Probate Records

Probate for settlers in the Port Phillip District was generally granted by either the Supreme Court of New South Wales or the Ecclesiastical Court in Sydney, N.S.W. These probate papers are now held by the Public Record Office of Victoria at their North Melbourne...

Records of Early Policing in Victoria

Police Historian Gary Presland described early policing in the Port Phillip District and provided sources of information for reasearch. In May 1836, Police Magistrate George Stewart arrived in the Port Phillip District with Sergeant John Shields and Constable Timothy...

Victoria’s Early Church Records

A few years ago [this was written in 2005] the Victorian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages announced plans to release on CD the images and indexes of pre civil registration church records. Since then a number of articles on the subject have appeared in the...

Dating Family Photographs

Having published a book titled “Dating Family Photos 1850 – 1920”, Lenore Frost gave us some helpful information about old photographs. Early photos were the Daguerreotype, the Ambrotype, the Carte de Visite, Cabinet photos, and postcards. The...

The Taking of the 1841 Census

On 2 March 1841 a census of all of New South Wales was held. For collection and statistical purposes the Port Phillip District was divided into the counties of Bourke, Grant and Normanby and the Police Commissioner’s Districts of Western Port and Portland Bay....