Government gazettes for a particular locality eventually become standardised
with the type of material listed. In the 1890s you can expect the Government
Gazettes to include the following information that will usually list names and
sometimes name of emigrant vessel, addresses and/or occupations:
- appointees to government positions
- appointments of magistrates and Justices of the Peace
- appointments of returning officers
- crown land leases
- deceased estates
- dissolution of business partnerships
- insolvents
- notices or rewards for lost or stolen property and stock
- property owners subject to compulsory land acquisition by government
- purchasers of land lodging caveats under Real Property Act
- unclaimed letters
- unclaimed property (railways)
- witnesses to executions
Example entry taken from 4 February, 1893:
Colonial Secretary's Office,
Brisbane, 12th January, 1893.
£100 REWARD.
IT is hereby notified that a Reward of £100 will be paid
for information which may lead to the apprehension and
conviction of the person of persons who, on the 24th
December last, destroyed with dynamite the Poppet-legs
and a Steam-chest Engine in the Queenslander Mine at
Georgetown; and that a free pardon will be granted to
any person or persons concerned in the crime and not
being the principal offenders, who may give such
information.
HORACE TOZER.
Gazettes are published by governments and their agencies as a means of
communication to officials and the general public. As such they are useful, not
only to monitor the actions of the government, but also as far as family
historians are concerned, they are valuable primary source documents.
