Public Record Office Victoria

11/06/2026

Today is the last day of International Archives Week ! And we end the week with one of our favourites from the collection... an aerial shot of the Melbourne Cricket Ground, during the 1954 tour of Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh.

Girls performed a large maypole dance on the grass, before the word “welcome” was formed by around 17,000 children. The Queen and Duke were then driven around the grounds, while the children cheered and waved.

As Melbourne was designed without a central town square, the MCG has been continuously re-imagined as a place where we gather and celebrate. In the years since the Queen’s visit, the MCG has hosted some of Victoria’s biggest sporting and non-sporting gatherings, including an event hosted by evangelist Billy Graham (1959, 143,000 people), and Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour (2024, 260,000 people over three nights).

📸 Education Department, Miscellaneous Photographs, Negatives and Slides and Ephemera [Education History Unit] (1967 – 2003), Royal Visits – Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip at M.C.G 4/3/1954 – Aerial View of Children’s “Welcome” Display. VPRS 14562/P2, Unit 20.

🔗 Discover this image, among others we've shared this week, and plenty more, at our new exhibition. Rehearsing the City is now showing at the Victorian Archives Centre. Come along: https://go.vic.gov.au/4d3ylsq

10/06/2026

Happy International Archives Week Day 4!

In the 1950s, a huge increase in car ownership led to a spike in road accidents. Children were particularly at risk while riding bikes or crossing busy roads. To save lives, organisations and schools across Victoria created programs to teach children road safety skills. This photograph from 1962 shows one of these programs, a traffic school set up at Caulfield South State School.
Traffic schools allowed children to rehearse road safety in a controlled environment. The replica streets at this traffic school included realistic signage, pedestrian crossings with National Safety Council flags, hand-operated traffic lights, a railway crossing and construction signs. For the children in toy cars, traffic school provided a rare opportunity to practice adult responsibilities.
Though many have closed, several traffic schools still operate in Victoria.

📸 Education Department, Negatives of Photographs [Publications Branch] (c. 1950 – 1967), M244 Children’s traffic school in operation, Caulfield South, 1962. VPRS 14517/P1, Unit 36, M244.

🔗 This is one of the photographs now on display at the Victorian Archives Centre: https://go.vic.gov.au/4d3ylsq

09/06/2026

Happy International Archives Week Day 3!

In 1901, Melbourne’s city streets were transformed by eight grand and ornately decorated arches, erected to celebrate the visit of the Duke and Duchess of York. These monumental structures lined the route of the royal carriage as it made its way to the Royal Exhibition Building for the opening of Australia’s first Federal Parliament.

Most of the arches were funded by the state government and local councils, though several communities contributed their own tributes, including the dairy industry’s Butter Arch (made entirely of butter boxes), a German Citizens’ Arch, and a Chinese Citizens’ Arch on Swanston Street. The Chinese community raised £800 for their arch’s construction and supplied fine silks and other decorative materials. However, the community had little say in the design, with the work ultimately entrusted to G.B.H. Austin of the Public Works Department.

Though always intended as temporary displays, the arches succumbed to Melbourne’s autumn weather faster than expected. Within weeks, many had deteriorated so quickly that their former splendour gave way to shabbiness, requiring them to be dismantled.

📸 Education Department, Negatives of Photographs [Publications Branch] (c. 1950 – 1967), S260 Welcome to Duke and Duchess of York in 1901 by Chinese Citizens of Australia, Melbourne, 7 May 1901. VPRS 14517/P1, Unit 50, S260.

🔗 Just one of the wonderful photographs now on display at the Victorian Archives Centre: https://go.vic.gov.au/4d3ylsq

09/06/2026

In part two of our three part article series on Map Warper, with the help of academic Ben Mountford, we explore Ballarat’s geography, historic sites and local infrastructure: https://prov.vic.gov.au/about-us/our-blog/how-map-warper-has-changed-research-landscape-part-two

"...with Map Warper, us researchers are on warp speed (sorry for the pun) when searching for and accessing copies of historic maps and plans," says historian Abi Belfrage.

PROV's online Map Warper tool was first launched back in 2019. Since then, it has become an invaluable site for researchers to explore changes to Victoria’s landscape over time. Users of the tool can ‘rectify’ historic maps and plans (meaning to place them over present day map coordinates), or simply view the maps already rectified to enhance their research.

Over the next three weeks we will post a series of blogs exploring how Map Warper is used by professional historians and academics to delve into the history of specific places, landscapes and sites across Victoria.

In part one, Abi explains how her research has changed since the introduction of Map Warper: https://go.vic.gov.au/4e2u4WZ

08/06/2026

Happy International Archives Week Day 2 (also International Archives Day)!

This archival image depicts a group of children playing an adapted game of soccer at the former Marathon School (no. 4676) in Victoria. Marathon School was established in 1949 in response to the lack of support available for children with cerebral palsy. The school combined education and therapy with a strong focus on building independence and community. It closed in 1979 and the organisation later evolved into Scope (Vic), Disability Services Australia.

Arranged in a circle, the children pass a ball across a marked court. Some children are standing; some are seated in wheelchairs and others sit on the ground. Both the activity and the setting reflect an early recognition that spaces could be designed to support access and participation. The photograph records a moment when the built environment was deliberately reshaped to enable inclusion, at a time when accessibility was rarely considered in public design.

📸 Education Department, Negatives of Photographs [Publications Branch] (c. 1950 – 1967), S60 Adaptd [sic] Game – Circle Soccer, Toorak, Victoria, c. 1960s. VPRS 14517/P1, Unit 50, S60.

🔗 This image features in our new exhibition at the Victorian Archives Centre: https://go.vic.gov.au/4d3ylsq

07/06/2026

Happy International Archives Week !

International Archives Week (8–12 June 2026) is an annual event that acknowledges archives around the world and their role in protecting rights, memories and futures. To celebrate, throughout the week we will share archival photographs currently on display in our Victorian Archives Centre Gallery. These images sit alongside contemporary photographs from Melbourne street photographers, highlighting the ways in which public space is not just shaped by architects and urban planners, but also by protest, improvisation and the rhythms of daily life.

The Melbourne Showgrounds, for instance, is a site of ceaseless transformation, its spaces continually reshaped by the events that pass through. Over the decades, its indoor and outdoor arenas have hosted music concerts, trade shows, racing, and television productions. Yet the event it is most celebrated for remains the annual Royal Melbourne Show.

This photograph from the 1958 Show is one of the more candid examples of government photography, capturing families enjoying lunch at picnic tables and benches. In this casual setting, public space is co-created in the moment as visitors make room beside strangers, revealing the quiet social choreography of sharing.

📸 Education Department, Negatives of Photographs [Publications Branch] (c. 1950 – 1967), H461 Pics of 1958 Royal Melbourne Show, Melbourne,1958. VPRS 14517/P1, Unit 25, H461.

🔗 Learn more about our new exhibition: https://go.vic.gov.au/4d3ylsq

05/06/2026

Have you visited our North Melbourne or Ballarat reading rooms recently? Fill in our short survey to let us know what you thought and help us continue to improve our service: https://bit.ly/4cdF82k

04/06/2026

In their 2026 Provenance article, Catherine Townsend and Natica Schmeder bring us the story of Bernard Slawik, a Polish émigré architect who survived the Holocaust and sought to build a new life for himself and his family in Australia. The authors use the fictional Hungarian-American migrant architect and concentration camp survivor László Tóth, recently depicted in the 2024 film The Brutalist, as a springboard to explore Slawik’s complex experiences re-establishing his life and career in Australia after the war.

🏠️ Meet Bernard Slawik in Provenance: https://go.vic.gov.au/4esUiDH

03/06/2026

"...with Map Warper, us researchers are on warp speed (sorry for the pun) when searching for and accessing copies of historic maps and plans," says historian Abi Belfrage.

PROV's online Map Warper tool was first launched back in 2019. Since then, it has become an invaluable site for researchers to explore changes to Victoria’s landscape over time. Users of the tool can ‘rectify’ historic maps and plans (meaning to place them over present day map coordinates), or simply view the maps already rectified to enhance their research.

Over the next three weeks we will post a series of blogs exploring how Map Warper is used by professional historians and academics to delve into the history of specific places, landscapes and sites across Victoria.

In part one, Abi explains how her research has changed since the introduction of Map Warper: https://go.vic.gov.au/4e2u4WZ

02/06/2026

The final day of National Reconciliation Week every year is one of the most significant in Australia.

Mabo Day, celebrated annually on 3 June, commemorates Mer Island man Eddie Koiki Mabo and his successful advocacy to overturn the legal fiction of terra nullius, or ‘land belonging to no-one’.

Following the High Court’s Mabo decision, Australia’s Federal Parliament passed the Native Title Act 1993 which established a legal framework for native title claims throughout Australia by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

and Mabo Day are a reminder to be ‘All In’ to learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements, and to commit ourselves to reconciliation and the fight for First Nations justice in Australia.

🎞️ To learn more about Mabo and the High Court case, check out ‘Judgment: Cases That Changed Australia’ on ABC iview: https://ab.co/4uGzxcT