Research resources

As Council is only able to provide a limited research service, some of the more commonly used publications and resources are listed below for reference purposes. Please contact the local historical societies for assistance - their contact details can be located in our Community directory.

Archives & Research Centres

• Bendigo Regional Archives Centre BRAC
• Goldfields Research Centre GRC
• National Archives of Australia NAA
• Public Record Office Victoria PROV

Digitised Newspapers

The National Library of Australia's TROVE database has an ever-expanding range of Australian and online resources: books, images, historic newspapers, maps, music, archives and more.

Local History and Genealogical Web links

• Ancestry
• Family History connections
• FamilySearch
• Cyndi's List
• Find My Past
• Genealogical Society of Victoria (GSV)    
• Picture Victoria
• Unlock the Past
• VicGUM (Genealogists using computers)   
• Victorian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages
• Websites for Genealogists by Cora Num   

Local History Publications

• Michael Sharland – These Verdant Plains. A History of the Shire of East Loddon, Victoria. The Hawthorn Press, Melbourne 1971. © The Shire of East Loddon, Serpentine, Victoria. SBN 7256 0028 4

• Brendan Monks – A Land So Inviting. A History of the Shire of Gordon 1885-1985. The Dominion Press-Hedges & Bell, Maryborough. ISBN 0 9589738 0 6

Maps and Plans

For people researching Council rate records, it might be worth noting that the Public Record Office Victoria has a series of Parish Maps and Township Plans digitally available. The names of many of the original owners of land can be located on these plans. These are the Regional Land Office Plans Digitised Reference Set c.1837-2004 (VPRS 16171). 

• PROV Parish and Township maps

Victorian Government Gazettes Online Archive 1836 - 1997

The State Library of Victoria has an online archive of historic government gazettes that provides access to over 160 years of official information published in and about Victoria. The gazettes are the government's method of notifying the general public of its decisions and activities. They contain information on everything from land transactions, bankruptcies, reward notices and new acts of parliament, to tenders, patent applications, unclaimed letters and monies, shipping and emigration notices, and more.

Gazette entries may be as brief as a road closure notice or as comprehensive as a 200-page list of everyone who is registered to practice medicine in Victoria. 

• Victorian Government Gazettes