VPRS 11563 General Correspondence Files, Annual Single Number System I

This record series constitutes the general correspondence registered by the Department of State Forests (Forests Commission) (VA 534) during the period 1920-1983. 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 1920 the Department of State Forests commenced its own filing system, being an annual single number system. The inherited active and useful files, as determined by the Department, were top-numbered into this filing system. Pre-1920 correspondence, was allocated the "1919" prefix. 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. This series has been subject to culling over the years. The P2 consignment of this series contains files that were held and used by the Victorian Plantations Corporation (VA 4684). The records are still in the custody of the Department of Treasury and Finance VA 3745. (As at May 2007). 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 subsequent series (VPRS 14565 General Correspondence Files, Annual Single Number System II) is that Department's general correspondence files (1984-1996). That general correspondence system, which commenced in July 1984, numbered files beginning at 84/3000.