“Public Record Office Victoria (PROV) holds an extraordinary array of records created by the Victorian Government from the mid-1830s to now.”

PROV has some online collections and resource guides that direct users to online and on-site collections. Some topics include:

Aboriginal Records

• Koorie index of names (1839-1946)
• Superintendent correspondence, Aboriginal affairs
• Native Police Corps, Narre Warren
• Chief Protector of Aborigines records (1839-1851)
• Inward correspondence, Board for the Protection of Aborigines 1909–1939
• Secretary’s letter book, Board for the Protection of Aborigines 1905-1917
• Letter book Coranderrk, Board for the Protection of Aborigines 1898-1924
• Inward correspondence, Superintendent of Port Phillip, 1839-1851
• Police Magistrate Port Phillip District

Births, Deaths, and Marriages

“PROV only holds the indexes to registered Births, Deaths and Marriages, not the certificates. The indexes are not online – you can access them on our reading room computers.” Access them free, online at the Victoria Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages.

Cemeteries

“Cemeteries are often run by a cemetery trust, and members are responsible for keeping records about the cemetery and who is buried where. …We hold only a few records of cemeteries, most cemetery trusts still hold their records. Today there are 400 cemetery trusts with responsibility for cemeteries, across Victoria. …You can search TROVE by the person’s name and approximate year of death to find notices posted in the larger newspapers across Australia to identify where that person was buried.” Australian Cemetery and Cemetery Fees Search

• Plan of Old Melbourne Cemetery, 1873 
• Alphabetical record of burials – Old Melbourne Cemetery, 1866-1917

Census Records

“Censuses were conducted by the Colony or State of Victoria in 1854, 1857, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891 and 1901.  None are known to exist within the PROV Collection.  According to the State Library of Victoria guide to early census records, surviving returns were pulped in 1892. …The responsibility for conducting censuses was taken over by the Commonwealth of Australia from 1905. Census records for Victoria from this date were destroyed until 1996 when households were given the option of having their returns preserved by the National Archives of Australia (NAA).”

• 1836 Port Phillip District Census, not indexed
• 1838 Port Phillip District Census, not indexed
• 1841 Census index online at State Records NSW website

Divorce Files & Cause Books

Early Colonial Administration

• Outward letter books, Police Magistrate, Port Phillip District (1836-1840)
• Confidential despatches to Governor Bourke, 1836 – 1837
• Outward letter books (Surveyor General’s Department, Port Phillip Branch) 1836-1856
• Inward correspondence, Superintendent of Port Phillip, 1839-1851 (visit site for link)
• La Trobe confidential correspondence, 1842-1843
• Duplicated returns and requisitions (Police Magistrate Port Phillip District) 1836-1839

Education

• Non-Government School Records
• Teacher records (1863-1959)
• Index to Special Case Files, Education Department, 1862-1977
• Register of Special Case Files, Education Department, 1852-1977
• Copy of inward and outward correspondence, Board of Education, 1849-1851
  

Health and Welfare

• Flickr images of Victorian Hospitals
• Flickr images of Victorian Sanatoriums & Infectious Diseases Hospitals

Inquests and other Coronial Records

Inquests into deaths (deposition files 1840-1985)

Justice, Crime and Law

• Beechworth Court of Petty Sessions/Magistrates’ Court Registers, 1888–1988
• Beechworth Court of Petty Sessions record books, 1875–1878
• Beechworth Court of Petty Sessions cause list books, 1875–1888
• Kelly Historical Collection Pt 1 – Police Branch
• Kelly Historical Collection Pt 2 – Crown Law Department
• Kelly Collection Pt 5 – Miscellaneous records (1869-1881)
• Kelly Historical Collection pt 4: Reward Board (1879-1881)

Land and Property

• Historic plans collection
• Summary Contract Books, 1856-1935
• Flemington and Kensington Rate Books, 1882-1894
• Melbourne Rate Books, 1861-1975
• Hotham/North Melbourne Rate Books, 1855-1905
• Ballarat and Ballarat East Town Allotment Survey Plans
• Beechworth Indigo Shire rate books, 1856–1871
• Box Hill rate books 1936-1946

Local Government records

• Town Clerk’s subject index to correspondence (1840-1997)

Passenger Records and Immigration

• Assisted passenger lists
• Coastal passenger lists (1852-1923)
• Outwards passenger lists
• Unassisted passenger lists
• Outward letter books, immigration branch 1849-1851
• Estray correspondence and passenger lists 1849 – 1950
• German immigrants

Prisons, correctional services, convicts

• Register of Male and Female Prisoners (1855-1947)
• Capital case and capital sentence files
• Notification of exiles, 1844-1849
• Day Book of the Native Police, 1845-1853
• Register, Police Magistrate, Portland, 1840-1853
• Register of convicts, 1842 – 1854
• Register of prisoners under sentence of hard labour, 1847-1853
• Alphabetical index to central register of male prisoners, 1868-1947
• Alphabetical index to central register of female prisoners, 1857-1948

Publicans and hotels

• Index to defunct hotel licenses (1857 – 1932)

Regional Victorian archived records

• Ballarat and Ballarat East Town Allotment Survey Plans

• Court of General Sessions minutes of proceedings, Beechworth 1854–1868
• Court of General Sessions criminal record record book, Beechworth 1874 – 1942 

Researching your House

• Historic plans collection
• Ballarat and Ballarat East Town Allotment Survey Plans

Wills and Probates

“Only some wills and probate records are digitised:

• records 1841-1925 can be viewed online;
• records 1926-2015 can be ordered to view at North Melbourne.
• View the records in the Reading Room for free;
• or, pay for a copy to be emailed to you or posted to you.”