Centre (b) May report and make recommendations to the Minister on any matter relating to the Council meetings administration of the Act. Council members continued to show their PROV provides support to the Council by preparing commitment to raising public awareness of PROV Council agenda papers, coordinating the scheduling especially in regional and outer-metropolitan of Council meetings, providing assistance with the locations where people may not be aware of or appointment of new Council members, as well as have not had access to archives. In August 2018 providing assistance and administrative support for the Council met at the Ballarat Town Hall and in Council sub-committees. April 2019 they met at the Emerald RSL. PROV staff conducted public information sessions on records Council membership conservation and digitisation at both visits. Section 4 (1A) of the Act requires that the Council The Council would like to thank the Keeper of consist of not more than ten members with Public Records, Justine Heazlewood, and Council knowledge and experience in such areas as Secretary, Jill Broomhall, for their support public administration, local government, records throughout the year. management, business administration, historical research, Indigenous heritage and genealogical research. The current Council is comprised of: Judy Maddigan, President Jeremi Moule, Department of Premier and Cabinet representative David Brous, Public administration Belinda Ensor, Historical research (public history) Deidre Missingham, Finance and business administration Prof. Keir Reeves, Historical research (academic history) Susie Zada, Genealogy and local history Bonnie Chew, Indigenous heritage Secretary: Jill Broomhall
11 Overview
Executive Protected disclosure Headed by Justine Heazlewood, Director and The Protected Disclosure Act 2012 (Vic) is designed Keeper of Public Records, the executive team to help people make disclosures about improper is located at 99 Shiel Street, North Melbourne, conduct within the public sector without fear of Victoria, Australia; phone (03) 9348 5600. reprisal. The Act aims to make the public sector more open and accountable by encouraging people Act administered: Public Records Act 1973 (Vic) to make disclosures and protecting them when they PROV’s operations are governed by the Public do. Records Act 1973, which defines the role of both the PROV is committed to the aims and objectives of Keeper of Public Records and the organisation. The the Act. PROV does not tolerate improper conduct Act is available for inspection on the PROV website by its staff or reprisals against those who come www.prov.vic.gov.au and at our North Melbourne forward to disclose such conduct. The procedures and Ballarat offices. for protecting people who make protected Regulations made and administered disclosures under the Protected Disclosure Act 2012 are available on our website Regulations are made under section 23 of the www.prov.vic.gov.au/ . Public Records Act 1973 and are known as the about-us/legislation-and-governance Public Records Regulations 2013. The Regulations Public Record Office Victoria standards and prescribe fees for making and supplying copies authorities of public records and set out conditions for the PROV issues standards for records management inspection of public records and use of facilities and authorities for retention and disposal under provided by PROV. All Regulations are available section 12 of the Public Records Act 1973. A full list for inspection on our website www.prov.vic.gov.au/ of current standards and authorities is provided on about-us. our website at www.prov.vic.gov.au/government Portfolio responsibility and at our North Melbourne and Ballarat offices. The Department of Premier and Cabinet has portfolio responsibility for PROV. PROV is an administrative office under the Public Administration Act 2004. Freedom of information The Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Vic) gives members of the public a right to access documents held by Victorian Government agencies, including PROV. For the 12 months ending 30 June 2019, PROV received no Freedom of Information applications. FOI requests for PROV agency documents should be addressed to: Freedom of Information Officer Public Record Office Victoria GPO Box 2100 North Melbourne 3051
12 Government Services Access Services Government Services develops the recordkeeping The goal of Access Services is to ensure that our requirements which all Victorian public sector unique collection is widely known and accessible agencies must meet and provides a range of to the people and Government of Victoria. This is products, tools and services to support them to achieved through: manage their records effectively and compliantly. • A program of digitisation to improve access to This is done through: our collection and services through our website • Developing mandatory standards and • A program of exhibitions, publications, specifications, associated advice and guidance educational resources and outreach activities products • The provision of public reading room services • Working across the Victorian public sector to and online access to PROV’s collection and appraise the functions of Government in order research tools to assess the value and significance of the records they manage and to specify records • Preserving archives within their region of origin, required as state archives ensuring equality of access for communities in regional Victoria • Managing and promoting the Victorian Electronic Record Strategy (VERS) and working • Providing culturally appropriate services, with strategic partners to assist agencies to procedures and tools that enhance access by transition to digital recordkeeping the Koorie community • Working with agencies to schedule, plan and • Transmitting information to clients about the manage the transfer of permanent value collection records to PROV, focussing on high-value and • Issuing records in a manner that meets at-risk records government needs and community • Providing advice to individual agencies and expectations. developing and publishing a comprehensive set of guidelines, case studies and tools to assist them Corporate Services • Engaging in committees and taskforces and Corporate Services supports staff across PROV partnering with other organisations on projects through the provision of the following services: and initiatives designed to improve • Budgeting, financial management and reporting recordkeeping • Risk management • Delivering a program of awareness and recognition events, and investigating and • Facilities management reporting on the state of recordkeeping in • Environmental planning and reporting Victoria including associated challenges and issues. • Strategic planning and reporting • Communications and online engagement • Information communication technology • Information management • Human resource management • Organisational development.
13 Organisational Structure
Special Minister of State
Secretary Department of Premier & Cabinet
Deputy Secretary Department of Premier & Cabinet Governance, Policy & Coordination
Director Public Records Public Record Office Victoria Advisory Council
Government Services Access Services Corporate Services
Standards & Policy Digital Projects Finance & Risk Management
Government Recordkeeping Collection Services Facilities
Community Communications & Community Engagement Engagement Online Engagement
Technology Services
People & Culture
14 Contact
As at 30 June 2019, PROV operated two public reading rooms and had 51.4 staff members (FTE) working across two operational areas.
Public Reading Rooms Email: [email protected] Website: prov.vic.gov.au Victorian Archives Centre Harry Nunn Reading Room 99 Shiel Street North Melbourne VIC 3051 Phone: (03) 9348 5600 Ballarat Archives Centre Joan Hunt Reading Room at the Eureka Centre 102 Stawell Street South Ballarat Central VIC 3350 Phone: (03) 5333 0306 Follow us on Facebook @PublicRecordOfficeVictoria Twitter @PRO_Vic Instagram @vic_archives
Government Services Assistant Director: David Brown Phone: (03) 9348 5621 Email: [email protected] Agency enquiries: [email protected]
Access Services A/Assistant Director: David Taylor Phone: (03) 9348 5678 Email: [email protected] Public enquiries: [email protected]
Corporate Services Assistant Director: Renee Kjar Phone: (03) 9348 5681 Email: [email protected] Public enquiries: [email protected]
15 16 Highlights
Farewell Family Search This year saw the ending of the most recent set of projects in a long and fruitful relationship with the organisation Family Search who has worked with us over the last 15 years to digitise a significant proportion of our collection including our most highly used records. The partnership commenced in 2004 when a project was set up to digitise wills, probates and inquests from the first records in those series up to 1925. This was later extended to overall inquests up to 1937 and wills and probates up to 1950. Other records copied throughout our partnership One of our previous Family Search volunteers working on the include: digitisation of Ballarat rate books. • Land selection registers Over time, more than thirty missionaries have • Rate books (up to 1930) worked at the Victorian Archives, supported at times by local volunteers. • Petty sessions registers (in partnership with Find My Past, the UK based genealogy website) Our most recent team of missionaries consisted of: • Coastal passenger lists (in partnership with • Becky and Gary Clement Find My Past) • Ben and Dottie Grimes A variety of other records including teacher and • Charlie and Marsha Olsen public service employment records and hospital patient registers were also digitised. • Shelia and Bob Stearns In all, hundreds of thousands of records have been Past volunteers can be found listed across previous digitised, totalling approximately 15 million images, Annual Reports. which is somewhere between two and three per Family Search do not claim any rights in the cent of our overall collection. material that they copy, which means that the work As well as digitising, between 2007 and 2010 they have done is now freely accessible and shared Family Search partnered with genealogists across around the world on our website and theirs. Australia in a crowd-sourced project to transcribe the registers of probate. This project delivered Standards Review Project a name index to wills and probate records that vastly simplified the process of finding records to During 2018–19 we began a major review of the something that can now be done easily online. mandatory Standards issued by the Keeper of Public Records to ensure they are current, usable The digitising was accomplished onsite at the and support digital practices. The structure has Victorian Archives Centre by teams of Family been revised to merge the Victorian Electronic Search volunteers on eighteen-month or two-year Record Strategy (VERS) Standard Framework with missions. Most of the volunteers were from the the Recordkeeping Standard Framework. After continental United States, but we also hosted extensive consultation, the Strategic Management, missionaries from New Zealand and other Operational Management, Create, Capture and Australian states. The digitising was done on Control and Access Standards and Specifications Family Search equipment for which we provided are being finalised. Guidelines for implementing space. the Standards and Specifications have also been developed.
Left image: Pancake, Australian Broadcasting Commission, Victorian Branch Television Station. Bicycles, c.1980–1982. National Archives of Australia. NAA: B383,3/-
17 Ballarat Archives Centre Relocation Throughout the last financial year we worked with the local council to secure ourselves a place in the Eureka Centre building in Ballarat Central, replacing outdated Ballarat Archives Centre facilities at the Government Offices on Mair Street. The move, which took place in June, saw us come together with the Ballarat Libraries’ Australiana Research Collection under the same roof, forming a shared research hub for the community. The move also included the relocation of open records to the State Library storage facility nearby and closed records to the Victorian Archives Centre, ensuring the records are kept in the most up-to-date storage The beautiful Eureka Centre building and surrounding parklands. conditions available. Photograph by Graham Denholm courtesy of the City of Ballarat. As a result of the relocation, finalised in June, we have been able to extend our services from two Launch of Beta Search days a week to four days to better accommodate researchers. We have also designated the reading As part of our work to redesign our online catalogue, room the ‘Joan Hunt Reading Room’ in memory of in 2018–19 we released a beta version for our Dr. Joan Hunt who was a passionate and committed users to test and provide feedback to help us champion of local and community history in further refine and develop an interface that is Victoria, particularly within the Ballarat region, and user-friendly and showcases our collection in the worked with us at PROV for many years. most accessible way possible. The beta search includes a thumbnail view of digitised records One thing that hasn’t changed is our incredible within the search page results, allowing users to Ballarat team – our long-standing Ballarat Archives click through to an image viewer where they can Centre staff Liz and Gertie have made the move download the record in the desired format and with us and are excited to start the 2019–2020 resolution. Filtering has been improved so that financial year in a brand new state-of-the-art users can simultaneously filter by date range, premises. location (including online), the series the record comes from, or even by the agency that created the record. Archival language has also been PROV Map Warper simplified making the collection more accessible In 2018–19 we embarked on a project to make our for those unfamiliar with archival systems. We’ve digitised maps and plans more accessible and been pleased to receive positive and constructive engaging for geography and history researchers. feedback from a range of users throughout the Bringing the past into the digital present, we’ve last six months with changes to be implemented created the PROV Map Warper allowing users to by the time we launch the final systems in the next view more than 4000 maps from Victoria’s past. financial year. Map-lovers can use the online platform to overlay these with maps from the present-day by marking them with current geographic coordinates. The platform also allows users to search by modern-day location names so they can see how things have or haven’t changed over time. mapwarper.prov.vic.gov.au
18 Report on Performance
Corporate Plan 2017–18 to 2020–2021
PROV’s four-year Corporate Plan provides the strategic direction for the period 2017–18 to 2020–21. 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.
Initiatives • Improve recordkeeping practices across the • Deliver, embed and leverage our systems: public sector: We will continue to support We will complete the development and effective recordkeeping in agencies by creating implementation of a new digital archive that and mandating standards, promoting their is capable of supporting our electronic implementation, and surveying and reporting recordkeeping standard, and deliver additional on agency adherence and practice. business solutions to improve the efficiency and delivery of our service to government and • Increase use of the collection: We will continue the public. to make our collection more accessible and ensure the needs of different communities Detailed information about our activities under accessing the collection are met. each of these initiatives can be found in the next section of the report. • 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. • 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. • 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. • 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.
19 Strategic Initiatives
Improve Recordkeeping Practices Across Response to the Royal Commission into the Public Sector Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse Recordkeeping major highlights and challenges PROV is working with the Victorian Government and Commonwealth, state and territory archival Much has been written about the current state authorities to address the Royal Commission of recordkeeping in the Victorian public sector; recommendations. We have published guidance independent reviews and investigations have been for agencies on creating, managing and retaining conducted into not only recordkeeping, but other records relating to child sexual abuse and are government activities where poor recordkeeping working with affected agencies on improving has been identified as a contributing factor to practices and meeting National Redress Scheme failures in process. requirements. In addition to these independent inquiries, PROV A new Retention and Disposal Authority is currently has undertaken a range of assessments and being finalised to ensure that minimum retention surveys to determine recordkeeping maturity in periods for records relating to actual or alleged agencies, recordkeeping issues affecting agencies, child sexual abuse are appropriate. PROV has and barriers to proper recordkeeping practices. reviewed and is redeveloping website pages on We released a report of our findings in February accessing records for care leavers. In addition, we 2019. We found a lack of professional records have given presentations at a number of events and management expertise and resourcing across the sit on a number of working groups related to this VPS with records often not adequately created work. and managed to ensure that accurate and reliable information is accessible when required to support evidence of decisions or actions. We also found Information management maturity that new systems are being procured which do Our Information Management Maturity not adequately manage records and that ongoing Measurement (IM3) Program is undertaken every accessibility, security and privacy are major issues two years to assess and report on the state of with current digital record storage practices. The Information Management (IM) maturity across full report can be found on our website. the Victorian Government departments and some agencies.
Review of the Public Records Act 1973 (Vic) In 2018 we found that all previously participating departments and agencies maintained their A review of the Public Records Act was approved 2015–16 ratings, achieving a level 2 average. A third by Special Minister of State Gavin Jennings on of participants indicated their training and support 6 September 2017. PROV has been advocating as unmanaged while those departments with for a review for several years, in line with relevant training have seen improved awareness, recommendations made by the Victorian Auditor- understanding and capabilities. General’s Office following audits in 2008 and 2017 which found that the Act was outdated and Among our recommendations to come out of the hindered effective records management. 2018 program are for agencies and departments to continue to develop IM governance, vision and In 2018–19 we conducted extensive consultation strategy, strategic alignment and management with heads of agencies. As a result of these support and leadership. Once these are in place, consultations, PROV developed a policy paper for organisations will be able to effectively improve the Minister which was approved as the basis for performance ratings over time. wider consultation in 2019. The full report can be found on our website.
20 Victorian Electronic Records Strategy (VERS) Office 365 and SharePoint 2018–2021 Office 365 (including SharePoint Online) is In 2018–19 we published our 2018–2021 Victorian currently being considered or in the process of Electronic Records Strategy. The Strategy is about being implemented across a number of Victorian ensuring the creation, capture and preservation of Government agencies. In an effort to better authentic, complete and meaningful digital records understand agency use, issues and considerations by the Victorian public sector. The Strategy for around these systems, we undertook a survey 2018–2021 outlines three key goals, to have: throughout April and May. The results of this survey will inform future guidance material around 1. Trusted, complete and reliable digital managing public records in an Office 365 and recordkeeping. SharePoint environment. The findings will also 2. Preserved and accessible digital records of be de-identified and summarised for external continuing value. distribution to recordkeepers and information management professionals in the next financial 3. Increased capability to respond to future year. opportunities and challenges. The actions and outcomes achieved under each of these goals will help us work towards our vision Records Management Network (RMN) of digital by design, automated and embedded The Records Management Network was recordkeeping for the Victorian public sector, established to provide a forum for knowledge ensuring complete, authentic and meaningful exchange and discussion on issues affecting records now and into the future. records management within the VPS. We held The VERS 2018–2021 document is available on our three Records Management Network events in website. 2018–19, attracting approximately 300 attendees. The October 2018 event focussed on PROV’s current programs including our ongoing digital archive work, New Retention and Disposal Authorities (RDAs) digital transfers, reviews in progress and updates In 2018–19 we released three new RDAs. on an upcoming recordkeeping assessment tool. The November RMN was focused on responses to The RDA for Records of the Professional the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses Registration and Accreditation Function was to Child Sexual Abuse with presentations from developed in consultation with the Victorian Legal PROV, the Department of Health and Human Admissions Board. It provides disposal coverage Services and the Department of Education and for the functions of registration and accreditation Training. Lastly, our May 2019 RMN featured case standards, codes, guidelines and procedures; studies by the City of Whittlesea, National Archives practitioner registration and regulation; and of Australia, Parks Victoria and National Coronial accreditation. Information System on topics such as transitioning The RDA for Records of the Gambling and Liquor to digital, using SharePoint and gaining records Regulation Functions covers the records of the management buy-in from within an organisation. Victorian Commission of Gambling and Liquor Regulation. We also released an RDA for Records of the Anti-Corruption Function. The details of these RDAs, and RDAs varied throughout the year, are listed in the Appendix.
21 Increase Use of the Collection Digitisation program The focus of the digitisation program in 2018–19 continued to be on preparing and migrating already-digitised material to our new online repository (the Secondary Asset Management System, or SAMS). The community saw the first demonstration of our new way of presenting records online with the launch of beta in August, providing access to over 400,000 of our digitised records with more records being added as they are migrated. The beta is described in more detail in the Highlights section of this Report. Volunteers Millie Marsh and John MacKinnon celebrated 30 As well as migrating records that were already years volunteering with PROV in February 2019. online through our legacy systems, we have been adding new records not previously online. PROV volunteers Coinciding with the opening of the relocated Ballarat Archives Centre, we published digitised Public Record Office Victoria’s 180 highly skilled copies of the majority of the Ballarat Rates and volunteers participate in digitising, indexing and Petty Sessions Courts records. transcription projects. In the past year volunteers have contributed more than 30,000 hours to We have been focussing on the digitisation of the organisation, adding immense value to the records held in regional Victoria, and this year collection. digitised the records held at the Burke Museum, Beechworth. The records were brought down to During National Volunteers Week in May, we Melbourne to copy and then returned to their launched the Time and Tide exhibition featuring museum-quality home. Our thanks to the Museum 1600 digitised photos and negatives from the J.B.O. and manager Cameron Auty for supporting the Hosking, Melbourne Harbour Trust collection – project. detailed in the Exhibitions section of this Report. The year also marked a milestone on our long Several other large projects have been significantly partnership with Family Search as a 15-year series advanced in 2018–19. Areas of focus have included of onsite copying projects came to an end. We are the Supreme Court (records of insolvency and civil immensely grateful to the organisation and to the cases), Education Department correspondence, many volunteers who have worked with us through correspondence of the Melbourne Town Clerk, this fruitful relationship and we continue to look for and indexing records of Coroner’s inquests. This partnership opportunities. contribution of volunteer’s time, effort and talent allows researchers, genealogists and interested We also undertook other digitisation projects as community members to more easily find and use resources permitted. Our volunteers continued to records of Victoria’s history. work on the digitisation of City of Melbourne and Melbourne Harbour Trust records. A new larger Volunteer Project Room was also unveiled during the year. The new space has We are also grateful to the R E Ross Trust for enabled most volunteers to work in the one area supporting a project to digitise images created and has made the provision of projects and support by the Education Department in the late 1960s simpler and swifter. We have also been able to for publications and curriculum material. The provide quiet zones and a training room so the collection is a rich and evocative resource depicting space is multi-functional and user friendly. post-war Victoria. The digitisation of these photographs will continue in 2019–2020. PROV gratefully acknowledges the outstanding contribution that all volunteers have made during the year and we look forward to an equally productive 2019–20.
22 Hazel Edwards’ 2018 writing group with PROV’s Tara Oldfield who introduced the group to the archival collection during the year.
University outreach Journalist Erica Cervini was one participant who lent her advice to our blog with an article entitled This year we completed research on how to Researching houses that are no longer there. She strengthen our value to the university sector and explained the records available at the Ballarat increase use of the collection by students. The Archives Centre that could prove useful to writers Communications and Online Engagement team who need to write descriptions about real-life interviewed people across six major universities houses from the past that are no longer standing and focussed on the study areas of architecture, and where photos do not exist. Darren Arnott shed history, Indigenous studies, writing, design, archival light on his research into the circumstances around studies, arts and curatorial studies. While the the fatal shooting of a young Italian Prisoner of results indicated a low level of understanding of War at the Rowville internment camp during World archival research there was much enthusiasm for War 2. In his article A missing piece of the puzzle, PROV to offer more training in this area to teachers he goes into detail about his search for a specific and students. inquest exhibit – a photograph of the crime scene. His article looks at not just our collection but NAA’s Writing group as well. Other examples can be found on our blog under the category of ‘Research’. After a successful first year in 2017, we continued our partnership with Hazel Edwards in 2018 and In addition to sharing their learnings on our blog, 2019, hosting her monthly writer’s course at the the “graduating” writers have formed a Facebook Victorian Archives Centre. As part of the writing group providing each other with additional writing program, participants are shown how to use PROV’s and research support. The natural growth of collection and encouraged to use our records within networks such as this is increasing use of our their writing. In 2018 many of the writers utilising collection by expanding our audience, encouraging the collection wrote articles for our blog about research at PROV of writers and authors who might specific areas of research, providing tips for other not otherwise have sought out our records. writers and researchers.
23 Increase Community Engagement with Public Records Places of Deposit Program PROV works with a range of organisations across the State to support the Victorian community’s access to the State’s collections. Our Places of Deposit (POD) program encompasses regional archives which manage and provide access to permanent and temporary public records. In particular, we have a close relationship with Bendigo Regional Archives Centre (BRAC), run in partnership with the City of Greater Bendigo and the Goldfields Library Corporation. On 29 The POD workshop held in May was attended by 30 POD June BRAC celebrated 10 years of operation and members. community access to records of local significance with public lectures. A highlight this year was the successful delivery of the first POD Collections Day. A recommendation of This year a major undertaking has been a review the review, the event provided POD organisations of BRAC’s public record collections and collection with training and guidance on managing and management needs. The project has included the providing access to public records in their survey and documentation of accessioned public collections and included a workshop delivered records and a review of storage requirements. This by AMaGA Victoria on the Victorian Collections project will enable community access to these collection management system. Through this new records, increased access through the online type of engagement with our PODs we will improve catalogue and improved processes for the storage their capacity and ability to care for and provide and management of the collection. access to the locally significant records they hold. Another highlight for BRAC has been an increased focus on audience engagement and public access through a range of highly successful events and workshops. These have included industry training sessions for the Australian Society of Archivists Victorian Branch and a sold out public event on conservation and collections care in partnership with Australian Museums and Galleries Association Victoria (AMaGA Victoria). This year , a major focus of the overall POD program has been the development of a plan to implement recommendations from the 2017–2018 Review. This has included the completion of a major audit of Places of Deposit including the reappointment of 64 organisations into the newly revamped program.
24 In May, as part of National Volunteers Week, our volunteers took over the space for a display featuring a subset of the Melbourne Harbour negatives they’ve been busily digitising over the last few years. They entitled the exhibition Time and Tide: The Presence of JBO Hosking in honour of the Melbourne Harbour Trust Chief Engineer from 1936 to 1959 who began collecting the images, many of which depict projects he oversaw such as the development of Appleton Dock operation of the Yarraville fuel terminals and the evolution of the Williamstown and Port Melbourne wharfs. The black and white images have been displayed as a wave across the gallery walls in celebration of time and tide. In 2018–19 we also continued our partnership with the Old Treasury Building. Last year there were 93,935 visitors through the doors including school groups, history-lovers, tourists and the curious! Our records formed part of numerous exhibitions including the newly installed First Peoples and the Gold Rush and Wayward Women? In addition to our own exhibitions and existing partnerships, we also offer a loan service that allows other museums the opportunity to display public records from our collection as part of their Records from our collection are on display at Old Treasury own exhibition programs. In 2018–19 our records Building as part of the First Peoples and the Gold Rush exhibition. featured as part of the Bendigo Post Office Gallery’s Rule Britannia: The Golden City exhibition and the Exhibitions Melbourne Medical History Museum’s The Women’s: We have held three photographic exhibitions in the Carers, Advocates and Reformers exhibition. Victorian Archives Gallery to showcase the images in our collection and highlight their significance in re-telling stories from Victoria’s past. The Beyond Bluestone exhibition detailed in last year’s Annual Report made way for Moving Melbourne: Cities Don’t Stand Still in September. The photographs from this exhibition feature as part of this Report. Following on from our existing model, half of the exhibition was devoted to photographs from our collection, as well as the collection of the National Archives of Australia, and the other half were photos of the present-day submitted by Melbourne street photographers. From bustling city streets to Melbourne train travellers and concert crowds in chorus, the exhibition showed a city in constant motion.
25 Provenance The 2018 edition is now available on our website, with documents from the 19th century prominent Provenance is our free online journal, published features of this edition from the death penalty annually on our website. The journal features through to the threat of smallpox. Skipping forward peer-reviewed articles as well as other written a hundred years, this issue also uncovers the rule- contributions that contain research drawing on bending that changed Melbourne’s skyline forever. records from our collection. This year saw the completion of a project to create PDF-printable versions of all back issues to enhance the Koorie records accessibility, distribution and promotion of the The Koorie Records Unit (KRU) promotes awareness journal. about Aboriginal records within our collection and We would like to acknowledge the contributing aims to improve accessibility of these records to the authors, as well as the experts who have reviewed Aboriginal community. articles in the last twelve months. We are also very The KRU: lucky to have a dedicated editorial board to support the production of Provenance each year: • Provides a culturally sensitive Koorie Reference Service in collaboration with the National • Tsari Anderson, Editor, Provenance; Coordinator, Archives of Australia (NAA), to provide support Koorie Records Unit, Public Record Office and advice to Aboriginal people wishing to Victoria access records relevant to their personal and • Dr David ‘Fred’ Cahir, Associate Professor of community histories Aboriginal History, Federation University • Develops resources, programs and initiatives Australia that increase the knowledge, accessibility and • Dr Sebastian Gurciullo, Assistant Editor, use of Victoria’s unique collection of government Provenance; Community Archives Officer, records relating to Aboriginal people. Public Record Office Victoria We have completed a project to digitise an • Dr Adrian Jones OAM, Associate Professor of important collection of records relating to Victorian History, La Trobe University Aboriginal peoples and the Aboriginal Protectorate from the period 1838–1860. Indigenous researchers • Mike Jones, Consultant Research Archivist, the have direct access to these records in the Victorian University of Melbourne Archives Centre Reading Room via a standalone • Dr Antonina Lewis, Research Fellow, Centre for portal designed specifically for accessing digitised Organisational and Social Informatics, Monash Aboriginal records that are not published online for University (until February 2019); independent cultural sensitivity and privacy reasons. archival consultant and researcher A collaborative project has commenced with the • Dr Seamus O’Hanlon, Associate Professor of Taungurung Land and Waters Council to provide History, Monash University a complete copy of these digitised records for a significant research and mapping project which will • Dr Dianne Reilly AM, FRHSV, Secretary, La Trobe bring to light important historical information about Society Taungurung history and connection to country. The • Katherine Sheedy, Professional Historians work will also lead to an increased understanding Association (VIC) Inc. of the relationship between the records and the • Dr Judith Smart, Adjunct Professor, RMIT Aboriginal communities that came into contact with University; Principal Fellow, The University of the Protectorate system. Melbourne • Dr Rachel Standfield, Lecturer, Monash Indigenous Studies Centre, Monash University.
26 We also launched a Koorie Records Unit Researcher Stories series on the PROV blog as well as a short video where researchers talk about their experiences using records held at the Victorian Archives Centre for their family history research. The KRU’s Koorie Reference Service responded to 78 new research enquiries, involving searches conducted for 990 names and resulting in a total of 5,185 index results across the PROV and NAA collections for the names searched. We also delivered a number of Aboriginal family history workshops and stakeholder training sessions throughout the year. All of the 2018 Victorian Community History Award winners with Don Garden, President of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria.
Grants and awards • Carlton Community History Group for electronic preservation of oral histories that tell the story Through our grants and awards programs we offer of the suburb’s diverse past. funding to support Victorian community groups preserve local history and heritage, and recognise • Melbourne Legacy to digitise films of their work the valuable contribution local communities caring for the widows and children of deceased make in preserving Victorian history for future servicemen, dating back to the 1930s. generations. • Wandong History Group for equipment to help Coinciding with History Week in October 2018, mount exhibitions, including a Black Saturday we announced the Victorian Community History memorial and a World War I display that will be Awards at a ceremony at the Arts Centre Melbourne shown at local libraries. – marking the 20th year of the Awards. Other successful projects ranged from walking The Victorian Community History Awards are tour apps, newspaper digitisation projects and presented annually by Public Record Office Victoria interactive installations to practical storage in partnership with the Royal Historical Society of solutions allowing museums and history groups to Victoria. keep their historical artefacts in top condition. Melbourne clinical psychologist and writer Jill Giese The full list of award winners and grant recipients is was awarded the 2018 Victorian Premier’s History available in the Appendix of this Report. Award for her book The Maddest Place on Earth. Other winning entries included the online documentary series Migrant Stories from Medea Films, the book A Secondary Education for All? by John Andrews and Deborah Towns and the Judges’ Special Prize was awarded to Jennifer Bantow and Ros Lewis for their self-published book Barro-abil. In May 2019 we announced the recipients of Round 17 of the Local History Grants Program, including: • Ballarat and District Aboriginal Co-operative to collate an online history marking the group’s 40 years of work.
27 Build our Profile Website Mainstream media This year we focused on redesigning the interface for searching the collection, launching beta in PROV and our collection appeared in the media early 2019, as already described in this Report. approximately 218 times in 2018–19, with coverage The new catalogue will launch on production in ranging from online to radio, television and print. 2020 alongside a new ordering system. Both of Highlights included: Victorian Community History these changes will ensure a seamless search and Awards and Local History Grants coverage for order journey for all users. Alongside this work we winners across their local news outlets; various continued to refine and build topic pages, including ABC online, radio and Landline television programs pages about courts, crime and justice and public covering topics such as our Section 9 records transport records, as well as tell stories from the release, the Black Allan Line, Blue Lake history and archives via our blog. Our web traffic for the year soldier settlement (pictured); and coverage for our was 1,125,819. The most popular topic pages were Provenance authors including The Age reprint of Wills and Probate, and Passenger Records, with the Kath McKay’s family history story. We also wrote most popular blog post about researching maps several articles about PROV’s recordkeeping and plans. projects for various industry publications such as IQ. Media activities such as these draw the attention of new audiences to our collection and Events and partnerships present PROV as an authority on archives and Over the past few years we have been forging recordkeeping practice in Victoria. relationships with key festival programs in Melbourne as a means to broaden our audience, increase use of our collection and public profile. In 2018–19 we continued our successful partnerships with the Melbourne Writer’s Festival, Melbourne Design Week and Open House. In July 2018 we opened our doors on the Saturday of Open House weekend, hosting 12 tours of the collection focusing on records related to other buildings on show throughout the festival. The tours were filled by approximately 240 people all of whom had never visited the Victorian Archives Centre before. In September we ran two events as part of the Dr Sebastian Gurciullo being interviewed about soldier settler Melbourne Writer’s Festival. The first was a Percy Pepper for Landline in the repository. Photo by Tim Lee. discussion with award-winning author Alexis Wright hosted by Bonnie Chew of the Public Records Social media Advisory Council. Alexis spoke about the process of researching and writing the Miles Franklin In 2018–19 we continued to grow and engage Award-winning tribute to Aboriginal leader Tracker our online community of 21,555 followers across Tilmouth, Tracker. This event tied in nicely with the Facebook, multiple Twitter channels, Instagram, work of our Koorie Records Unit who were on hand LinkedIn and YouTube, increasing our audience to answer questions related to our collection of by 2,551 people. Throughout the year, content records about Aboriginal peoples of Victoria. The shared on our two main channels (PROV Facebook second event we hosted for Melbourne Writer’s and Twitter) resulted in more than 133,614 Festival was a workshop with Gideon Haigh who engagements (comments, shares and likes), which showed writers how to use and incorporate records shows just how valuable these platforms are in from our collection into their writing. And in March exposing our collection to Victorians who might not 2019 we hosted a panel discussion and display for otherwise have had an opportunity to engage with Melbourne Design Week, showcasing plans from our original records of Victoria’s history. Landmark collection and talking about Melbourne’s green spaces.
28 Strengthen our Culture and Capability Health and safety PROV is committed to providing a safe and healthy work environment without risk to physical or psychological harm. We do this by having an active health and safety committee and by placing mental health at the forefront of what we do. Health and safety committee: Our dedicated health and safety representatives play an integral role in ensuring our near misses and incidents are kept to a minimum. In 2018–19 there were no days Bonnie Chew in discussion with Alexis Wright as part of the lost or WorkCover claims and 100% of workplace Melbourne Writers Festival. Photo by Tamsien West of MWF. inspections were completed on time. Identify and Preserve Records of State The biggest risk to physical safety at PROV is Significance through manual handling, specifically through the movement of records. This cycle, to minimise the Cabinet transfer risk of injury to staff we implemented a Manual In preparation for the 2018 State Election, PROV Handling Program where any staff member could and the Cabinet Office worked together with be trained in manual handling to help assist with Victorian Government departments to successfully records retrieval and returns. prepare and transfer digital Cabinet in Confidence Mental Health Action Plan: A staff led committee (CiC) records - records of the first term of the has been convened to develop and implement a Andrews Government - to PROV for the first time Mental Health Action Plan which was a key priority in Victorian Government history. Hardcopy records from the Mental Health Framework developed last were also prepared and transferred in record time. cycle. In the lead up to November 2018, PROV and the The Action Plan will run over the next three years Cabinet Office worked with seven departments to and is closely aligned to the Mental Health and facilitate the CiC transfers: Wellbeing Charter for the Victorian Public Sector • Department of Economic Development, which aims to: Jobs, Transport and Resources • Promote Positive Mental Health Wellbeing • Department of Environment, Land, Water • Address Mental Injury and Illness and Planning • Protect From Mental Injury and Illness • Department of Education and Training • Department of Health and Human Services • Department of Justice and Regulation • Department of Treasury and Finance • Department of Premier and Cabinet. From this, four departments transferred physical records which amounted to 177 boxes (31.74 linear meters) and six departments transferred digital records totalling 323.79 GB and comprising 297,158 individual digital records (VEOs). Careful planning meant that this project became the quickest ever transfer of CiC records to PROV post-election. All records were in PROV custody within one week of election day.
29 Staff engagement PROV completed the People Matter survey, a public sector employee opinion survey run by the Victorian Public Sector Commission. Our results once again demonstrated that we are a great place to work, with staff who are productive, motivated and engaged.
PROV % agreement Comparator Group % agreement Overall measures Job satisfaction 90 73 Engagement 81 71 Our highest result People in my workgroup treat 98 84 each other with respect In my workgroup, human rights 98 86 are valued My organisation encourages 98 85 employees to act in ways that are consistent with human rights Our lowest results Senior managers provide clear 69 66 strategy and direction I am confident that I would 71 62 be protected from reprisal for reporting improper conduct I am confident that if I lodge a 77 64 grievance in my organisation, it would be investigated in a thorough and objective manner Our response rate was 74%.
Diversity and inclusion s e Al ur l i Last cycle we completed a Diversity and Inclusion lt Aboriginal d u e Framework which outlines PROV’s commitment to c awareness n l Gender equality t l and inclusion it building a workplace that is grounded in respect, A ie s fosters inclusion, promotes diversity and embraces Culturally and LGBTI - linguistically the unique skills and qualities of all our people. Lesbian, Gay, diverse This year we built on that Framework by developing Bisexual, Trans a three year action plan. Core to our action plan is and/or Intersex four themes which cover nine focus areas:
Inclusive A and diverse l l Disability n leadership e e Inclusive systems d s Generational s and processes m a diversity e n Workplace st d y a flexibility s b ll ilit A ies
30 Our PROV PRIDE Network and Engagement Committee organised a Wear It Purple morning tea with special guest, non-binary activist and author, Nevo Zisin in August 2018. Nevo spoke about their experience growing up and “how I confused everyone” to quote directly from their book. Gold coin donations on the day raised money for the Minus18 Foundation.
Deliver, Embed and Leverage our Systems System design and implementation has progressed further with user experience design work PROV is continuing its program to implement new undertaken for ordering records on the PROV business systems for managing and facilitating website, as well as the development of back office access to the collection. functions. All major procurement of new systems was Detailed design for the system which will track completed during the 2018–19 period and PROV and manage the location and storage of physical is now involved in an intense period of installation, records in our repository has also been completed. integration and testing. The installation of this system will commence in In early 2019 PROV launched new search and 2019–20. browse functionality to the public, in beta, which We have also implemented new internet services included an image viewer for viewing digitised at PROV providing faster internet speed for our records. digital archives systems, volunteer network and PROV transformed the descriptive information the public reading room. This work enables reliable held about the collection to conform with a revised connectivity and sufficient bandwidth between Archival Control Model in preparation for the our on-premises environment and our cloud implementation of a new Archival Management environment (Amazon Web Services - AWS). It also System which will be implemented in 2019–20. ensures better access to our collection and services for staff, volunteers and the public. A new Digital Archive is also being implemented during this period, which will increase PROV’s Hard work by all the teams involved and our capacity for storing and managing digital records. external vendors has driven on-time delivery of the fundamentals required to be compliant with A Proof of Concept (POC) for an order and copy the Victorian Government requirements for online request system was successfully completed. The security before go-live in early 2020. POC determined that PROV’s approach to security for closed records was sound.
31 Rowers in the mist, Kew, 2013. Photography by Kai O’Yang. ‘The morning fog was just about to break under the sun and the mist was just golden within the rowers. Melbourne has lots of people doing all kinds of sports, even on a winter’s morning where it’s all foggy, one can stand still and find people rowing on the Yarra.’
32 Output Measures 2018–19
PROV 2018–19 BP3 Measures
Performance measure Quantity, Unit of 2018–19 2018–19 Variance (%) Quality, measure Full Year Full Year Timeliness Target Actual Collection usage: Quantity number 2,900,000 4,821,937 66%1 utilisation of physical and digital records held by Public Record Office Victoria Satisfaction with services Quality per cent 90% 94% 4% provided by Public Record Office Victoria to government agencies and to the public Provision of services Timeliness per cent 95% 98% 3% within published timeframes
PROV 2018–19 Annual Report Measures
OUTPUT Unit of measure 2018–19 2018–19 Full Year Target Full Year Actual Government Services Public Record Office Victoria records transferred shelf metres 450 6762 Digital records preserved number of VEOs 75,000 03 Retention and Disposal Authorities issued number 4 34 Number of participants undertaking records number 1,000 8035 management training Transfer projects completed number 15 206 Access Services Records deaccessioned from the PROV collection shelf metres 150 657 Total visitors/users number 80,000 91,5608 Online visitors to website number 930,000 1,125,8199 Volunteer hours number 25,000 25,953 Collection storage meeting industry standard percent 95% 96% Corporate Services Staff hours spent on L&D activities hours 1,250 1206
1 This figure includes access to records through third-party genealogical websites. The target was based on previous year figures but we exceeded the target as a result of more records being available and promoted through the third party sites. 2 Significant fforte was made to complete transfers prior to decommissioning of old transfer management system. This resulted in more transfers being completed than had been anticipated. 3 Digital records ‘preserved’ means VEOs ingested into PROV’s digital archive. Due to delays with the digital archives program, this system is not yet operational which has prevented VEOs being ingested. 4 One RDA did not progress as expected and will be completed in 2019–20. 5 Old online training module withdrawn. New online training will be launched in 2019–20. 6 Significant fforte was made to complete transfers prior to decommissioning of old transfer management system. This resulted in more transfers being completed than had been anticipated. 7 All planned deaccessions were achieved, however it was ultimately determined that the quantity of eligible records was less than anticipated. 8 A higher number of visitors reflected the popularity of the Old Treasury Building’s Gold Rush exhibition. 9 Raised interest in PROV’s grants and Community History Awards resulted in a higher volumes of visitors.
33 Reading Room and Record Retrievals We operate two public reading rooms; one at the Victorian Archives Centre in North Melbourne and the other at the Ballarat Archives 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 2018–19, 9,646 visitors utilised the reading rooms to view public records, 44,780 records were issued to visitors and an additional 6,589 were issued to Government agencies and for internal PROV use. Reference enquiries were managed through our online system, which received an average 638 queries per month.
Records Issued Public users Government users
70,000 60,000 50,000 40,000 30,000 20,000 Number of records Number of 10,000 0 Year 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19
Visitors to Reading Rooms Victorian Archives Centre Bendigo Regional Archives Centre Ballarat Archives Centre Geelong Heritage Centre
55,000
50,000
45,000
40,000
35,000
30,000 Number of visitors Number of 25,000
20,000
15,000
10,000
5,000
0 Year 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017-18 2018–19 As the visitors to Geelong Library & Heritage Centre jumped significantly in 2015–16 due to the attraction of the new building facilities, for 2016–17 and beyond we are only counting those who visited the reading room specifically to research public records.
34 Sunday Drive, Road Construction Authority, Photographic Collection, Master Negatives and Digitised Images (1913–1995). Bright Tawonga Road near Mount Beauty showing Kiewa Valley and Mount Bogong, 1962. Public Record Office Victoria, VPRS 17684/P1, Unit 71, Item 62_253
35 Appendices
Appendix 1: Assets Our assets include both community and operating assets in the following four categories: Community assets These assets are the State’s archival collection. The physical collection was valued in June 2017 at $299.9m. The digital collection was valued at $16.7m. Building assets 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. Motor vehicles PROV operates one vehicle: a station wagon. Plant and operating equipment 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.
Appendix 2: Financial Statement
2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 Operating 3,550,372 4,100,642 4,529,782 5,271,015 Salary and on-costs 5,100,405 5,707,427 5,955,220 6,729,267 Sub-total 8,650,777 9,808,069 10,485,002 12,000,282 Capital 1,181,627 1,141,842 2,533,419 1,493,664 Depreciation 3,332,697 3,060,845 2,031,131 2,044,246 Capital Assets Charge 4,577,000 4,925,000 4,904,067 4,873,097 Total Expenditure 17,742,101 18,935,756 19,953,619 20,411,289
36 Appendix 3: Workforce Data
Ongoing Employees Fixed-term & Casual Number Full-time Part-time FTE FTE (Headcount) (Headcount) (Headcount) June 2018 55 32 23 47.8 14.3 June 2019 58 37 21 51.4 10.8
June 2018 June 2019 Ongoing Fixed-term Ongoing Fixed-term & Casual & Casual Number FTE FTE Number FTE FTE (Headcount) (Headcount) Gender Female 35 29.1 9.3 38 32.3 6.8 Male 20 18.7 5 20 19.1 4 Age Under 25 0 0 1 0 0 1 25-34 12 10.6 1.4 14 13 0.8 35-44 13 10.4 6.7 15 12.2 4.4 45-54 15 13.5 2.6 13 12.2 3.0 55-64 12 11.1 1.6 12 10.8 1.6 Over 65 3 2.2 1 4 3.2 0 Classification Executive 1 1 0 1 1 0 STS 1 0.7 0 1 0.7 0 Grade 6 8 7. 5 1 7 6.6 1 Grade 5 6 5.5 4 6 5.9 2 Grade 4 12 9.6 2.4 13 10.2 0.6 Grade 3 15 14.1 0.8 16 15.1 1.4 Grade 2 12 9.4 6.1 14 11.9 5.8
37 Appendix 4: Standards and Advice Section 12 of the Public Records Act 1973 (Vic) 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: www.prov.vic.gov.au/recordkeeping-government/standards-policies- rdas.
Appendix 5: Recordkeeping Standards Framework Documents Issued 2018–19 Standards and specifications issued
Number Name Issue
PROS 11/09 Control Standard variation 22/02/2019 PROS 11/09 S1 Control Specification variation 22/02/2019 PROS 11/10 Access Standard variation 22/02/2019 PROS 11/10 S1 Access to Records in PROV Custody variation 22/02/2019 PROS 11/10 S2 Access to Records in Agency Custody variation 22/02/2019
Appendix 6: Retention and Disposal Authority (RDA) Documents Issued or Varied 2018–19 New RDAs
Number Name Issue
PROS 10/15 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of Anti-Corruption 13/08/2018 Function PRO 19/01 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of the Gambling and 08/04/2019 Liquor Regulation Functions PROS 19/02 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of the Professional 29/04/2019 Registration and Accreditation Function
38 RDAs varied
Number Name Issue Expiry
PROS 99/02 Department of Treasury and Finance Retention 19/11/2018 31/12/2021 and Disposal Authority Variation 8 PROS 01/01 Schools Records Authority 20/08/2018 31/12/2019 Variation 8 PROS 01/03 Victorian Auditor-General’s Office Records Authority 19/11/2018 31/12/2019 Variation 5 PROS 04/03 Office of Public Prosecutions 19/11/2018 30/06/2020 Variation 4 PROS 04/07 Office of Gaming and Racing 19/11/2018 30/06/2020 Variation 3 PROS 04/08 Victims of Crime Assistance Tribunal 19/11/2018 31/12/2021 Variation 3 PROS 07/02 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of the 19/11/2018 30/06/2021 Office of the Chief Parliamentary Counsel Variation 2 PROS 07/06 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of the 19/11/2018 31/12/2021 Office of the Health Complaints Commissioner Variation 2 PROS 08/13 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of the 19/11/2018 No date Disability Services Function Variation 1 PROS 08/14 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of the 19/11/2018 No date Housing Function Variation 1 PROS 08/03 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of the 19/11/2018 30/06/2020 County Court Variation 2 PROS 08/06 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of the 19/11/2018 No date Port of Melbourne Variation 2 PROS 08/07 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of the 19/11/2018 No date Working with Children Check Function Variation 1 PROS 08/08 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of the 19/11/2018 No date Rural Finance Function Variation 1 PROS 08/09 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of the 19/11/2018 No date Essential Services Function Variation 1
39 Number Name Issue Expiry
PROS 08/10 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of the 19/11/2018 31/12/2021 Curriculum and Assessment Functions Variation 1 PROS 08/11 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of the 19/11/2018 31/12/2021 Legal Services Commissioner Variation 1 PROS 08/12 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of Child 19/11/2018 No date Protection and Family Services Functions Variation 4 PROS 08/17 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of the 19/11/2018 No date Youth Parole and Residential Boards Variation 1 PROS 09/01 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of the 19/11/2018 No date Dispute Settlement Centre of Victoria Variation 1 PROS 09/02 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of the 19/11/2018 31/12/2021 Legal Services Board Variation 1 PROS 09/04 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of the 19/11/2018 30/06/2021 Childrens Court Variation 2 PROS 09/06 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of 19/11/2018 No date WorkSafe Victoria Variation 2
40 Appendix 7: Approved Public Record Office Victoria Storage Suppliers (APROSS) 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-agencies
APROSS
Facilities approved in 2018–19 2 Reappointments 0 Number of current approved APROSS facilities 33
Appendix 8: Staff Achievements Awards Public Record Office Victoria: PROV received a commendation at the 2018 Museums Australasia Multimedia and Publication Design Awards (MAPDA) under the institution website category for the new Public Record Office Victoria website. Sarah Harris: Collection Management and Access Services Officer Sarah Harris made the Vice-Chancellor’s List for Academic Excellence (M. IM, RMIT) in 2018.
41 Professional committees Justine Heazlewood: chair, Bendigo Regional Archives Centre Committee of Management; chair, Tsari Anderson: editor, Provenance journal; member, Australasian Digital Recordkeeping Initiative; chair, Professional Historians Association. Monash University Information and Knowledge. Grace Baliviera: member, CAARA Out of Home Care Management Course Advisory Committee; board Working Group. member, Emerald Tourist Railway Board; member, Council of Australasian Archives and Records Lauren Bourke: member, Australian Galleries and Authorities; member, Standards Australia, Records Museums Australia Victoria Branch Committee; and Document Management Systems Committee member, Australian Galleries and Museums (IT-21). Australia Victoria Museum Accreditation Advisory Committee; member, Museums Australia (Victoria) Al Hunter: professional member (ARIM), Records 2018 National Conference Program Committee. and Information Management Professionals Australasia (RIMPA or RIM Professionals Elise Bradshaw: member, Automated Briefing and Australasia); communication portfolio lead and Correspondence Governance Model Working Group. member, Victorian Public Sector Pride Network; David Brown: member, Australian Institute member, VPS Pride Council and Trans & Gender of Company Directors; member, Information Diverse Group; member, Australian Anthropological Management Group; member, Australasian Digital Society. Recordkeeping Initiative; member, Australian : committee member, Linked Open Society of Archivists. Asa Letourneau Data in Libraries, Archives and Museums. Charlie Farrugia: member, Australian Women’s : chair, Council of Australasian Archives Project Committee; member, Victorian Julie McCormack Archives and Records Authorities National Association of Family History Organisations Bodies Working Group; member, Australasian Committee; member, Geelong Heritage Centre Digital Recordkeeping Initiative; member, WoVG Collection Advisory Committee. Information Management Group; member, Kate Follington: member, Australian Galleries and Department of Health and Human Services Records Museums Australia Victoria Branch; committee Management Steering Committee; PROV delegate, member, Museums Australia (Victoria) 2018 Australian Society of Archivists. National Conference Program Committee; : member, Australasian Digital committee member, Creative Victoria Digital Alison McNulty Recordkeeping Initiative; member, CAARA Royal Engagement Stakeholder Group. Commission into Institutional Response to Child Peter Francis: member, Australasian Digital Sexual Abuse Working Group; member, Department Recordkeeping Initiative; member, Association of of Education and Training Schools Working Group. Computing Machinery. Simon Moeller: Member, Knowledge Management Carly Godden: member, Bendigo Regional Archives Leadership Forum. Centre Operations Committee. Tara Oldfield: board member, History Council Suzy Goss: recognised professional member, of Victoria; member, North Melbourne Agency Australian Society of Archivists; communications Collective. officer, ASA Victoria Branch committee; mentee, : member, Open Minds Advisory Board. Institute of Public Administration Australia Jennifer Rout mentoring. David Taylor: member, Public Relations Institute of Australia; member, Australian Council for Dr Sebastian Gurciullo: editorial board member, Educational Leaders; director, St Columba’s College Archives and Manuscripts; editorial board Board (to February 2019). member and assistant editor, Provenance journal; webmaster and steering committee member of Nicole Tighe: member, Australian Human Resources the Section on Literary and Artistic Archives of the Institute; member, Department of Premier and International Council on Archives; board member, Cabinet Human Resources Working Group; member, Course Advisory Board, Bachelor of Arts, La Trobe GLAM Human Resources Working Group; member, University. VPS Human Resources Working Group.
42 Andrew Waugh: member, Standards Australia, Meeting the Recommendations of the Royal Records and Document Management Systems Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Committee (IT-21) Subcommittee on Recordkeeping Sexual Abuse Metadata. Senior Health Information Managers Forum, December 2018 Rebecca Young: coordinator, Australasian Digital Alison McNulty Recordkeeping Initiative. Researching Aboriginal family history at the Victorian Archives Centre Conference and seminar presentations Link Up Victoria How to Research Place Workshop Victorian Archives Centre, January 2019 Various dates across Melbourne University, Tsari Anderson and Georgia Harris Victoria University, and Federation University Towards a networked archive for the digital age Kate Follington International Digital Curation Conference What Is Engagement? Melbourne University, February 2019 Museums and Galleries Australia National Owen O’Neill and Daniel Wilksch Conference Digital Forever: Preserving Victoria’s Records Melbourne, 2018 10th Digital RIM Summit Kate Follington Melbourne, February 2019 The Places of Deposit Program Julie McCormack and Elise Bradshaw History Victoria Support Group Seminar Public Libraries Victoria Local Studies Special Royal Historical Society of Victoria, August 2018 Interest Group David Taylor Yarra Plenty Regional Library, networking meeting Researching Aboriginal family history at the Victorian Conference Room, PROV, March 2019 Archives Centre Sarah Harris and Heather Ogilvie Aboriginal Family History Day Introduction to records about Aboriginal people in State Library of Victoria, August 2018 the Public Record Office Victoria collection Tsari Anderson and Georgia Harris Monash University, ATS3280 The Ethnographic VEO Processing Application endeavour: capturing the Indigenous past to Australian Society of Archivists Government SIG understand the Indigenous present Perth WA, September 2018 Victorian Archives Centre, March 2019 Julie McCormack Tsari Anderson Digital transfer step-by-step Digital transfer step-by-step PROV’s Records Management Network Municipal Association of Victoria’s Local Melbourne, October 2018 Government Information Governance Committee Melbourne, April 2019 Elise Bradshaw Elise Bradshaw Researching Aboriginal family history at the Victorian Archives Centre Government Records and the Koorie Community Shepparton Library RMIT University Shepparton, October 2018 Melbourne, April 2019 Tsari Anderson and Georgia Harris Georgia Harris Innovative Approaches to Records Management Building bridges: from Latin American history to Department of Justice and Community Safety Victorian history Exhibition launch Forum, April 2019 No Vacancy Gallery, QV Building Melbourne, November 2018 Alison McNulty David Taylor
43 PROV Appraisal & Disposal Update Victorian Records and Information Management Professionals Australasia (RIMPA) - Local Government Chapter Meeting Victorian Archives Centre, May 2019 Alexia Bushby and Andrew Harris Modern problems FIT5206 - Digital continuity Monash University, May 2019 Peter Francis Responding to the Recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse eScholarship Research Centre, Melbourne University, May 2019 Alison McNulty What They Never Taught Us in GLAMR School Australian Society of Archivists Victorian Branch Monthly Event Melbourne, May 2019 Elise Bradshaw RMIT University Industry Forum Panel School of Business, IT and Logistics RMIT University, Melbourne, June 2019 Andrew Harris Koorie Records Unit – services and resources for Aboriginal family history Social and Emotional Wellbeing forum, Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation Koorie Heritage Trust, June 2019 Tsari Anderson and Georgia Harris Introduction to PROV and Government Services RMIT University – Master of Information Management Student Visit Victorian Archives Centre, June 2019 Andrew Harris
44 Appendix 9: Volunteers Leayne Alden Kerry Hammond Fiona O’Donnell Penny Anggo Therese Hammond Neil Paddle Mark Armstrong-Roper Sara Hardy Carol Panjkov David Asquith Elizabeth Harry Matthew Parker Robert Asquith Joanne Hawkesworth Geoffrey Paterson Garry Ball Ian Hazewinkel Bruce Paule Jennifer Barker Walter Heale Lyn Pecchiar Pamela Baum Mary Henkel Margaret Pope Fay Beslee Joy Herman Pat Porigneaux Marian Bierenbroodspot Joy Hirst David Power Teresa Boonekamp Jennifer Horne Janet Purkis Elizabeth Buckle Lyell Horwood David Rankine Carol Bullen Kim House Liz Raven Ian Burandt Lewis House Mark Richardson Stefano Callegari Lesley Jeffrey Sue Rickard Graeme Cardillo Paula Johnson Edgar Dawn Riddel Wendy Carver Judy Johnston Lois Roberts Celestine Chisholm Anne Jones Adriene Rodriguez Neil Chisholm Lou Kearney Marie Rogers Keng Chong Irene Kearsey Warwick Rose Ahnya Chuah Marilyn Kenny Colin Ruehland Marvite Cini Andrew Knopfelmacher Gerard Ryan Kaye Clancy Philip Lally Jennifer Sach Sandra Clapp Gordon Lee Rick Sidgwick Beth Codling Desmond Logan Dorothy Skewes Tim Coffey John MacKinnon Jan Skidmore Sue Coleman Sue Maclellan Allan Smith Gene Condello Louise Macnamara Jennifer Smith Tom Connolly Anna Maree Malmgren Chris Statham Cheryl Cox Tim Marriott Alan Stevens Calvin Crisp Millie Marsh Bianca Stolar Graeme Dawson Judith Mason Ruth Sturgeon Sue Dawson Jane Matews-Bede Maria Teresa Tavares Costa Catherine DeLuca Matthew McGhie Lindsay Thomas Brian Dixon Maureen McGinnes Robert Thomas Lorraine Doig Fiona McKinley Gail Thornthwaite Alison Dredge Kathy McNamara Kathy Trajkovska Claire Dunlop Julie McQueen Maureen Treacy Barry Flemming Bernard Metcalfe Brian Tseng Matthew Forster Barbara Minchinton Mathew Turton Elliot Freeman Simon Moeller Robert Twyford Charissa Good David Morris Tom Tyrrell Leanne Goss Neil Morris Judith Vardy Claudia Guli Alastair Munro Maxine Wagerman Kerry Gutowski Pauline Murphy Rosemary Waghorne Clive Haddock Mitchell Naughton Anna Wells Carol Hagan Christopher North-Coombes Ian Willmott Violet Hamence-Davies Ross Oberin Suzanne Woolley
And a special thank you to Family Search volunteers: Becky Clement Ben Grimes Charlie Olsen Sheila Stearns Gary Clement Dotti Grimes Marsha Olsen Bob Stearns
45 Appendix 10: Local History Grant recipients The Local History Grants program provides small grants to community organisations to support projects that preserve, record or publish Victorian local history. Recipients for the 2018–19 round:
Recipient Project Granted
Alexandra Timber Tramway and Interpretation panels and signage for historic $5,692 Museum Inc. exhibits display Bacchus Marsh and District Digitisation of The Bacchus Marsh Express $12,973 Historical Society newspapers Ballarat and District Aboriginal BADAC: 40 years strong $15,000 Cooperative Beaumaris Modern Inc. Beaumaris modern walking tour app $2,010 Benalla Aviation Museum Inc. Museum information signage $1,320 Bonnie Doon Recreation Reserve Inc. Historical timeline and details of the Bonnie $3,000 Doon Recreation Reserve Carlton Community History Group Digitisation and preservation of oral history $2,030 Inc. interviews and talks Castlemaine Billy Cart Challenge 70 years in the making: capturing the history $7,800 of billy cart racing in Castlemaine Colac and District Family History Computer to digitise Colac and District family $2,098 Group Inc. history Collingwood Children’s Farm (CCF) Shared histories $15,000 Creswick Museum - Hepburn Shire Purchase and installation of compactus unit $4,350 for the Creswick Museum Research Centre Creswick Railway Workshops Assoc Creswick interactive history installation: $8,330 Inc. 100 years of culture change Dried Fruits Australia Dried Vine Fruits Industry: preservation of 100 $15,000 years of history, stage two Echuca Historical Society Inc. Digitise and archive 6493 pages of the 2001 $15,000 and 2002 Riverine Herald Environment Victoria Inc. 50 years of protecting Victoria’s environment $13,875 Euroa Historical Genealogical Security cameras $1,200 Society Fire Services Museum of Victoria Mosaic upgrade and enhancement $5,714 Gippstown Reserve Committee of Old Gippstown Heritage Buildings and $5,200 Management Collections History website Horsham Historical Society Computers for public access to view our $2,049 digitised collection Kew Historical Society Inc. Conserving the former City of Kew's mayoral $14,500 portraits Kilmore General Cemetery Trust Kilmore General Cemetery records $5,350 conservation project Kinglake Historical Society Kinglake District archival storage $4,950
46 Kow Plains Homestead Committee Kow Plains and Beyond Revisited 1849–2019 $6,000 (Mildura Rural City Council) Leongatha and District Historical The Leongatha Historical Society equipment $2,220 Society Inc. project Lilydale and District Historical Digitisation of the Lilydale Express newspaper $6,989 Society 1900–1913 and 1919–1920 Longwarry and District History Group Historical photo display panels $3,930 Inc. Melbourne Legacy Digitisation of important historical films from $7,225 the Melbourne Legacy Archives Merrigum and District Historical and Making a digital Merrigum $1,400 Educational Society Inc. Nillumbik Historical Society Inc. Digitising, preserving and sharing documents $1,858 and artefacts from Diamond Creek's Historical Society Nuggetty Land Protection Group Nuggetty oral history $7,200 Old Geelong Football Club Old Geelong Football Club year by year web $1,000 history project Port Fairy Historical Society Inc. Equip a new purpose built archive facility $8,492 Quambatook Historical Centre Inc. Remembering Quambatook History as told by $1,500 the towns older residents Ringwood and District Historical Establish scanning workstation (overhead $1,944 Society scanner) for large documents RMIT Design Archives Creating culture through clothes 1980s to $11,200 1990s: the Sara Thorn fashion archive Sale Historical Society Inc. Archive Development 2019–2020 $4,362 Skipton and District Historical Soci- Digitisation and upload to Trove of the Skipton $10,500 ety Standard, part 1, 1914–1928 Smythesdale Cemetery Trust Smythesdale Cemetery Trust - a tribute to the $14,592 women of the district Sunbury Family History Society Inc. Digitisation of The Sunbury News $15,000 Tatura and District Historical Society Tatura Guardian digitisation $15,000 Inc. The Chaffey Trail Reference Group Chaffey Trail Ambassador Program $13,068 Tweddle Child and Family Health Tweddle 2020 - From the first 100 years to the $6,000 Service first 1,000 days Valencia Soldier's Memorial Hall Digitisation and preserving of 1950s–60s local $2,500 Committee films Wandong History Group Inc. Purchase new equipment $2,259 Warburton Fire Brigade - Country Warburton community fire history $7,800 Fire Authority Warragul and District Historical Digitisation of film and audio tape records of $4,182 Society local history West Wimmera Shire Council (Kaniva Digitising Lawloit Times 1910–1929 $14,836 Historical Museum)
47 Wodonga Historical Society Inc. Extending coverage of the Albury Banner and $14,414 Wodonga Express Yarra Libraries (City of Yarra) Digitisation of Fitzroy Cricket Club annual $1,494 reports 1896–1986
Appendix 11: Victorian Community History Award winners The Victorian Community History Awards are held annually in partnership with the Royal Historical Society of Victoria. Winners announced at the October 2018 Awards were:
Recipient Project Awarded
Jill Giese The Maddest Place on Earth Victorian Premier’s History Award $5000 Jennifer Bantow and Ros Lewis Barro-abil Our Beautiful Judges’ Special Prize Barrabool Stone: $500 History and Use of Barrabool Sandstone Nikita Vanderbyl ‘The Happiest Time of My Life’: History Article (Peer Reviewed) Emotive Visitor Books and Early Award Mission $500 Tourism to Victoria’s Aboriginal Reserves John Andrews and ‘A Secondary Education for All?’ Collaborative Community History Deborah Towns A History of State Schooling in Project Award Victoria $2000 Elizabeth O’Callaghan and Silent Lives: Local History Project Warrnambool and District Women of Warrnambool and $2000 Historical Society District 1840–1910 Gregory C. Eccleston Granville Stapylton: Australia History Publication Award Felix 1836, $2000 Second in Command to Major Mitchell Hans-Wolter von Gruenewaldt Art Captured: Hans-Wolter von Local History – Small Publication and Kay Ball Gruenewaldt, Prisoner of War Award Camp 13 Murchison: $1500 His Story and His Art Stella Dimadis Migrant Stories Cultural Diversity Award $1500 Mallacoota and District Secrets from the Mallacoota Multimedia Award Historical Society Bunker $1500 Wangaratta Historical Society, Wangaratta Stories Historical Interpretation Award Wangaratta Art Gallery and $1500 Museums Australia (Victoria) Roving Curator Program Grahame Thom and the Kilmore Lest We Forget: Centenary of World War One Historical Society Southern Mitchell Shire Award Volunteers Who Served in World $1500 War One
48 No.41, State Transport Authority, Photographic Collection (c.1900–c.2000), St Kilda train traffic boarding Victorian Railways Tram. VR Tram No.41 foreground, No date. Public Record Office Victoria, VPRS 12800/P3, Unit 89, Item ADV 0969
49 Glossary
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). 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). APROSS 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). 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). 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). digital / electronic A record produced, housed or transmitted by electronic means rather than physical record means. A record expressed in an electronic digital format. A record stored in a form that only a computer can process. digitised record / An electronic reproduction of a picture, photograph or physical item (e.g. letter or digital image 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). 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. 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. place of deposit A location approved by the Victorian Government Minister responsible for PROV for (POD) the storage by community groups of temporary records of local value. provenance 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.
50 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). reading room Area set aside at PROV centres for public access to records (Private lives, public records). 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: • A document in writing • A book, map, plan, graph or drawing • A photograph • 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 • 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 • 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 • 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). recordkeeping Making and maintaining complete, accurate and reliable evidence of business transactions in the form of recorded information. records Field of management responsible for the efficient and systematic control of the management 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). repository The building (or part of the building) in which the collection/holdings are housed. series A group of records which are recorded or maintained by the same agency or agencies and which: • 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. standard 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. 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. 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). unsentenced Records which have not yet been appraised and whose status is therefore not yet records determined (Public Records Act 1973). VPRS An abbreviation for Victorian Public Record Series. A VPRS number is allocated to each record series when it is transferred to PROV.
1 J. Ellis (ed.), Keeping Archives, 1993, The Australian Society of Archivists Inc., Australia. 2 B. Fensham et al., Private lives, public records, 2004, Public Record Office Victoria, Australia.
51 Victorian Archives Centre 99 Shiel Street North Melbourne 10am–4.30pm Monday to Friday (and the 2nd and last Saturday of the month) prov.vic.gov.au [email protected] 03 9348 5600
Ballarat Archives Centre Eureka Centre 102 Stawell Street South Ballarat Central 10am–4.30pm Monday to Thursday
Bendigo Regional Archives Centre 1st Floor Bendigo Library 251-259 Hargreaves Street Bendigo 10am–4.30pm Wednesday and Thursday
Geelong Heritage Centre Geelong Library and Heritage Centre 51 Little Malop Street Geelong Check website for hours