Delving into the Docklands archives

Docklands History Group will delve into the Public Record Office Victoria (PROV) on August 13 to survey the changing face of Docklands.

Dr Sebastian Gurciullo will present to the group at the Library at the Dock.

“We’ll look at visual records from the state archival collection of the PROV like photographs, maps and plans from a variety of agencies including the Melbourne Harbour Trust, Victorian Railways and the old Division of Survey and Mapping,” Dr Gurciullo said.

He also said he would be demonstrating how Docklanders could access the “remarkable historic records” online.

The Melbourne Harbour Trust collection is currently being digitised by PROV volunteers. The photographs provide a visual record of the development of the Port of Melbourne and Docklands between 1880 and 1976.

Photos range from portraits of trust commissioners to conferences, workspaces, special Melbourne events and photographs of the physical works and aspects of the area.

The beauty and frustration of the Melbourne Harbour Trust photographs is that most of them are unlabelled and undated.

Those with a knowledge of the area will often be able to “date” the images themselves through a bit of detective work, and Dr Gurciullo will touch on this in his presentation.