Yarrawonga records at PROV – do you know how easy it is to find them?  Just like this photo titled 3 Officers and gentleman Mssrs CHAPMAN, FRENCH and ROCKE, Railway construction camp 16-11-1927.  Yarrawonga Oaklands line construction.  VPRS 12800 / P0007 C 0517.  This negative is from their Photographic Collection: Railway Negatives: Alpha-numeric Systems from the State Transport Authority.

Records may be physical or digital and may or may not be of interest but for ANY groups or individuals who don’t live around the corner from the Reading Room at PROV North Melbourne this is definitely where you should start.

You will be able to find MANY items both digitised and online, however it is also a great place to plan a visit to PROV – identify records to order and check the hours of opening – all that and more on the PROV Contact Us page.

But first let’s step back to some really simple steps to find your records of interest and also the quick method for an Advanced Search – remember when you used to have to go to the old Catalogue to search within your favourite Series?  Not any more … here are a few key steps and options.​

Search for a place or a name – just go to the default PROV home page – enter a place or a person’s name in the search box and hit ENTER or click on the magnifying glass.

By default this will search the collection.  To search the web site for things like Guides, click on the arrow beside COLLECTION and select WEBSITE

If you enter YARRAWONGA you’ll get more than 6,000 results – a lot to search through!

 

Not a problem – use the FILTER options down the left hand side of the screen.

For example, select DIGITAL to narrow the results down to only those items available online – in this case, 613 items.

An alternative is to select the ADVANCED SEARCH to the right of the simple search box from the home page.

Enter your search terms – place, names etc. but in this case you can select ALL / ANY / PHRASE.  Think about additional search terms such as a name AND the name of a ship – lots of options!

Click on the VIEW RECORD – Online and you’ll limit your results to digital items only.

While you’re on the ADVANCED SEARCH screen look at the options that might be helpful with other searches.

You’ve ended up with similar results to the first search but using combined options in the ADVANCED SEARCH.  Have a better look at the FILTER options down the left hand side of the results.

Got your favourite VPRS number you want to search in?

Remember when you learnt to Search by Number or Search within a Series or a myriad of other Search options in the old Catalogue?

You don’t need to bumble around in the Old Catalogue any more – you can do it all with one click from the PROV Home Page by clicking on Advanced Search on the right.

This time I’m searching my absolute favourite VPRS number!  VPRS 16171.

VPRS 16171 contains the digitised Parish Plans and Township Plans for Victoria.  They are large and in full colour – PDF format that you can zoom in to read ALL of the fine print.

The search above for YARRAWONGA in VPRS 16171 resulted in just two files – the Yarrawonga Township Plan and the Yarrawonga Parish Plan.

Just click on the title at the top of each item and follow the instructions to view and/or download these magnificent PDF plans.

Searching is not the only way to find records at the Public Record Office Victoria.

EXPLORE THE COLLECTION is one of the most helpful options on the PROV website.

When you’re on the home page and many other pages take note of the ‘bouncing‘ arrow pointing DOWN.

You should be SCROLLING DOWN to explore the different entry points for groups of records at PROV.

I selected RESEARCHING LAND AND PROPERTY from the PROV home page.

You can then keep scrolling down to read the details of how to research this topic.

You will then be presented with a number of sub-topics to select.

On the RIGHT of this topic page are some important links: RELATED RESOURCES and ARTICLES.

RESEARCH BY TOPIC is a terrific link.  You will be presented with the MOST POPULAR TOPICS based on frequency of use.

Don’t rush through these topics – the majority will have a NAVIGATE TO button – hover over it or click the down arrow to see a bundle of additional sub-topics.

I know some of you remember information and research guides that existed in the old version of the website and now you can’t find them.

This might help – back to the PROV home page and enter search words in the search box BUT change the option from COLLECTION to WEBSITE.

Still can’t find what you’re looking for?

It’s possible that it’s not in the new web site yet – staff are still creating TOPIC pages.

If you’re really stuck, just ask …

Online Enquiry Form – For research and reference enquiries regarding access to our records.

PROV won’t do your research for you but they WILL answer your general enquiry questions.

Keep an eye on WHAT’S ON for training and tours.