Author: Tara Oldfield
Senior Communications Advisor
On International Volunteer Day (Friday 5 December), Public Record Office Victoria (PROV) proudly celebrated the incredible contributions of our volunteers throughout the year. In 2025 alone, volunteers collectively dedicated more than 8,000 hours to making our collection more accessible for researchers.
This year’s theme, “Every contribution matters,” perfectly reflects the spirit of PROV’s volunteers – whose collective efforts are preserving Victoria’s history for generations to come.
Project spotlight: Chief Secretary Department’s Registers of Inward Correspondence
Just in time for Christmas, PROV’s volunteers have wrapped up the digitisation of the Chief Secretary Department’s Registers of Inward Correspondence (VPRS 1186), covering the years 1851-1864.
The Chief Secretary’s Department was a vital hub of government, coordinating agencies and policies while serving as a channel of communication between departments. These Inward Correspondence registers were used to allocate unique identification numbers to every incoming letter to the Department, summarising requests ranging from funding and job appointments to property transfers, and updates on ships and seaman, to name a few.
The scale of the project:
- 53 intricately handwritten registers
- 8 dedicated volunteers
- Approximately 95 hours of work; and
- Over 3.5 months to photograph every page...
Voices from the volunteers
One volunteer reflected:
“Being part of a team that completes any series gives one a sense of achievement and fulfillment. It's more than just taking a picture, turning the page, taking the next one ... and on it goes.
Taking time out to read some of the entries that pass before our eyes can be quite illuminating at times, as we read the history of Victoria … Thank you PROV for the opportunity to take part in recording history for the future.”
Explore the digitised records
Thanks to this project, the registers are now online, making research into 19th--century correspondence a whole lot easier. Start researching today.
Celebrating our volunteers
Congratulations to all our volunteers for their achievements this year. Thank you also to everyone who joined our end of year celebration, including Helen Doxford Harris who shared an entertaining, informative and fascinating presentation on her research into personal and historical stories of police correspondence, gazettes, and council correspondence.
Together, we’re building a more connected world; one digitised page at a time.
Material in the Public Record Office Victoria archival collection contains words and descriptions that reflect attitudes and government policies at different times which may be insensitive and upsetting
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples should be aware the collection and website may contain images, voices and names of deceased persons.
PROV provides advice to researchers wishing to access, publish or re-use records about Aboriginal Peoples