Researching the history of your house

You can use this guide to research local houses, properties, factories or public buildings.  

Starting your research

• Think about the history of the property as a part of the broader history of the city, suburb and individual families.
• Talk to neighbours who have lived in the street a long time. They may be able to provide some useful information about the house.
• Search both library catalogues. There are some published histories or conservation reports about some buildings in Merri-bek such as the Brunswick Town Hall, Brunswick Baths, Hoffman Brickworks that have not yet been digitised. Also look in the index of published histories on local areas. 
• Searching the internet using the address may give some clues for further research.
• Historic Homes: Researching your historic home in Victoria
• How to trace the history of your house by Des Regan and Kate Press
• Reseaching buildings and Houses (State Library of Victoria)
• Prov Guide 6: Property and Building Research and Prov Guide 55 : Land records
• Consider that you might find information about the property that could be upsetting.

Conservation and Heritage Studies

Historical information about some heritage or significant local properties are listed in local conservation reports, heritage studies or databases.

Historical information about some specific properties are also listed under the street in the Street Names of Brunswick and the Street Names of Coburg.  Refer Street Development and Maps section below. 

• Victorian Heritage Database
• Moreland Heritage Gaps Study 2018
• Keeping Brunswick's Heritage: Significant Individual Places (PDF 11Mb)
• City of Coburg Heritage Conservation and Streetscape Study: Data Sheets (PDF 13Mb) (Vol 2)
• City of Coburg Heritage Conservation and Streetscape Study: Data Sheets (PDF 4Mb) (Vol 3)
• City of Merri-bek Heritage Review Building Citations, Vol 2, Part I, A-K (PDF 4Mb)
• City of Merri-bek Heritage Review: Building Citations Vol 2, Part II L-Z (PDF 4Mb)
• Northern Suburbs Factory Study Part 1 (PDF 9Mb), Northern Suburbs Factory Study Part 2 (PDF 9Mb)
• Further Merri-bek Heritage Studies (scroll to bottom of page)
• Coburg Historical Society has some files on well-known local properties.
• National Trust of Australia  has files on properties that they classify as heritage properties in their offices in the city.
• Moreland History Publications includes a list of articles in local historical society newsletters. 
• Mansions of Merri-bek presentation for 2018 Australian Heritage Festival.

Indigenous history

• Indigenous history of Merri-bek
• Aboriginal Melbourne: the lost land of the Kulin 
• People of the Merri Merri

Early suburb history

Local history books sometimes describe early settlement such as Crown grants, parish maps or early subdivisions. Some key suburb histories are:

• City of Merri-bek: a thematic history
• Coburg: Between Two Creeks
• Brunswick: One History Many Voices
• Broadmeadows: a forgotten history

Heritage Area histories

Histories of areas with heritage overlays can be found in local heritage and conservation studies.

• Keeping Brunswick Heritage: Volume 3 (PDF 3Mb)
• City of Coburg Heritage Conservation and Streetscape Study (PDF 17Mb)
• City of Merri-bek Heritage Review: Heritage Overlay Precincts (PDF 3Mb)
• Further heritage studies (see bottom of page)

Subdivision / estate history

• Search Moreland City Libraries Local History catalogue for posters of early subdivisions of estates.
• State Library of Victoria holds some posters advertising auctions of land in early subdivisions.
• Coburg Historical Society also holds some subdivision auction posters.
• Search estate name on Trove.

Street development and maps

Some street names and numbers changed over time so it is a good idea to research the street history before you go further.

Historical information about some specific properties are also listed under the street in the Street Names of Brunswick and the Street Names of Coburg.

• The street names of Brunswick (1987)
• The street names of Brunswick: the story behind the sign (2013) includes newer streets
• Street names of Coburg
• Melbourne street directories 1912-52. (State Library of Victoria)
• Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works maps (State Library of Victoria)
• Coburg Historical Society has bound copies of the first MMBW maps of Coburg and Pascoe Vale 1909-49.
• Maps on Trove
• Royal Historical Society of Victoria has a large range of maps. View by appointment.

Many street numbers may have also changed over time.

Albion Street numbers changed 1955 - 1960.
Munro Street, Brunswick changed around 1928.
Park Street, Brunswick numbers changed in the early 1970s.
Sydney Road numbers changed from 1920s - 1940s. 

To work out the number changes you can try using Postal Directories. Follow the main resident names in the postal directories over various years to see how the house number changed around them. Sometimes the number change is listed on rate record cards.

Design and construction

The style of a building can suggest the building date. In Victoria, the main periods of house building were 1887-1890, 1920-30 and 1950 onwards. There was no building after April 1942 during World War II.

• Heritage Council of Victoria What house is that: housing styles in Victoria
• Australian house styles by Maisy and Ian Stapleton
• A pictorial guide to identifying Australian architecture
• Recognising house styles by Laurie Burchell
• Australian houses of the twenties and thirties
• Australian houses of the forties and fifties

If you know the name of the architect, the following resources can give more information about them:

• Encyclopedia of Australian Architecture
• Informit database of Art, Architecture and Building. You need to be a member of the State Library to use this database from home.
• State Library of Victoria Architectural Resources

Building permits and plans

Full building plans were only required to be submitted to Councils after 1916.

Coburg Historical Society holds a Building Licence File Index for the late 1940s - 1950s. 

Moreland Council has records for building constructions or alterations after 1994. See property information for information on how to apply.

The local government authority in which the property is located may have changed. You may need to contact neighbouring Councils, such as City of Yarra, City of Moonee Valley or Hume City Council

Plans for some public buildings are available in the following locations:

• State Library of Victoria Architectural Drawings Collection
• Public Record of Victoria Public Buildings Plans and Files

Resident and occupier records

Postal directories

The Sands and Kenny (1857-1861) and Sands and MacDougall Post Office Directories (1862-1974) are a good record of who lived at an address each year. To estimate the year the house was built you can try researching back in time through Postal Directories until there is no listing of the house.

Sands and MacDougall Directories are being progressively digitised by the State Library of Victoria and made available online.

If you are searching by house or property, go to the Suburban Streets section. Find the suburb, then the street, then the house number.If you are searching by name of resident, go to the Alphabetical Index section towards the back of the directory.

Some Postal Directories for Australian states are also now available for searching on Ancestry Library Edition. See Australian City Directories.  

Electoral rolls

Electorall rolls are arranged by electorate and surname, rather than by street or house number. You can't search Electoral Rolls by street or house number. You have to know the name of the resident first.

• Australian Electoral Rolls 1903-80 on Ancestry Library Edition at local libraries.
• Original local voter rolls for the electorate of Wills (1970s and 1980s) in the Local History Room at Brunswick Library
• Historic electoral rolls can be searched on microfiche at the State Library of Victoria.

Rate records

Council rate records sometimes include a property or house description, information on building material, rooms, residents, owners and property valuations. 

In the past, rates may have been collected by a different Council. Sometimes rates were collected from tenants rather than owners. Records were organised by Council ward. Within wards records follow the path the collectors took. For Coburg and Pascoe Vales streets, use the index at the front of the Sands and MacDougall Post Office Directories for the years 1885-86 to 1937-38.

Wards, street names and house numbers sometimes changed over time. Lot numbers help limit the property you are researching. Lot numbers 1, 2 and 3 can be the result of re-subdivision and may appear more than once. If rates increased a lot in one year it could be due to major renovations or a new building being added to the property.

Rates information is not available for every house for every year. Please be aware there are gaps in records, particularly in the mid-1990s. 

Moreland Council's Rates Department only hold rate information from 2008 onward due to an IT system change over. It is unlikely that Rates will be able to provide information prior to this.

City of Brunswick

Moreland City Libraries have the following Brunswick rate records on microfiche.

1860 - 1959, 1971 - 1982, 1987, 1989 (Les Barnes Local History Room, Brunswick) 1860 - 1955, 1971 - 1977 (held at Coburg Library).

The State Library of Victoria holds City of Brunswick (1860 - 1930) rate records on microfilm.

Original rate books (1871 - 1981) are at the Public Record Office of Victoria.

City of Coburg

Moreland City Libraries have the following Coburg rate records on microfiche.
Pentridge District Road Baord 1863 - 1868 (Coburg Library) Coburg District Road Board 1869 - 1874 (Coburg Library) Shire of Coburg 1875 - 1904 (Coburg Library) Borough of Coburg 1905 - 1920 (Coburg Library) City of Coburg 1921 - 1976 (Coburg Library)
City of Coburg Rates 1863 - 1900 are on Ancestry Library Edition. Select Victorian records. 

The State Library of Victoria holds City of Coburg rate records on microfilm (1918 - 1986).

Original Rate records for the City of Coburg (1863 - 1986) are at the Public Records Office of Victoria.

City of Broadmeadows

City of Broadmeadows 1863-1899 are also on Ancestry Library Edition (available for use at libraries). Select Victorian records. 

Publicans Indexes

See the Cole-Tetlow Index at the State Library of Victoria.

The Public Record Office of Victoria also holds records about publicans' licenses.

Newspaper articles

Some historic national, state and local newspapers are now digitised and available to search online.

Try searching with abbreviations as well as the full name of the street (St), road (Rd) or avenue (Ave). If you search on just a street name you will also find articles about other events in the street. Use inverted commas to keep the words together in the search, e.g. "Saxon Street", "Saxon St"

• Trove Digitised Historic Australian newspapers lets you search across historic copies of The Argus (1848-1957), The Age (1854-1954) and some historic local newspapers (currently digitised to 1914-18).
• State Library of Victoria has databases of more recent newspaper articles available for their members to search from home. You can become a member online.

Sale and ownership records

Titles

Titles can show when property ownership was transferred. This information was required after 1862. Titles can be searched online for a fee. See property information for information on how to apply for title information.
Once you have a Volume and Folio number, you can view a digitised version of the title on a database at the Public Records Office of Victoria.

Wills and probate

Owners of properties will specify in their Will who the property is to pass to upon their death. Original wills are at the Public Records Office of Victoria and some are digitised and available online.

Probate documents may include important details such as property description, location, valuation, contents and reference numbers. See Wills and probate on the Public Record Office of Victoria website.

Property sales advertisements and results

Advertising and auction descriptions can give good information about how a house has changed. Search for advertisements in the period before you know the house was sold.

There have been many different local papers since the 1850s. Brunswick, Glenroy and Coburg Libraries hold hard copies of some local papers. The State Library of Victoria Newspaper Room should have complete sets either in hard copy or on microfiche.

You can also search the street address on an internet search engine and old online property advertisements are likely to still be available.

Auction results are often listed in The Sunday Age or on property websites on Sunday.

There are businesses that package information about sales history of properties for a fee. These can be found online using search terms such as ‘property sales history’ in a search engine

Photographs

Historic photos of specific properties can be hard to find unless they have a heritage listing and are on the Victorian Heritage Database.

There may be some old photos of the street or road. Try searching on the full name of the street as well as abbreviations, e.g. Dawson Street and Dawson St.

See Historic local photographs.