A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to attend a behind the scenes tour of the Public Record Office Victoria (PROV). The tour was run by a Liz, a PROV volunteer, who provided a great introduction to the workings of the Public Record Office.

Liz first took us through the Victorian Archives Centre Reading Room, explaining the procedures for accessing the collection.  A great starting point for any newbie to the Centre!

We then headed down to the stacks where a few unexpected items were hidden, including:
a beautiful old wooden desk (originally used by a staff member at the Treasury and Finance Department), a pigeon hole cabinet (a 19th Century archive storage device), a chart detailing over 300 voyages from Europe to Australia including longitude and latitude coordinates for various points of these voyages (created by Georg Balthasar von Neumayer) and a 1936 monster petition with approximately 36,000 signatures protesting the cost of motor registration.

If you get a chance, I’d highly recommend attending one of PROV’s behind the scenes tours.
Check out their Events Calendar for future sessions.