# accounts-core 0.1.0

- Kind: Sourcing protocol: a declared way of looking (draft, not yet approved)
- Status: draft, not yet reviewed or approved
- As of: 2026-10-23
- Content: 9faa08af80e0b2e93735ffefe180ee7db223ad9c5413490aed315556a9a586c2
- Address: https://www.plot.eco/protocols/accounts-core@0.1.0

Written accounts of nature in a place in Australia: newspapers, naturalists' journals, colonial letters and reports, museum specimens (aggregated, linked), from the first written accounts to the present. A passage is a source-reported claim whose value is text; it is context and a baseline candidate, never an index input. First jurisdiction: VIC (Port Phillip; Williamstown first). Era bands are per jurisdiction and region.

A protocol declares, before anything is searched, which questions a place record tries to answer, where PLOT looks for each and in what order, and when it stops. Channels are a search order, not a ranking of truth.

## Sourcing questions (6)

### Q30.hist_landscape_description: How the place looked

How did people who wrote about this place describe its land, shore, water and vegetation, and when?

- Look, in order: 1. historical_archives; 2. First Nations organisations
- Stop when: Per decade and channel: the protocol's stop rule (last N screened all excluded, or the cap).
- Refresh: P5Y (sensitive: extra rules apply)
- Framework targets: none

### Q31.hist_species_presence: Species written about here

Which plants and animals did writers and collectors record in this place, and when?

- Look, in order: 1. historical_archives; 2. Structured datasets
- Stop when: Per decade and channel: the protocol's stop rule.
- Refresh: P5Y (sensitive: extra rules apply)
- Framework targets: KMGBF-T4

### Q32.hist_abundance: How many, in words

How plentiful or scarce did writers say plants and animals were here?

- Look, in order: 1. historical_archives
- Stop when: Per decade and channel: the protocol's stop rule.
- Refresh: P5Y
- Framework targets: KMGBF-T4

### Q33.hist_habitat_extent: Swamps, flats and shores

What did writers say about the extent of swamps, saltmarsh, grassland, scrub and shore here?

- Look, in order: 1. historical_archives
- Stop when: Per decade and channel: the protocol's stop rule.
- Refresh: P5Y
- Framework targets: KMGBF-T1, KMGBF-T2

### Q34.hist_land_use_change: Changes people made

What did writers record about clearing, drainage, reclamation, quarrying, grazing, planting and introductions here?

- Look, in order: 1. historical_archives
- Stop when: Per decade and channel: the protocol's stop rule.
- Refresh: P5Y
- Framework targets: KMGBF-T1

### Q35.hist_events: Floods, fires, storms and works

What floods, fires, storms, drainage and reclamation works did writers record here, and when?

- Look, in order: 1. historical_archives
- Stop when: Per decade and channel: the protocol's stop rule.
- Refresh: P5Y
- Framework targets: none

## Source catalogue (11)

Where PLOT may look. "candidate" means a person has not yet confirmed its access, licence and coverage.

- Internet Archive texts (including BHL's scans of the Victorian Naturalist, with OCR and page index) (Internet Archive (scans contributed by BHL member libraries), AU; download; connected), licence: per item: the holder's possible-copyright-status (NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT read as public domain); anything else unknown; address https://archive.org/advancedsearch.php (checked 2026-10-23)
- Biodiversity Heritage Library (API v3) (Biodiversity Heritage Library, AU; api; candidate), licence: per item (BHL item licence or rights statement); address https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/api3 (checked 2026-10-23)
- Gazetteer of Australia (historic and current place names) (Intergovernmental Committee on Surveying and Mapping, AU; download; candidate), licence: unknown: to confirm
- Project Gutenberg Australia and Wikisource (published journals of surveyors and explorers) (Project Gutenberg Australia; Wikisource, AU; download; candidate), licence: public domain in Australia (per text, to confirm)
- Published historical-ecology syntheses (leads and cross-checks only, never sources of passages) (various, AU; document; candidate)
- Historic preserved specimens via the ALA occurrence API (aggregated per place, decade and group; rows linked, never stored) (Atlas of Living Australia (data from herbaria and museums), AU; api; connected), licence: per data resource (recorded with each aggregate); address https://api.ala.org.au/occurrences/occurrences/search (checked 2026-10-23)
- Public Record Office Victoria (survey field books, Crown Lands correspondence) (Public Record Office Victoria, VIC; portal; candidate), licence: unknown: per series
- State Library Victoria manuscripts, maps and diaries (largely indexed by Trove) (State Library Victoria, VIC; portal; candidate), licence: unknown: per item
- Trove digitised journals and books (API v3, magazine and book categories) (National Library of Australia, AU; api; candidate), licence: unknown: per item
- Trove digitised newspapers and gazettes (API v3) (National Library of Australia, AU; api; candidate), licence: unknown: NLA API terms to confirm; pre-1955 text generally out of copyright; address https://api.trove.nla.gov.au/v3/result (checked 2026-10-23)
- Vicmap localities and parishes (VICNAMES ids), open-data WFS (Victorian Government (DTP / Land Use Victoria), VIC; map_service; connected), licence: CC BY 4.0 (Vicmap open data); address https://opendata.maps.vic.gov.au/geoserver/wfs (checked 2026-10-23)

## Before anything is published

- passage_reviewed: A passage appears on a public timeline only after a person has reviewed its extraction; interpretations stay dashed until reviewed.
- licence_known: Verbatim text is stored and shown only when the licence reading is public domain or an open licence; otherwise the passage is link-only.
- aboriginal_content_held: Passages that describe Aboriginal people, practices or places are held, consent-restricted and counted, never shown, until a consent and review process exists.

## Changes

- 0.1.0 (2026-10-23): First draft. Six historical questions, historical_archives channel, four prompts, Port Phillip era bands, stop rules.

Cite as: PLOT sourcing protocol accounts-core@0.1.0 (draft; content 9faa08af80e0), as of 2026-10-23