VPRS 18330 Original Plan Room Registers

This series consists of registers that were predominately used to identify original plans and record plans held at the Original Plan Room, later known as the Central Plan Office.  These are effectively transcribed copies of VPRS 16719 Register to Original Plans and Record Plans which is the register to VPRS 16306 Parish and Township Original Plans (1837-1942) and Record Plans (by 1869-2001). The alphabetical arrangement of the entries in these registers meant these volumes could also be used as indexes. It is believed that these volumes were used within the original Plan Room/Central Plan Office for individuals wishing to access the plans now in 16306 when these were stored there prior to their transfer to archives. It is unclear if these volumes were used by members of the public visiting the Room/Office or by staff. These registers were created at different points in time and are believed to be accurate as of the time these were created. At least three iterations of the register are apparent including what may prove to be duplicate volumes. These are; what appears to first version of the register (believed to have been created between roughly 1869-1876), a version that contains a small number of additions, including entries signifying the first use of stamps as a means to identify ‘facsimiles of compilations’ known as record plans (believed to have been created between roughly 1876-1877), and a version containing a significant number of additions believed to have been created up to and possibly beyond 1890. The years of the creation of the various volumes and the existence of duplicate volumes is subject to further research. The only complete version of the register, the entries of which continue through to the 1980s is VPRS 16719. VPRS 18330/P1 consists of eight versions of the registers. It is unclear when these were received by PROV. The series was originally titled as Index to Maps when the series was originally identified during the ARAD project at PROV in 2000. All of the volumes in this consignment were rebound at some point. The new spines correctly establish that it was the Original Plan Register Lands & Survey’ with an additional wording ‘Index to Maps A-Y’ added that almost certainly was not present on the original volumes. VPRS 18330/C1 consists of three volumes which retained their original covers and spines, the culminative remnants of these spines reveal two identifiers that originally read ‘Original Plan Register’ and ‘Lands & Survey’. These three volumes were originally processed at PROV as VPRS 8306/P2 units 1-3 which was then titled Estray Plan Registers and Lists of Plans. These volumes were removed from that series and added to this series during 2024. A photocopied page found inside the cover of all three of these volumes states these are Original Plan Room registers from the Central Plan Office that were transferred to the University of Melbourne Archives on 9 July 1969. The volumes were subsequently transferred from there to PROV.