The British Bradshaw's Guide was an early compiled timetable, including all known public railways in Great Britain.
The Wikipedia Bradshaw's Guide page also lists a number of other countries that issued compiled timetables, borrowing the Bradshaw name from the British model: France, Germany and Austria, India, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Syria and Turkey.
Nevertheless, the early editions of Bradshaw's contained numerous coach timetables and other miscellaneous material.
The remainder of the Guide provided comprehensive detail of all manner of institutions in what was a very fast-growing colony, mainly because of the Victorian gold rush.
Information is given about the Parliament, Government, courts, municipal councils, the electric telegraph, banks, insurance companies, churches, Masonic lodges, postal charges and arrangements, and country localities.
The November 1936 edition[6] also contained: cab fares; calendars; information on cities, towns, boroughs, shires, including population; a comprehensive Commonwealth of Australia section; list of consuls; directions for making a will; fish, minimum lengths of; gardening notes; a comprehensive Government of Victoria section; a post office and telegraph section, including rates; railway cloak room rates, fares, parcels rates, etc.
By 1890 about 70% of Bradshaw was railway timetables, about 25% Postal arrangements, and the balance a miscellaneous collection of sometimes odd information about Victoria (as listed above).
The other striking characteristic of Bradshaw's Guide to Victoria over the years was that the quality of the printing and layout did not improve – it deteriorated.
Nevertheless, a study of the railway timetables over these last three years shows that attempts were made to keep these tables up-to-date.
The timetables show, in general, a decline in the standard of VR passenger service as war priorities took hold.
The non-railway and non-postal information that survived to this period was a very odd mixture: lists of Federal and State Members of Parliament, consuls in Victoria, gardening notes (presumably recycled each year), and Victorian game hunting laws.
In December 1941, the Victorian Railways had published their last public timetable, primarily because of staff shortages caused by World War II but also continuing into the post-war period.
Despite its disreputable and off-putting appearance Bradshaw's Guide to Victoria is a valuable source of historical timetable information.