The Foundation Series of Historical Records of Victoria, Volumes 1-7, reproduces every available official document that survives from the vital first years of the Port Phillip District, 1835 to1840. This monumental work fills many gaps in existing knowledge and enables both specialists and the general public to test long-held beliefs about the origins of the state of Victoria. This vast treasury of documents, assembled by editors Michael Cannon, Pauline Jones and Ian MacFarlane on behalf of Public Record Office Victoria, was published between 1981 and 1998. Attractively presented and appropriately illustrated, they form an indispensable resource for historians, researchers of all kinds, and interested citizens. Each volume of the series covers a different aspect of early colonial society, and the arrangement of documents within each volume is thematic. Volume 8, Cumulative Indexes, is the key to this treasury, and essential to its effective use.