VPRS 6065 Court of Petty Sessions/Magistrates' Court Maintenance Registers

The location of registers covering the period 1955 to 1977 was unknown at the time of transfer (August 1994). When the Fitzroy Magistrates' Court closed in 1985 all records were to have been transferred to the Melbourne Magistrates' Court. There are no further volumes located at that court from Fitzroy.Background: Maintenance for Deserted or Destitute Wives and ChildrenThe 1928 Maintenance Act and previously, a number of Marriage Acts established provisions for maintenance support to be provided by husbands who had left their wives or children without means of support. Courts of Petty Sessions were empowered to hear complaints regarding desertion and to set levels and enforce the payment of maintenance. The 1965 Maintenance Act is still in force in Victoria (as at 1992). However the 1975 Commonwealth Family Law Act also has provision for the granting of maintenance and most orders are now made under this Act. A different record keeping system applies to maintenance records under the Family Law Act.Maintenance RegistersSuccessive Justices' Acts and, more recently, Magistrates' Court Acts have required the clerk or registrar of the court to make and keep a register of all convictions, orders and other proceedings of the court. This register is the authoritative record of the court. Most courts maintained a separate sequence of registers for maintenance matters, although the registers were in the same format as all other petty sessions court registers.At most courts Maintenance Registers were used to record three types of maintenance matters: applications for the court to set a level of maintenance, applications for the court to vary the level of maintenance, and enforcement applications, that is, where maintenance orders had been breached, maintenance recipients could seek a court order for payments to be made. Failure to comply resulted in the imprisonment of the defendant.The Registers give details of the names of the complainant (usually the wife) and the defendant (usually the husband), the nature of the matter before the court (being an application for maintenance on the grounds of unlawful desertion, an application to vary maintenance or an application to recover maintenance arrears), and the court's decision.