VPRS 8373 General Correspondence Files, Year and Single Number System

Full description

This series comprised correspondence files maintained by the Ministry. The files contain inward and copies of outward correspondence relating to all functions undertaken by the Ministry.

The P1 consignment contains one file relating to the Footscray Mechanics Institute and includes papers from 1890-1891 regarding grants sought by the Institute for building purposes.

Funding of groups such as Mechanics Institutes was originally a function of the Chief Secretary's Department (VA 475). The contents of this file can be traced through the Chief Secretary's Office Inward Correspondence Registers (VPRS 3994). The final entry in these registers provides a cross-reference indicating that the file was top-numbered into the filing system in use at the Chief Secretary's Department in 1974. The Chief Secretary's Department received some correspondence regarding the Institute in 1974 and recalled the file from the PRO where it had been archived. The file was duly retrieved and given to the Ministry for the Arts which had just become responsible for funding such organisations as the Footscray Mechanics Institute. It is then clear from correspondence and notes on the file cover that the file was renumbered several times as the Ministry for the Arts changed its general filing system.

The P2 consignment consists of files relating to Australia's Bicentenary.

Prior to 1987 the Ministry maintained a multiple number category filing system but this system was largely abandoned save for the financial grants files which retained their pre-1987 file numbers, ie. 17/3/*. These files were not top-numbered into the new system.

All other files current at 1987 were given a consecutive number beginning at 1 with each file having a yearly prefix, eg. 89/1711 which refers to the 1711th file registered in the system and indicates that it was registered in 1989. Note that the Ministry did not allocate new numbers each year.