This series contains 13 volumes of Naval muster rolls for the districts of Port Melbourne and Williamstown ranging in date from 1875 to 1908.

These muster rolls were commenced for the Volunteer Naval Defence Force of the Colony of Victoria and were administered by the Victorian Department of Defence from 1881.

In 1884 the Naval Brigade was formed to take over the Volunteer Naval Force. On Federation in 1901 the defence function was taken over by the Commonwealth but the Naval Forces continued to be administered under state acts until a Naval Board was constituted under the Commonwealth Department of Defence in 1905.

The state Naval Brigades remained in existence until circa 1904 to 1907 when they were replaced by the Commonwealth Naval Militia, which was succeeded after 1911 by the Royal Australian Naval Reserve.

These records were held at Williamstown until the Naval Reserve depot was closed on 21 September 1956. They were subsequently transferred to archival custody by the Naval Staff Office, Port Melbourne, which had taken over the records of the Williamstown depot.

The entries are in a double page format headed: Muster Roll and Record of Drill (monthly), with columns titled: Rank and Name, Date of month and hours drilled by each member at different exercises (one column for each day, 31 columns), detailed drills of the month and total (in hours).

There are 5 double pages of the above information and then another double page format headed 'Record of Officers Duties and Attendance from 1st to 31st (month) (year)'.

This is followed by a page with the heading 'Increase and Decrease of Division' and a facing page headed 'General Remarks by Officer Commanding Naval Reserve'. The double page format is then repeated again in another monthly return of figures.

Australian Archives has imposed the numbers [1] to [13] on the volumes which are in chronological order within each district.

It would seem there are gaps as the volumes for Williamstown 1880-1882 and 1887-1889 are not included and their whereabouts are unknown.

Some volumes have loose papers and many blank pages. Several volumes are in poor condition.

The early Port Melbourne volumes are titled by the original name of that district (Sandridge).