Melbourne innkeepers first banded together in 1841 to form the Port Phillip Licensed Victuallers' Association. It was the second association of its type to be formed in the colonies: a parallel group having been formed several years earlier in Tasmania. Personal animosities seemed to prevent the Port Phillip association from enduring and by 1843 it had fallen into disarray. A loose, informal group consisting of most of the original members, continued to act to look after the trade's interest by keeping down beer prices and curtailing the worst of the constabulary's attempts to contrive convictions against publicans. Before long this informal group tried to establish a second association. In late 1844 it was reformed. This association, too, was short-lived and two years later it hade become defunct. Very little is known about these early associations. This is an index of the committees of the various associations representing the interests of the licensed hotelkeeper between 1843 and 1915 which contains more than 1,300 individual names.