VPRS 12509 Children's Court Register, Criminal Division

This series consists of registers of the Criminal Division of the Children's Court at Melbourne. Children's Courts were established in Victoria by the Children's Courts Act 1906. This Act came into operation on 1 December 1906. Children's Courts could sit at any place where a Court of Petty Sessions/Magistrates' Court sat. The 1906 Act and subsequent legislation required clerks of Children's Courts to keep a register of all cases and decisions of the court. The Acts also set out the form that the register should take. The Children's Court Register records the case number, the name of the informant or applicant, the name of the accused or defendant, his or her age or apparent age, how the defendant was brought to court (arrest warrant or summons), the court fees due, the nature of the information, charge or application, the court's decision and order and any remarks. The payment of fines or fees is often recorded in the remarks column. Initially this series registered all cases heard by the Melbourne Children's Court, but presumably because of the volume of cases, separate registers were created for Protection Applications from 1935 (VPRS 12513) and Railway Offences from 1957 (VPRS 12510), although these type of offences were incorporated back into this series in 1988. Originally these registers were known as Ordinary Cases and were not known as Criminal Cases until 1988.