VPRS 11731 Register of General Correspondence, Annual Single Number System

This record series constitutes the register of general correspondence for the Department of State Forests (Forests Commission) (VA 534) during the period 1971-1984.In 1909 the Minister for Forests assumed responsibility for the Department of State Forests. However, it was not until 1918 that Forests became a Department of State in its own right.In 1919 the Lands Department and other relevant agencies, namely Mines and Agriculture, handed over current relevant files and recent inactive files to the Department of State Forests. In 1919 the Department of State Forests commenced its own filing system, being an annual single number system. The inherited active and useful files were top-numbered into this filing system.Inactive files inherited by the Department of State Forests were later destroyed upon instruction from the Chief Clerk to officer Maurice Carver (who later wrote a five volume history of forestry in Victoria in the nineteenth century). The instruction was issued in the 1920s. Some pre-1876 files created by the Lands Department can be found in VPRS 44, VPRS 242, VPRS 5357, etc.In mid-1984, the Forests Commission registry was one of seven registries closed down by the successor Department of Conservation, Forests and Lands (VA 1034). The successor series is that Departments annual single number series (1984-1996). That general correspondence system, which commenced in July 1984, numbered files beginning at 84/3000. Files from that record series have not yet been transferred into custody.