NRS-15563 | Estates and Refreshment Rooms Branch Minute Books

Full description

Although entitled 'minute books', the series contains copies of individual minutes adopted by the branch but not the minutes of entire meetings. Next to the minutes are included the relevant correspondence. It would appear that not all minutes have survived. The highest volume of this series is correspondence and memoranda relevant to the minutes and related matters.

Subjects include resumption of lands for railway purposes, erection maintenance and management of railway buildings and sundry matters related to railway real estate, legal opinions and legal instruments relating to property, personnel and industrial matters, military service, and the management, stocking, and staffing of refreshment rooms.

There are many copies of letters to the Secretary, Department of Railways and other senior officers, copies of internal railway instructions which impact upon property and copies of relevant notices from NSW Government Gazettes and press clippings.

The page numbering in the volumes is complex consisting of a numeral followed by one or more letters, and is continuous throughout the series.

There is an index to this series at series NRS 15562. However to use this index satisfactorily it is essential to note which volume contains the relevant page numbers.

Custody History
From 1955 until 2000 the State Rail Authority of New South Wales maintained an ‘in house archives’ consisting of the archival records of the Authority, its predecessor agencies and the private railway companies taken over by the government. The date ranges of the records were from 1849 until 2000. When the decision was made to close the ‘State Rail Archives’ the parts of the collection that were required as State archives were transferred to the State Records Authority of NSW. Those record series were incorporated into the State Records series system of archives control and were re-numbered.

This series was formerly part of the State Rail Archives collection. It may have been viewed in the State Rail Archives as series R152 and could have been previously cited as such in notes by researchers at State Rail Archives or in publications or unpublished works.