The first issue of the Victoria Government Gazette was published on 9 July 1851. Before then, material about Victoria was published in the New South Wales Government Gazette, the Port Phillip Government Notices and the Port Phillip Government Gazette.
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.
Early issues of the Victoria Government Gazette were published once a week. In the 1850s the frequency increased, and by the turn of the century the gazette was pressed almost daily.
From 1987 onwards, the gazette has been published in three series:
No copies of the Port Phillip Government Notices or Gazette are known to exist for the period from 19 July to 31 December 1843. Gazette information for this period may be in the Port Phillip Herald newspaper under the 'Melbourne Government Gazette' column.
Some issues of the gazette also appear to be missing because publication of the issue was cancelled.
You may find anomalies in the information found in the gazettes on this site. Some issues contain errors that appeared in the original printed publication, and others may have mistakes in the indexes which have been captured using optical character recognition (OCR).
Although we are reviewing the gazettes and fixing errors as we come across them, we appreciate your help. If you find any mistakes please inform us via the State Library of Victoria feedback form.
As well as the Victoria Government Gazette, a range of Victorian and Australian government publications are available at the State Library of Victoria, dating back to the mid-1800s.
This website is the result of collaboration between the State Library of Victoria, Land Victoria and the Office of the Chief Parliamentary Counsel.
We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the State Library of New South Wales, which provided high-quality scans of the early NSW gazettes.
The Victoria Government Gazette is a publication of the Victorian Government Printer.
This website is the result of collaboration between the State Library of Victoria, Land Victoria and the Office of the Chief Parliamentary Counsel.
