VPRS 2206 Council Minute Books [use microfilm copy, VPRS 15915, for 1860-1898]

Full description

This series consists of volumes containing the minutes of meetings of the Prahran Council. The volumes constitute the official "master set" of minutes and were created from 1863, in accordance with section 145 of the Municipal Institutions Act, 1863 (27 Vic, No.184). Unit 1 of the P/000 consignment, labelled volume 2 records minutes from February 1860. Volume 1, which is not extant, may have recorded minutes from as early as 1856 when Prahran was proclaimed a municipality and to which period the Index to Minutes (VPRS 2208) refer. Minutes have continued to be kept in accordance with legislation subsequent to the 1863 act including the Local Government Act, 1958 (No.6299).

The legislation required, and continues to require, that for each meeting of Council, minutes of all proceedings be recorded including the names of all councillors present, all who vote in a decision for and against a motion and, since 1903, reports from Council committees. This "master set" of minutes is also required to be signed by the Mayor or Chairman after the minutes are confirmed of the following Council meeting.

The minutes relate to a range of activities for which the Council is, or has been, responsible including building, community sources, rates, properly valuations, health, and town planning etc. The Council appoints committees to manage various aspects of its operations such as finance, works, parks and gardens etc. Such committees submit recommendations in reports to the Council which, at Prahran, have been included in the minutes since 1895.

The contents are arranged chronologically by date of meeting. A sequential numbering system, which may continue over a number of volumes, has been imposed on pages within volumes. These page numbers are the references to which the indexes refer.

A separate index exists for the period 1856 to 1918, volumes 1 to 16 (VPRS 2208, Index to Minute Books). Most of the remaining volumes contain an alphabetical subject index which, after volume 29, is comprehensive. Volume 26 contains no index.

VPRS 8036, Draft Minute Books: Council may contain more detail of discussions etc. than the master minutes of council. Reports of committees dated prior to 1895 may be found in VPRS 8039, Council Notice Papers, and more detail of committees' proceedings may be found in VPRS 8037, Minute Books: Committees, and VPRS 8058, Draft Minute Books: Committees.

The records in this series have been identified as permanent under reference 4.5.1 of the Public Record Office's Local Government Records General Disposal Schedule, PROS 84/25.