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A Visit from the Conservators

Victorian Municipal Directories - PMHPS Collection
Victorian Municipal Directories – PMHPS Collection

We are lucky to have in the Society’s collection a large number of editions of the annually produced Victorian Municipal Directory.

In the days before the world wide web, these directories provided a snapshot of each municipality in the State including a brief description of the city, town or shire, its area and population, details of rates, the sitting councillors, the main council officers and transport links. They provide fascinating reading comparing how Port has changed year after year. For instance the 1925 edition lists railway, steamer and cable tramway as the transport links for Port Melbourne.

The directories were used as a reference within council and the majority of our collection covering 1909 to 1940 were used by our longest serving councillor James Peter Crichton and the covers are embossed with his name. Unfortunately 1913, 1915 and 1939 are missing from this collection but we also have a number of editions from the 1970s and 80s that were used by Cr Perce White.

As you can imagine the condition of these books vary greatly. They have been heavily used in the past and some are over 100 years old so recently the Society engaged Duncan and Tine Rolley to work on the set of directories as part of our on-going maintenance of our collection.

Tina and Duncan Rolley of Artifact Conservation at the Society's rooms
Tine and Duncan Rolley of Artifact Conservation at the Society’s rooms

The Rolleys run Artifact Conservation, conservators of books and paper for over 25 years based in Kyneton. In July they visited our rooms to refurbish the books. Refurbishment is a preventative measure to help protect the books from suffering any further damage. It involves removing surface dirt and identifying items that require more detailed conservation work.

Conservation work can be expensive and refurbishment is a cost-effective way help maintain our collection. We are very grateful to the City of Port Phillip who encourage us to use a portion of the money we receive from them each year along with money from our own fundraising efforts to conserve items within our collection.


Following the publication we received the following from Duncan & Tine.

Victorian Municipal Directory 1918 - Before and After Refurbishment. Photos by Duncan Rolley
Victorian Municipal Directory 1918 – Before and After Refurbishment. Photos by Duncan Rolley

During the refurbishment for each volume we cleaned the covers, brushed out the entire textblock, repaired any major tears, re-adhered detached/lifted endpapers, consolidated lifted and scuffed leather on the spines and corners, and applied a museum quality leather dressing. Any volume that required a more detailed and extensive repair or conservation treatment was tied up with white cotton tape. This holds all the detached components together and enables easy detection of the damaged volumes.

Refurbished Victorian Municipal Directory Collection. Photo by Duncan Rolley
Refurbished Victorian Municipal Directory Collection. Photo by Duncan Rolley

3 Comments

  • Joy Taylor
    Posted May 7, 2018 10.59 am 0Likes

    My great great grandmother arrived at Williamstown aboard the Wacousta in May 1853, and was ferried to Sandridge where they found fresh water by digging in the sand. She details about early life there, and I wondered if you would be interested in having a copy of her letter, or if you already had information about her.

    They were William and Jane Bogle with their seven children, the eldest being thirteen years of age.

    • Janet Bolitho
      Posted May 10, 2018 9.38 pm 0Likes

      Hi Joy, We would be very interested in having a copy of her letter. I will check with colleagues if we have further information about William and Jane Bogle.

    • Janet Bolitho
      Posted May 10, 2018 9.38 pm 0Likes

      Thank you Barry.

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Acknowledgement of Traditional Custodians

We respectfully acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we meet and work, the Bunurong Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples of the Eastern Kulin Nation and pay respect to their Elders past, present and emerging.