Melbourne Australia Phone Directory
Nhyiraba Valentin
Post office, telephone and trade directories are useful for confirming when and where a person resided at a particular address or operated a business. They can also help to trace the movement of a person or family.
Most directories are arranged alphabetically by surname or business name, however many historical post office directories also include a geographical section, which allows you to search by suburb and street name. Directories usually contain the name and address of the main householder, not all family members. Some historical directories also include the occupation of the householder.
Trade directories contain commercial listings and many historical directories include professional listings, the names of government officials and those employed in specific industries such as banking, law, education and ecclesiastical institutions
When using directories it's worth remembering that over time, boundaries may have moved, so make sure you are checking the right suburb listing for a particular era. Also, a listing in a directory was neither compulsory nor free, so not everyone is listed.
The following is a list of major Victorian post office directories.
We also hold copies of regional and municipal directories. A PDF listing many of these titles can be found at the bottom of this table. Or, to find out what's available for a specific town, please search the library catalogue for a place name together with the keyword directories, i.e. Bendigo directories.
The library holds copies of Victorian telephone directories from 1913 onward.
Here is a summary of our main collections, including directories available on microfiche in the Newspapers and Family History Reading Rooms.
This directory covers all of Tasmania and includes separate sections on Hobart, Launceston and country exchanges. It lists thousands of telephone numbers for 1953 arranged in a similar way to today's telephone books.
Each section includes a list of people and companies together with their address and telephone number and are sorted alphabetically. The country section is sorted alphabetically by town. It also has separate business and government departments sections.
It also includes call rates for both local and interstate calls, telegram rates, how to place a call or telegram using different phone types, postal rates, wireless licence information and general telephone information.
So Sydney and Melbourne people needing the home directory to find phone numbers, prop their computer up to the right height, or even up one end of their bookshelves will need to go online, call the hotline or go to Australia Post.
Sensis, which publishes the directories, is not commenting on how the change will affect its print run, but the printer's union, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) is saying the print run of the residential directories was cut this year from almost 1.4 million to 165,000 in each city.
White Pages group manager Peter Barclay said on Wednesday most people no longer needed a residential phone book and were instead going online or using mobile phones and personal books to search for people's numbers and address.
Mr Barclay said he was confident groups such as the elderly would still be able to get the residential phone book if they wished to, by ordering it on the phone or over the internet, or by picking it up from Australia Post.
"While more and more consumers are using digital platforms to search for residential contact information, parts of the population still rely on the printed version of the White Pages residential book," Mr Barclay said in a statement.
\\\"While more and more consumers are using digital platforms to search for residential contact information, parts of the population still rely on the printed version of the White Pages residential book,\\\" Mr Barclay said in a statement.
c80f0f1006