Building history

Introduction

This guide will help you search in our collections for information on a Tasmanian building you own or are researching. You may find out when it was built, how the property looked in the past and how it has changed. You can often find out who lived or worked there, and you’re sure to discover valuable background information on the history of the local area.

The guide is divided into broad subject areas to help direct your research. Many of the resources listed under a subject area may also help with other areas, so it pays to familiarise with the whole guide.

Related Family History guides

Research tips

Street names and house numbers

Street names, house numbers, suburbs and other place names can change over time for several reasons. After the Local Government Act 1906 redefined the boundaries of municipalities, many councils renumbered streets. Streets may also have been renumbered, possibly several times, for other reasons such as when land was subdivided or a street was extended. If trying to solve a street numbering puzzle, you have to be a detective and work backwards and forwards through the resources; a good way to check is to compare the position in relation to neighbours over different years. These resources may help:

The story of your building

Research your building’s layout, date of construction and architectural style. You may be interested in restoring your house to its original style, or simply want information on when it was built and how it evolved over time.

House plans

The Tasmanian Archives hold a limited selection of house plans from 1900 onward. These plans are part of files of building applications and mostly comprise additions and alterations, rather than original building plans. Our collection includes the council areas of Hobart, Glenorchy, Launceston, Devonport, Clarence, Kingborough and the former council of Bruny Island. Other building plans may still be held by your local council. Not all building plans have survived, as it was not a legal requirement for councils to keep them.

To help verify the street number of your property in older plans, see tips in Who lived or worked in your building. A significant change in the rateable value of a property probably indicates subdivision, new construction, demolition or other activity.

Plans in our collections can be viewed in the History Room (91 Murray Street, Hobart). Other building plans may still be held by your local council. If you’re not able to come to the History Room to view the plans, you may request a copy (fees and conditions apply).

Searching for plans in the councils of Hobart, Glenorchy, Launceston

Searching for plans in the councils of Kingborough or Clarence, and for Bruny Island

Other building plans may still be held by your local council. Not all building plans have survived, as it was not a legal requirement for plans to be kept by councils.

Drainage plans

Metropolitan Drainage Board Maps for the Hobart area, online resource published between 1905 and 1909 are useful for central Hobart properties from North Hobart to Battery Point, and westward to South Hobart, as well as New Town and Queenborough. These show outlines of buildings, with floor level (in feet), name major buildings and can include names of major buildings and street numbers (as they were in c.1910).

Glenorchy Municipal Drainage Plans Registers AE496 cover the Glenorchy municipality 1942-1970, although the plans themselves no longer exist. The registers detail the owner, property and date of contract completion, and are useful for dating buildings.

Architectural resources

Explore our library resources on Tasmanian buildings and architecture, for example, 1914-1941 Album of house photographs with plans and sketches – Designs of Hutchison and Walker. Architects (NS5175) (Hobart area).

Useful books in the State Library of Tasmania and State Archives Reading Room include:

Images of your building

View down Wellington Street, Longford about 1905
Tasmanian Archives: LPIC147/4/265

We are more likely to have an image of your building if it featured in prominent events or was linked to something of significant historical value, but it could very easily be included in streetscape images, aerial photographs, panoramas, albums and postcards of particular towns. Also see historic films on our YouTube channel such as Hobart: Island Capital (1962), Georgian Bothwell (1964), City of Launceston (1957) and Remembering the 1967 Bushfires (10 films). Also see recently digitised items.

Explore our images of Tasmanian buildings online which include photographs, paintings, drawings and more. There are over 8,900 sets of images online and we add to them regularly. Some examples of what you’ll find:

To search for images that have not been digitised:

Images may be found in either the State Library of Tasmania or Tasmanian Archives collections:

Who lived or worked in your building?

Resources such as directories and assessment and valuation rolls can help you find out who else has owned, lived in, or worked in a building, as well as when it was built or what was there before. You can cross check information between resources to help you form a timeline of who owned or lived in your property, and how street names or numbers have changed over time. It may involve a lot of detective work and will be more straightforward for properties in Hobart and Launceston.

Who were the first owners of the land your building sits on?

Our Land Grants guide may help you find the first grantees or purchasers of the land.

Early directories

Online:

Hobart directories available in the Hobart Reading Room:

For other alphabetical, trade and professional directories and almanacs from 1824 to 1980, see our guide to Directories and almanacs.

For maps showing landholders and sometimes individual buildings, see our guide to Maps and plans.

Tasmania post office directories 1890-1948 (Wise’s)

Tasmania post office directories 1890 – 1948 is a searchable online resource which is usually arranged in three parts: alphabetically by street for Hobart and Launceston and some larger towns such as Burnie; alphabetical lists of residents by town; alphabetical directory of both individuals and business for all of Tasmania; and trade and community directories. To verify you are looking at the right property:

Assessment and valuation rolls

Published in the Tasmanian Government Gazette up to c.1960, formerly known as Hobart Town Gazette (1825-1880) and Hobart Gazette (1881-1906).

A rates assessment of Hobart properties was done in 1847, but rates were not enacted until the establishment of Municipal Councils in 1852. The earliest Hobart and Launceston valuations occurred between 1853-1855, 1858-1860 and 1862-1863. The Rural Municipal Act of 1858 allowed for the collecting of this information in the country areas as well.

Valuation Roll for the District of Westbury
State Library of Tasmania. 1858. Hobart Town Gazette. Hobart Town Andrew Bent, Government Printer, 1816-

The rolls show:

Assessment and valuation rolls online:

Please contact us if you find there any missing issues from our online valuation rolls. We also hold hard copies of indexes and valuation rolls for selected years, as well as microfilm for all years that rolls were published.

Valuation Branch (TA392)

See particularly the Government Valuations 1951-1984 (Archives record series AE298). These are organised geographically by municipality, then by division and street within each municipality.

Land Tax Branch (TA1676)

Series of valuation rolls for various Tasmanian towns for 1946-1957.

Valuation field books, Australian Taxation Office 1923-1964

These records held in the National Archives of Australia provide a comprehensive report on 533 rural Tasmanian properties. Go to Record Search and select “guest” then “Advanced Search”, Select “Series” search. Enter P2134 in series number field and any identifiers you have for the property (owner, property name or location). Digitised copies are available for some properties. Others can be requested from the National Archives Office, Hobart.

Search Tasmanian newspapers on Trove

Searching digitised Tasmanian newspapers on Trove can help to identify owners and occupiers before Assessment and Valuation Rolls began in 1847. See Trove’s Help page; and some helpful search tips on page 14 in the Launceston properties and country properties: a guide to research.

The LIST (Land Titles Office)

The LIST (Land Information System Tasmania) is an online government resource that helps you trace the history of Tasmanian land and property through the use of historic maps, plans, deeds and titles. Using the online map application LISTmap, you can view and create customised maps using multiple layers of information. Also see our Where someone lived guide on viewing copies of historic title documents.

Using occupants to find information on a property

Once you have owner and occupant information, you can use people’s names to find more details on both their life and the ongoing life of the building. See the section above on searching digitised newspapers in Trove. Use keywords that combine owners’/occupants’ names and property details. You may find the house number, name of the street and even the areas changes over time, so be flexible with your search terms.

You can also search the Tasmanian Names Index for additional information:

The wider picture: history and background of suburbs, towns, and districts

Exploring the history of your building’s locality will help you understand how your house fits into the wider picture.

Plan of Paternoster Row (Hobart) and surrounding streets
Tasmanian Archives: AF393/1/58

See our guide to Maps & plans for early street names, structures and landmarks, for example the 1841-1846 maps compiled by James Sprent including street names, landholders and building outlines, and these two maps of Hobart Town around 1860, Map of Hobart Town showing streets, waterways, public buildings and cemeteries (R. Jarman) and Hobart Town map and street directory showing businesses and significant buildings (F. Proeschel).

Tasmanian Archives: AF393/1/58

Also see the guide to Place names and publications on geographical names in our library collection.

Search for local histories published for many parts of Tasmania. For the best results, simply type ‘history’ and the locality you’re interested in into the search box for the library catalogue, and refine results on the left hand side of the page, for example by formats such as ‘books’ or ‘online’. Heritage reviews in our collection also shed light on aspects and themes that help to understand the area and its historic physical fabric.

Accounts from people living in Tasmania in periods such as the 1830s can be useful, especially if they have good indexes. For example Henry Button’s Flotsam and jetsam, floating fragments of life in England and Tasmania: an autobiographical sketch, with an outline of the introduction of responsible government : Launceston, Tas. : A.W. Birchall, 1909 (London : Hazell, Watson and Viney).

Examples of other detailed local history publications in our collection:

description of Byron Street from Montpelier Street to Fitzroy Place

This selection of resources from the Launceston Local Studies Collection has a focus on northern Tasmania.

Historic buildings

If your building is very old and perhaps historically significant, these resources will help. Search by property name, if you have one, as well as by address. If you are not sure whether your property had a name in the past, search by address in LISTmap to see if a name is listed.

Helpful Libraries Tasmania resources include:

Heritage Tasmania has the latest register of Tasmanian heritage properties available for viewing and downloading. Also see Heritage Tasmania publications [electronic resource] and publication The heritage of Tasmania : the illustrated register of the National Estate.

The Tasmanian Family History Society provides a Comprehensive Subject Index-CSI on the Web (tasfhs.org), a searchable database of references to named people, objects, places or events.

Buildings with past uses

Holy Trinity S. School, Church Street, Hobart. Additions and Alternations - the architect's drawings dated 11 June 1894. Tasmanian Archives: NS373/1/417
Tasmanian Archives: NS373/1/417

Public places

Buildings that were used as public places were inspected by government officials – These series can be examined when the records are open – some are on closed access for 25 years. There are some restrictions on accessing personal information.

Government buildings

Tracing the history of government buildings entails many of the approaches already described. In addition, they have their own unique records and strategies that set them apart from researching private property. Government buildings may have been built or acquired by government.

Commonwealth buildings

Buildings utilised for Federal/Commonwealth purposes can be found in the holdings of the National Archives of Australia. Such buildings include post offices, customs house, defence buildings. Search online or visit their office at 91 Murray Street for more information.

State Government buildings

The Colonial Secretary’s Office and subsequent agencies were responsible for the building of many of the earliest Tasmanian Government buildings.

Some useful records include:

Plan of Customs House in mid-1800s
Tasmanian Archives: PWD266/1/547

Individual government departments that built and/or owned their own buildings can hold records on the construction of their building. Search through the individual department (agency search), looking for series created by the Department (such as correspondence, minutes, photographic series). For example, the Education Department (TA63) has many correspondence files relating to schools and early indexes, registers and letter books that can be used to compile school building histories. Marine Board of Hobart (TA71) minutes can be used to trace buildings used for marine and harbour purposes.

Parliamentary Standing Committees on Public Works – Various published reports of Journals and Printed Papers of Parliament are held in the Hobart reference collection.

Local Government buildings

Records of council-owned or council-acquired buildings can be found in the records of the individual councils using a Tasmanian Archives search by council name. See our guide Searching Tasmanian Archives for assistance.