Establishment of the Library

From 1841 to 1843 the Supreme Court of New South Wales for the District of Port Phillip was convened in Bourke Street. In 1843 a courthouse was constructed in La Trobe Street, backing on to the Melbourne Gaol.

Royal assent to the Act to separate the District of Port Phillip from New South Wales had been received in Melbourne on November 11, 1850. It would seem that from this moment Redmond Barry, who was appointed as the first puisine judge of the Supreme Court of the Colony of Victoria, determined to establish a library. A Library not only for the courts, but also for the legal profession in the new colony.

The Supreme Court (Constitution) Act 1852 (officially titled An Act to make provision for the better Administration of Justice in the Colony of Victoria). The Act empowered The Supreme Court to make Rules and Regulations, which included provision for a library for the legal profession with admission fees to go to the Supreme Court Library fund.

The Library Committee was established and by the first meeting of the Committee in April 1854, books for the new library had been purchased and were on their way from London. A small room in the courthouse, which was formerly used by female prisoners, had been appropriated as a "temporary" library and a request made for shelves to be put up to hold the first shipment of 496 volumes.

At the second meeting of the Library Committee in May 1854, the first rules for the library were recorded in the committee minutes and copies printed and pasted into each library book. These books are still in the Supreme Court Library’s collection.

History of the Supreme Court Library