VPRS 1864 Working Papers

This series consists of the files, submissions, drafts and reports of the Board of Inquiry appointed in 1974 to inquire into the organisational, financial, commercial and research areas of the dairy industry in Victoria. Most of this series takes the form of loose papers in manilla folders.The files contain the basic information which assisted the Board in the drafting of the six reports (five and a supplementary) which it produced.There are four types of files. The first are correspondence files relating to the general business of the Board. (ie meetings, appointments etc.).The second are data files containing statistical and factual information relating to specific aspects of the industry.The third type of file relates to consultants surveys. These contain information provided by certain Groups and Associations approached by the Board to do research work on its behalf or from surveys under the direct control of the Board.The final type of file appears to contain miscellaneous information and has been described as 'other files'.This series also contains a number of submissions presented to the Board during public hearings held in Melbourne and selected country locations during 1974 and 1976.The drafts contain notes, proofs and other details revealing the stages of writing of the various reports. The series is completed by the finished reports, distribution lists for the first 3 reports, three `policy' files which seem to contain notes and material pulled out of other files and not replaced and some unsorted material.This series was rearranged in April 1986 with the discovery of the attached list which showed the original order of the files. However, some files identified in the attached list were not located within the original arrangement of the series. Some of these files were able to be reconstituted through items found in unassorted papers scattered throughout the original series. Such files have been identified on the covers of their respective folders.The arrangement within most individual files appears to be chronological in that the most recent item was placed on top. However, this is not a consistent rule indicating heavy file use.Most of the remaining records in this series appear to have been arbitarily arranged with no coherent sense of arrangement. The only exceptions are the submissions which have been divided according to the time and place of the submission. Individual submissions were alphabetically arranged according to the name of the group or person submitting it.