VPRS 18780 Annual Sounding and Dredging Plan Folios

This series comprises large bound paper folios containing sounding and dredging plans created by the Melbourne Harbor Trust Commissioners (VA 2799) and then the Port of Melbourne Authority (VA 1426) between the 1940s and the 1990s. The plans primarily depict depth measurements collected as a result of sounding activities in the Port of Melbourne. Sounding, or depth sounding, refers to measuring the depth of the floor of a body of water.  These plans show the depths recorded along sections of the Port of Melbourne, such as the Yarra and Maribyrnong rivers. The depths are recorded in feet and inches. They also show some basic features of the coastline, notable features in the water, and shipping infrastructure such as piers where relevant to the area being surveyed. They also record the date the soundings were taken. Some plans contain reference to plans of previous soundings recorded in the same area, or other hand-drawn annotations.  The plans in this series were the Drawing Office copy. Information on the plans indicates that copies of the plans were also sent to the Harbor Master’s Department and the Dredging Department with the Melbourne Harbour Trust Commissioners. They were collected into annual volumes in sequential order by plan number. For many years the quantity of plans necessitated the collection being split into two folios. From the late 1980s the number ranges of the plans started to vary and plans with numbers in the 100s or 1000s appeared, perhaps reflecting a change in the plan number allocation system after Melbourne Harbour Trust Commissioners was abolished and replaced by the Port of Melbourne Authority.  A number of the folios contain plans specifically related to dredging activity in Port Phillip Bay. These are easily identified by title in the record items list. Before being transferred to PROV, this series was held by the Queenscliffe Maritime Museum.