The books on the table
Registers we read
The practice is built around particular Australian registers, not around a general promise to 'do records'. If your book is not listed, ask; some rolls are read by arrangement, and some we will not touch.
A register is a public book with private corners. The corners are the point of most enquiries: sealed complaints, historical folios, conditions printed in a typeface nobody enlarges. We keep a short list of the books we open often enough to know the inspection days, the requisition habits, and the difference between a public extract and a file that will not leave the counter.
Books we open by arrangement
Other Australian titles offices, some local government property files, and liquor or second-hand dealer rolls where the inspection rule is published. Arrangement means we read the rule before we take a fee, not that we “have a contact”.
Books we will not take
Confidential police information, taxation files, and anything that requires us to pretend standing we do not have. Genealogy as a hobby is a different craft; we will obtain a certified extract where standing exists, and we will not reconstruct a family tree for its own sake.
If your matter sits on one of the books above, the usual next step is a Registry Access Assessment. If you already hold a search packet, a Title and Search Briefing may be enough.
Queensland titles and historical folios
Current editions, cancelled folios, survey plans, caveats, and administrative advices. Off-site historical volumes are recalled, not guessed.
Companies and business names
Extracts, former names, charges that still speak, and the difference between a spelling correction and a vanished asset.
Professional and occupational rolls
Public conditions of registration, inspection rights, and the boundary between a sealed complaint and the extract a board will still print.
Heritage listings
Statements of significance read against proposed works. We do not draw the openings; we say which paragraphs of the listing will be cited against them.
Births, deaths and marriages extracts
Standing to obtain a certified extract after a refusal, and the difference between a family story and the proof a registrar will accept.
Native title notifications on a dealing
We read the notification that sits on a titles or dealings file. We do not give an extinguishment opinion; that sentence belongs to counsel.