VPRS 16045 Harbour Works Survey Plans, Photo Negatives, Ports and Harbours Branch

The Public Works Department VA 669 had wide-ranging responsibilities for all public works and buildings including construction, maintenance and fitting out of these buildings. Other major responsibilities included roads and bridges, ports and harbours, local government and water supply.This series consists of photographic negatives of harbour works survey plans. They depict river surveys and harbour works carried out by the Ports and Harbours Branch of the Department. The Department was responsible for the provision of emergency services along the Victorian coast.The photographic negatives and the index to negatives were handed over to the Public Record Office Victoria in 2007 by John Parkinson, former employee of Ports and Harbours Branch of the Public Works Department.The negatives of plans in this series were created in 1943 apparently for security purposes. The plans themselves date from 1874 to 1938.