Public Record Office Victoria

[2] Prior to 1903 there was no formal attempt to deposit Victorian government records with an archival authority.

The VAC reading room is named after the first Keeper of Public Records, Harry Nunn OAM,[4] and is a facility shared by PROV with the Melbourne Office of National Archives of Australia.

The role of the Advisory Council is, in consultation with the Keeper, to promote cooperation between PROV and public offices and to report or make recommendations to the Minister.

A number of approved places of deposit have been established throughout the state under the Public Records Act.

[8] With some exceptions PROV's holdings date from 1836 when Captain William Lonsdale was appointed as Police Magistrate and a formal government presence in the Port Phillip District of the Colony of New South Wales, as Victoria was then known, was established.

PROV's holdings include most 19th and 20th century central correspondence systems for major Victorian public offices as well as records of: Records associated with both the Kelly Gang outbreak and the Eureka Stockade uprising are available online[6] and have been added to the UNESCO Australian Memory of the World Register.