Identity area
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Title
Date(s)
- 1880-1894 (Creation)
Level of description
Item
Extent and medium
1 account ledger
Context area
Name of creator
Administrative history
The Risby Timber Company until its demise in the mid-1990s was one of Australia's oldest family-run firms. Boat builders Thomas and Joseph Risby established a sawmill in Hobart in the mid-1840s. Thomas left, but Joseph had the business on a sound footing when his three sons took control in 1885, trading as Risby Brothers. By 1900 Risbys had ten vessels and their enterprises extended from the south-east to the west, with a depot and mill at Strahan (1897), followed by numerous bush mills in the Derwent Valley. They sold timber and timber-related products, and moved to different sites in Hobart as business expanded, particularly during the do-it-yourself boom of the 1970s. After the main Westerway mill burnt down in 1957, Risbys developed a state-of-the-art sawmill at Austins Ferry. Among numerous timber-based ventures, the company became embroiled in the conservation-forestry confrontation at Farmhouse Creek in 1986. The company closed in 1994. From: http://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/R/Risby%27s.htm
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
The provenance of this volume is not known. It was not received with the Risby archives listed above, but may, in fact, relate to the Risby business.
Content and structure area
Scope and content
An account ledger of timber merchant (unknown but could be Risby). Ledger accounts headed by name of client. Entries, dated, record: number, description, sum (with debit and credit in columns on the same page). Items mentioned are mainly timber but also include shingles, palings, freight, cartage, painting, insurance. Payments are noted as cheque or cash, or sometimes 'goods', or bacon, tea, sugar, soap, tobacco, castor oil. The volume includes an alphabetical index of clients names. These include many well-known names and, where addresses are given, are usually, but not only, residents of Hobart. Several clients are described as builders. Sleepers were supplied for the Government railways and timber for the Hobart Exhibition. Among clients' names are, for example, W. Batt, builder, Sandy Bay; Bidencope; Burn & Son; Cascade Brewery; Clark, undertaker Brisbane Street; Currie, Murray St.; Cygnet Coal Co.; Gas Co.; Government Railways; Hobart Corporation; Marine Board, Mcgregor & Co. Mill; Oates Dock; H. Priest, Melville St.; Public Works, ;Telegraph Dept.; Risby,; R. Shoobridge, New Norfolk; E. Tolman; Walsh,; A.G. Webster.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
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Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
May be consulted. Permission from owners necessary for copying or publication.
Conditions governing reproduction
This material is made available for personal research and study purposes under the University of Tasmania Standard Copyright Licence. For any further use permission should be obtained from the copyright owners. For assistance please contact Special.Collections@utas.edu.au
When reusing this material, please cite the reference number and provide the following acknowledgement:
“Courtesy of the UTAS Library Special & Rare Collections”
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Publication note
Risby Bros. Pty. Limited : the rise to prominence in the Tasmanian timber industry / by David Brownlow. Thesis (B.A.(Hons.)--University of Tasmania, 1969.
Publication note
Against the odds : Risbys - Tasmanian timber pioneers 1826-1995 / Alex Graeme-Evans. - Morris Miller-Book CS 2009 .R57 1995
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Dates of creation revision deletion
CE August 2018