VPRS 16621 General Plans (Aperture Cards)

Full description

This series consists of aperture cards which are copies of General Plans created by the State Rivers and Water Commission (VA 723), the Rural Water Commission (VA 2338), and the Rural Water Corporation (VA 4234).

The plans include topographical plans (contours, spot elevations and water courses); cadastral plans (property boundaries); design and construction plans; Order in Council Plans (show details of legislated areas i.e. cadastral boundaries of Water Authorities, Catchment Management Authorities, Flood Protection Areas, Waterworks Trust Areas, Irrigation Districts/Areas, other types of Government land use areas).

The General Plans relate to works in rural and regional urban areas (cities and towns) that included:
- design and construction of rural and urban water supply and management; infrastructure, including channels, dams / reservoirs, bridges and pipelines
;- flood plain management;
- flood mapping
;- development of irrigation area contour plans for infrastructure design and farm management.

The hardcopy plans were microfilmed from circa 1967 onwards and culled or retained according to their importance at the time. The original plans date from prior to the establishment of the State Rivers and Water Commission in1906, and include six plans produced by Sinclair Knight and Merz Proprietary Limited during the transition period after the abolition of the Rural Water Corporation in 1995.

In 1995 the remaining hardcopy General Plans (which had not been culled after the microfilming process) were transferred to the newly created Regional Water Authorities i.e. Wimmera-Mallee Rural Water Authority (VA 3749), Southern Rural Water Authority (VA3751), South West Region Water Authority (VA 3753), Gippsland Region Rural Water Authority (VA 3754), Sunraysia Region Rural Water Authority (VA3755), Barwon Region Water Authority (VA 3756), Goulburn-Murray Region Water Authority (VA 3757), Coliban Region Water Authority (VA 3996). As at September 2011, these hardcopy plans were not held in PROV custody.


In 2005 a note was added to the aperture cards relating to a large gap in the sequence between card number 5188 and 7000. The note details that these aperture cards (predominantly Order-In-Council plans) were removed and sent to Goulburn Murray Water.