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Series VPRS 2
Confidential Despatches to Governor Bourke
About this Series Related Series Accessing the records in this Series
Date Range: Series 1836 - 1837
  Series in Custody 1836 - 2011
  Contents 1836 - 1837
Public Access: Part Open
Location: North Melbourne
Format of Records: Physical
 
Agency which created this SeriesAgency which created this Series
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Date Range Agency Title Agency Number
1836 - 1837 Police Magistrate Port Phillip District VA 472
Agency currently responsible for this SeriesAgency currently responsible for this Series
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Date Range Agency Title Agency Number
1992 - cont Department of Justice VA 3085
Description of this SeriesDescription of this Series
  • How to use the Records
    This series has been digitised and can be viewed online. You can access the digitised items by browsing the listing of the P0 consignment.

  • Function / Content
    This series consists of six confidential despatches from Captain William Lonsdale (Police Magistrate Port Phillip District) to the Governor of New South Wales, Sir Richard Bourke. It is believed these comprise the only evidence known in the Collections of Public Record Office Victoria and State Records New South Wales of the confidential reports requested of Lonsdale in the instructions he received from the Colonial Secretary (NSW) on taking up his appointment as Police Magistrate (see VPRS 4/P0 Inward Registered Correspondence, Unit 1, Item 36/1).

    The letters report upon the establishment and administration of the Port Phillip settlement. Specific items are about:

    - a meeting with members of the Port Phillip Company (dated 2 October 1836)
    - the erection of buildings in the Port Phillip District (dated 1 November 1836)
    - remarks upon the "Company" (dated 9 December 1836)
    - stores and buildings (dated 8 December 1836)
    - arrival of Mrs Langhorne (dated 1 February 1837), and
    - the search for Gellibrand and land sales (dated 5 April 1837).

  • Recordkeeping System
    The records are arranged within a folder in the order in which they are listed above.

    The records are annotated with a listing of the six items in the order shown above. Each of these items was numbered from 1-6 on this list. These numbers, however, are not visible on the actual documents.

    Visible on each despatch is a number with an M prefix within the range M5182 - M5187. These are not numbers connected to any record keeping system related to Lonsdale or Bourke, but are accession numbers imposed by the Public Library of Victoria. The Library purchased these six items from a Mr Molloy in London and accessioned them on 28 January 1935. The items appear to have been purchased by the Library as part of a larger collection of documents, the range of accession numbers being M5176-M5190. The six despatches listed above that form this series appear to have been separated from this larger accession some time after the formation of the Public Record Office from the Library in April 1973.
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Consignment Number Contents Date Range Public Access No. of Units
P0000 1836 - 1837 Closed 1
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