VPRS 13422 Railway Safety Council Records

Full description

This series consists of records created by the Railway Safety Council and Industrial Safety Council of the Victorian Railways (VA 2876). The Railway Safety Council was established in 1926 (refer to VPRS 421/P2, Unit 1, correspondence registration number 1926/9008) to organise industrial accident prevention within the Department. It consisted of representatives of branches under the chairmanship of the Chairman of the Betterment and Publicity Board. After formulating policy and laying down principles from which accident prevention work was to be carried out, the Council met only when required to deal with such matters if and when they arose.

The Chairman dealt with matters of detail in conjunction with the Goggle Committee, which inspected tenders and samples of protective equipment referred by the Comptroller of Stores. The Chairman represented the Department on the National Safety Council of Australia and on certain Standards Association Committees. Internal Safety Committees were established, for example, at the Newport Workshops.

In 1963 the Industrial Safety Council was established, and attended by the six heads of the operating branches. The Industrial Safety Council formed overall safety policy, reviewed performance, prepared statements for supervisors in respect to safety and set up committees to research various safety issues. This series Included :

- Memoranda received from the Secretary's Office,
- Reports, eg regarding safety matters taken up with branches, industrial safety and safety standards at level crossings,
- Departmental statistics,
- Minutes of the Railways Safety Council meetings (1953-1956),
- Minutes of the Industrial Safety Council (1963-1970),
- Minutes of the Joint Branch Track Machine Committee (1966-1970),
- Minutes of the Melbourne Yards Management Safety Committee (1965-1970) and
- 'A Brief History of Industrial Safety in Victorian Railways' prepared by I.G.Wearne 1971.