Full description
This series contains digitised copies of parish, township, soldier settlement, closer settlement, land settlement, county and other miscellaneous plans. The plans are 'working plans', used to record information about the use of Crown Land (leases, for example) and were maintained by various regional land offices throughout Victoria. They cover all areas of Victoria, including Melbourne, and may record information dating from establishment of the Port Phillip District and the first official land sales (1837) up until the time of scanning (2001 - 2004). The digitisation of plans was overseen by the Bendigo regional land office: the intention being to provide a consolidated, readily accessible and unalterable reference set of the last hardcopy plans in current use prior to moving to the use of digital systems to create and manage plans.After scanning, the digitised images were distributed to regional land offices and other locations across Victoria in a set of DVDs. PROV was also eventually provided a copy of the DVDs and it was from these DVDs that the digitised representation of these plans have been placed online.
CREATION OF THE DIGITISED REFERENCE SET
Scanning took place over the period 2001 to 2004 and was managed by the Bendigo regional land office. Plans were sourced from the regional land offices throughout Victoria. Central and metropolitan Melbourne is included.
The idea to create the set originated within the Bendigo regional land office and arose from a recognition that continued creation and maintenance of such plans in physical format was becoming problematic. Increasing amounts of plan data was becoming available in digital format within Departmental systems leading to duplication of effort. Also, structural changes within the Department created an increasing requirement to be able to access plans independently of geographic location, which was difficult with physical plans because they could only be readily accessed at the regional office where they were physically located.
A decision was reached to cease maintaining the plans in physical format. The need for large paper working plans in regional offices to record temporary use of crown land was replaced by the LIMS (Land Information Management System), a computer system for documenting use of allotments that was progressively rolled out during the early 1980s. This digitised reference set provides a consolidated, readily accessible and unalterable copy of the physical plans in current use around the time of the decision to go digital. In effect it provides a snapshot of Crown land usage throughout Victoria in the period 2001 to 2004.
The precise criteria for inclusion of plans in the collection is unknown but is thought to have been based on current and anticipated future reference requirements. Best available copies were selected for imaging.
The physical plans from which the images derive were retained by the various land offices from where they were sourced. These physical plans are not and have never been held by PROV and it is unlikely all of these plans exist today.
INFORMATIONAL CONTENT
Working plans were created to record the day to day activities relating to the management/use of Crown Land. The plans themselves consists of two elements – a published copy of an existing parish or township record (created to document the status, in terms of alienation from the Crown, of allotments) which was used as the base plan. The second element were handwritten annotations made on that plan by staff at either the local/regional land office, or until 1983, the Occupation Branch in Melbourne.
For most parishes and townships, the base plan includes details of the alienation of land from the Crown (names of selectors, dates and selection file numbers), the boundaries of allotments and other detail. Most of these parish or township plans are either published or departmental use only versions of centrally created plans known as record plans which are held within VPRS 16306. Information on record plans, and thus the digitised working plans in this series, may date from the earliest official land transactions in the region covered by the plan, and may extend to the period 2001 to 2004. The first official transactions occurred in the area of the current day Melbourne central business district in 1837 (first official land sales).
However, hard copy record plans were not created for every parish or township in Victoria, and in some cases, land office staff may have been unable to obtain a copy of a relevant record plan. In such cases another form of plan which is not a record plan was used as a substitute base plan. Examples of such plans that can be found in these digitised working plans include plans showing national parks, a road traverse survey, grazing allotments plans, and even what appears to be a published version of an auction notice.
For further information about record plans refer to the series description for VPRS 16306.
Annotations made by staff on these working plans could include details about:
- Temporary tenure of Crown land not involving alienation, for example, fixed term leases and licenses to occupy.
- Changes in road alignments and property boundaries.
- Proposed changes in boundaries and alignments.
- Enquiries and preliminary dealings relating to the sale of land.
- Details of Crown reservations including details of gazettal and file numbers.
- References to regional registers of dealings.
- Use and management of Crown lands. For example, details of changes in the use of Crown reserves and details of how they were managed.
File numbers of correspondence files maintained in relation to matters may also be shown.
DATE RANGES
At least three date ranges may be attributed to the plans.
1. The date of imaging. For the entire collection this is 2001 to 2004 and is reflected in the series date range and the consignment series date ranges.
2. The date of the information content of the plans. For the entire collection this is assumed to be 1837 to 2004, reflecting the earliest and latest transaction dates likely to be recorded within the collection. 1837 is the year of the first official land sales in the area which is now the Melbourne central business district. The earliest year sighted during inspection of a sample of plans, however, is 1838. 2004 is the year when imaging ceased and so is the latest possible year that information could have been recorded on a working plan. The precise end date is subject to further research. The informational content date range is reflected in the series contents date range and the consignment contents date ranges. The uncertainly is denoted by use of the '?' qualifier.
Note that no attempt has been made to ascertain an information content date range for the Soldier and Closer Settlement plans and other miscellaneous plans. It is too difficult to determine accurate start and end dates and any attempt to estimate could be misleading. Suffice to say, the Soldier and Closer Settlement plans would commence around or some time after the commencement of the respective schemes. Information about the respective schemes may be obtained from the PROV Lands Guide, any series related to the schemes that have been registered in the PROV catalogue and external secondary sources.
3. The date of the hardcopy plan used as the basis for the working plan. These dates are subject are unlikely to be of immediate significance for most research purposes and, in any event, this date is typically recorded on each plan.
PLANS IN THIS SERIES
More detailed information about the types of plans to be found in the reference set and their use may be obtained by reference to the PROV Lands Guide 2009 and to any series that may have been registered in the PROV catalogue in relation to specific plan types or the soldier and closer/land settlement schemes.
Parish and Township Plans (Consignment P1):
Plans are thought to exist for all parishes and townships except for several remote parishes in the North East. Plans exist for the Melbourne city and metropolitan area.
Soldier and Closer Settlement Plans (Consignment P2):
Plans exist for both post World War I and post World War II Soldier Settlement schemes, although the completeness of the collection is subject to further research as at time writing. Plans also exist for Closer Settlement and post World War II Land Settlement schemes. Again, completeness is subject to further research.
Miscellaneous Plans (Consignment P2 and possibly P1):
The range of plans is subject to further research.
County Plans (Consignment P2):
Completeness is subject to further research.
County and Parish Index (Consignment P3):
These are plans of Victoria showing County and Parish boundaries and names. They can be used to identify which county or parish a particular area of interest belongs. They include the Melbourne and metropolitan area. There are four plans covering: Northwest, Southwest, Northeast and Southeast. The Melbourne and metropolitan region is covered in the Southwest plan. The plans have been included in a separate consignment for convenience of access.
PLAN NUMBERS
Plan numbering systems relating to the physical plans in this series have not been researched and documented as part of this series. Further information may possibly be obtained from the PROV Lands Guide and, if any original plans have been separately registered in the PROV catalogue, from the series description for that registration.
The number in the image file title is the parish or township's unique 4 digit identification code, assigned by the Central Plan Office.
DIFFERENT SETS OF WORKING PLANS
Historically, a number of sets of working plans were maintained: one centrally by the Occupation Branch in Melbourne and also by each of the various regional land offices.
Each regional office maintained plans relating to the geographical area for which it was responsible. Annotations made by staff on these plans reflect the administrative needs of each land office.
Plans were maintained in tandem between Melbourne and the regional offices, with changes and annotations communicated between them and plans updated accordingly. In theory, two identical versions of each plan existed. It is believed, however, that the maintenance of plans in tandem was breaking down by the 1970's with more responsibility devolving to the regional offices. In 1983, major administrative changes saw the winding up of the Branch and devolution of its responsibilities to the regional land offices. The retired or 'put-away' (see below) plans maintained by the Occupation Branch were distributed to the regional offices. It is not known if the current plans of the Branch were distributed. Some of the physical plans that have been scanned for this series may therefore have originated from the former Occupation Branch.
PUT-AWAY WORKING PLANS
Over time, new versions of working plans could be created to replace those that had become worn or cluttered. The data on the old plan was transferred to the new plan. Superseded plans were retired from use and were known as 'put-away' plans. The working plans in use at a given point in time were known as 'current plans'. The Occupation Branch maintained sets of put-away and current working plans. It has also been claimed regional land offices also maintained current and put away working plans, but this might not be true for every office.
Opinions expressed by staff of the Bendigo land office as at 2006 leaned towards the belief that all historical information was transferred to a new working plan from the soon-to-be put-away working plan. This is likely to be only partially accurate. A specific working plan was likely in use for an extended period of time, and by the time a new working plan was established, an undetermined proportion of annotations would have been obsolete and thus would not be transferred. Also, some annotations would have been subsequently included in the next published version of the record plan used as the base plan and so there would be no need to annotate the working plan with that detail.
It is also uncertain to what extent superseded (put-away) plans have survived over time. It appears that an undetermined quantity of working plans have been destroyed but also that put away working plans from regional offices have found their way into the collections of a number of mostly regional collecting institutions over the decades.
The working plans imaged in this series were those considered current at the time of scanning.
RECORD PLANS
Historically, the management of Crown Land has been organised around use or occupation, on the one hand, and land status, in terms of its alienation from the Crown, on the other hand. As noted previously, working plans are concerned with use or occupation. The legal record of the status of Crown Land was recorded on corresponding sets of plans known as Record Plans. Record plans were maintained centrally in Melbourne initially at the Original Plan Office which in 1945 was reconstituted as the Central Plan Office. All hard copy record plans as well as the original survey plans from which these were compiled have been transferred to PROV and can be found within VPRS 16306.
The base plan for most parish and township working plans published versions or copies specifically created for departmental use of record plans in VPRS 16306. (In some instances, as previously noted, other types of plans were used as the base for a working plan in cases were a parish or township record plan was never created. Regional offices used the copy of a record plan (or another type of plan) as the basis on which to record information relating to land use or occupation. Hence a working plan will also contain information relating to land status. Some details included on the record plan in VPRS 16306, such as details of plans from which the record plan has been compiled, names of surveyors, certifications and the certification of the Surveyor-General, may not appear on the digitised working plans. Researchers should bear in mind that the two sets of plans were created and maintained for different purposes and should not assume one set of plans can be used as a substitute for the other.
Data time period:
[2001 TO 2004]
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