VPRS 17684 Photographic Collection, Master Negatives and Digitised Images

Full description

This series consists of the photographic collection managed by the Photographic Services Section of the Country Roads Board (CRB) (VA 722) and their successor agencies, Road Construction Authority (1983-1989) (VA 1054) and the Roads Corporation, also known as VicRoads (1989-ct) VA 2982.

When the CRB was established in 1913, its "first duty [was] to make a thorough investigation into existing highways, so that it may have the materials on which to exercise sound judgment [to identify which roads were to be declared main roads and brought under the provisions of the Country Roads Act 1912]" (Country Roads Board, First annual report, 1914, p. 9). In order to effectively complete its first duty and survey and document the condition of roads throughout the state of Victoria, the CRB established a Photographic Services Section within the agency to collect and manage photographs taken during the surveying and investigation process which took approximately two years to complete.

After completing its initial survey, the CRB Photographic Services Section continued to operate throughout the 1900s and developed a substantial collection of images that focussed on the construction of roads and bridges as well as plant and supply equipment and engineering techniques. From the 1950s the CRB Photographic Section began collating photographs of CRB staff and road workers and then from the 1970s branched out into managing photographs related to road safety campaigns.

Overall, this series of photographic images represents the development of road infrastructure; captures the engineering technologies, materials and machinery utilised to develop road networks; features staff and workers who contributed to the improvement of Victoria's roads as well as documents the implementation of road safety awareness into Victorian society.

The photographs in this series were taken by a variety of in-house photographers. Many images in this series were utilised by the CRB and its successor agencies within annual reports, educational and marketing documentation and were also used in the preparation of technical and general interest publications, for exhibition at public displays, and for use by news organisations (Country Roads Board Victoria Fifty-ninth annual report, 1972, p. 39).

The series is made up of both master hard copy photographic negatives which are black and white and then colour from the 1960s and are in various sizes; and digitised photographic images.

In the 2000s, Roads Corporation (VicRoads), the successor agency to CRB began digitising the negative collection to improve accessibility and ensure preservation. The digitisation process involved digitally scanning and converting the original hardcopy negatives into positive processed digital photographs. As a time of writing, February 2017, digital copies of the negatives are being added progressively to the series and are being made available online. These records are accessible from the P0003 consignment.

The information recorded for each digital image may include:
- Title (which may include a location, the name of a road or the type of work being completed)
- Date (defaulting to 1st Jan if year only recorded)
- Subject (which may include a location or other reference, such as the name of a road)
- Caption (where recorded)
- Negative number
- Other reference number(s) used by the agency over time

To view these records researchers can keyword search or browse. Researchers should note these files are large and may take some time to download.