The British Bradshaw's Guide was an early compiled timetable, including all known public railways in Great Britain. The Wikipedia Bradshaw's Guide page also lists a number of other countries that issued compiled timetables, borrowing the Bradshaw name from the British model: France, Germany and Austria, India, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Syria and Turkey. In Australia two Bradshaw's were issued: the short-lived Bradshaw's New South Wales postal & road guide which was published for a short time in the late 1860s and 1870s; and Bradshaw's Guide to Victoria, which had an 86-year life, from 1856 to 1942. (The January 1880 edition of Bradshaw's Guide to New Zealand is believed to be the only such copy.) Background Bradshaw's Railway and General Guide to Victoria was first published in May 1856. It appropriated the name of the famed British Bradshaw's Railway Guide. It was first published less than two years after the opening of Victoria's (and Australia's) first railway from Melbourne to Sandridge, but a number of other railways were in the course of construction, and the timetables were included as soon as the particular line opened. Nevertheless, the early editions of Bradshaw's contained numerous coach timetables and other miscellaneous material. July 1859 is an example of an early issue; a time when Melbourne's railways were at an embryonic stage. The privately owned Melbourne and Hobson's Bay Railway Company, the Melbourne and Suburban Railway Company, and the Geelong and Melbourne Railway Company were all operating, and the government-owned Victorian Railways had just built their first lines to Williamstown and Sunbury. Railway information only occupied eight of the 124 pages. The remainder of the Guide provided comprehensive detail of all manner of institutions in what was a very fast-growing colony, mainly because of the Victorian gold rush. Information is given about the Parliament, Government, courts, municipal councils, the electric telegraph, banks, insurance companies, churches, Masonic lodges, postal charges and arrangements, and country localities. There were also a number of advertisements. The printing is of a high standard for the times. The Victorian Bradshaw was published monthly and was available from newsagents throughout the state. In latter years, the railway timetable section was based on information supplied by Victorian Railways but sometimes the information was a little behind that in the V.R.s own public timetables, usually published twice-yearly, and available from train stations across the state. However, as we've already seen, Bradshaw's provided much more