University of Melbourne Social Survey, 1941-1943: A 1981 Sample

In 1981, Dr John Lack of the Department of History at the University of Melbourne received a grant from the Australian Research Grants Committee to re-code and convert into digital form a sample of responses from the University of Melbourne Social Survey, undertaken by Wilfred Prest of the Faculty of Commerce between September 1941 and January 1943. Prest's interviewers visited more than six thousand addresses in Melbourne (every thirtieth in the CBD and northern and western suburbs and every sixtieth in the eastern and south-eastern suburbs), recording detailed information about domestic conditions and living costs. They also recorded basic demographic information such as the age, earning status, income, occupation and, where relevant, pre-war occupation of those living at each address. Prest's survey took place during a fourteen-year hiatus (from 1933-1947) in the Australian Census of Population and Housing and so fills an important gap in the statistical record for the areas surveyed. The completed survey forms are now held at the University of Melbourne Archives www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/collections/archives/. Lack, together with Dr Graeme Davison and their research team, re-coded approximately 66 per cent of Prest’s surveys, resulting in coded data for around 4500 addresses. This data set opens up the results of Prest’s survey to new investigation and analysis and is a unique source of Australian household data for the period.

1981年，墨尔本大学历史系的约翰·莱克（John Lack）博士获得澳大利亚研究资助委员会（Australian Research Grants Committee）拨款，对1941年9月至1943年1月间，由商学院威尔弗雷德·普雷斯特（Wilfred Prest）开展的墨尔本社会调查（University of Melbourne Social Survey）的部分回复样本进行重新编码，并转换为数字格式。
普雷斯特的调查员走访了墨尔本境内超过6000个地址：中央商务区及北部、西部郊区每30户抽取1户，东部与东南郊区每60户抽取1户，记录了家庭状况与生活成本的详细信息，同时收集了每户居住者的年龄、就业状态、收入、职业及相关战前职业等基础人口统计信息。
1933年至1947年间，澳大利亚人口与住房普查曾有14年的停摆期，普雷斯特的此项调查填补了受访区域统计记录中的一项重要空白。
目前完整的调查问卷原件收藏于墨尔本大学档案馆（University of Melbourne Archives），网址为www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/collections/archives/。
莱克与格雷姆·戴维森（Graeme Davison）博士及其研究团队，完成了普雷斯特约66%调查样本的重新编码工作，最终得到约4500个地址的编码数据。
该数据集为普雷斯特的调查结果提供了全新的研究与分析渠道，是反映该时期澳大利亚家庭状况的独特数据源。