NRS-17676 | Official Minutes of Board Meetings [Hunter District Water Board]

Full description

This series consists of the Official Minutes of the Meeting of the Board of the Hunter District Water Supply and Sewerage Board and its successor, the Hunter District Water Board, for the period 1892 until 1995. The function of the Board was financing the construction, maintenance and administration of the water supply, sewerage and storm-water drainage works within its area of operations - the cities of Newcastle, Greater Cessnock and Maitland, as well as the Municipality of Lake Macquarie and the Shire of Port Stephens.

This series, which includes 86 volumes, constitutes an official record of the proceedings at each of the monthly meeting of the Board.

This series is closely related to series  NRS-17675 which is the index to the volumes for the years 1892- 1903. Each volume after 1903 begins with an index in the front of the volume.

The first volume in the series Volume 1 covering July 1892 till August 1904 is missing as of May 2014. Volume 2 begins in September of 1904.

It seems that over time the Hunter Water boards activities grew and more committee meetings  and reports took place and by 1986 the decision was made to separate the board minutes and committee reports when before they were recorded as one.

This decision seems to have been made mid year: volume 76 being the Official Board Meeting Minutes and 76a being the Committee Reports for the second half of the year, this is the only time the letter A is used. After this the numbering continues as normal with 77 being Official minutes and 78 being Committee reports for the same period.

Physically the collection is in good condition. The size and style of the volumes varies the first 20 volumes are folio size leather bound books in average condition they have the volume number on the spine and no information on the cover the leather is deteriorating and some spines are damaged with loose pages.  Volumes 22-29 are A4 size printed documents secured with screw post binding. They are in average condition with some paper labels on the spine missing. The next section from 1943 to 1985 is similar in style to the previous ones but the spine is bound in leather they list the year on the spine and no volume number. Towards the end these books become very large and unmanageable. You can presume that this was part of the reason the committee reports and official minutes were separated.  The rest of the books are covered in fabric with the date on the spine. They are in good condition with the front cover labelled with the title and date range.