VPRS 8047 Public Building General Files

Full description

The Public Building General (P.B.G.) files are primarily policy files created for the purpose of consistency in decision making. They document policy, precedent and procedures for the administration of public building regulation. The papers in these files do not relate to any particular building each of which has its P.B. file. However, they form a part of the overall public building recordkeeping system of the Health Department.

Public Building General files were mainly dealt with by the Engineering Section and relate to technical aspects, e.g., seating, lining material, safety curtains, smoke outlets and Administration e.g. work registers, legal opinions proclamations, delegation of authority and complaints.

Apart from the P.B.G. (miscellaneous) file which is a general file on a variety of subjects, the files in this series are mainly policy files on specific subjects, e.g. open air concerts, billiard saloons, bingo, and discotheques.

The arrangement of Public Building General (P.B.G.) files dates from 1976 when files relating to public building matters were extracted from the Health General Information (or H.G.I.) filing system administered by the Public Health Division and were combined with miscellaneous files from the Engineering Division.

Under this system a separate file was created either for each individual subject, e.g. accounts, bushfire destroyed buildings, or for different classes/types of public buildings, e.g., clubrooms, libraries, orphanages and shopping centres and allotted a sequential number prefaced by the letters P.B.G. Although, the series dates back to 1976, contents of individual file extend from 1920's to 1989.

Many of the files contain a subject index under the front cover. In most cases each group of correspondence relating to a particular subject is separated by a green sheet from the next.