VPRS 8353 Diary of Duty and Occurrences (microfiche copy of VPRS 8352)

This series was created to record the duties and occurrences at the Bethanga Police Station concerning both the police officers and the police horses. (Bethanga is a small township North West of Tallangatta near the Murray River.)Each folio records the officer's register number, officer's name and rank and a record of duties undertaken by that police officer on a daily basis. The diary was pre-printed with the days Sunday, Monday, Tuesday etc. and each officer recorded his daily duties and occurrences. Normally these references are of a routine nature. However there is a column marked Special Occurrences in which such events are recorded. eg: accidental deaths reported to the Bethanga Police Station.As well as recording police duties, the police horses are also mentioned and references to the horses record their brand number and letter and where they were ridden or rested and how much food consumed.* Related sources of informationResearchers will see that several notes in the Special Occurrences column refer to accidental deaths reported to the Bethanga Police. The officer recorded the name of the deceased, date of death, Coroner and jury investigating and in some cases, the verdict of such an inquiry. Researchers wishing to find more information on particular deaths should consult Inquest Files, VPRS 24.File NoteThe original series (VPRS 8352) is a prescribed record and is not in the custody of the PRO. John Sharpies of the Museum of Victoria informed the PRO that this record was to be auctioned by Spink Noble Numismatics in Sydney on March 18 and 19, 1992. The PRO wrote to the auctioneer on March 18, 1992 informing him that the Keeper intended to prescribe the record and that the owner and any potential purchasers should be informed of the prescription provisions in the Public Records Act, 1973.A Mr Alan Michael subsequently bought the record and complied with the prescription provisions outlined in section 16 of the Public Records Act by producing the record for copying (microfilming) by the PRO. The record was subsequently filmed and the hard copy was registered as a record not transferred and the microfilm copy was also registered.