Before the date of the commencement of this series separate and confidential despatches are included in their chronological place in GO1. From August, 1860 all such despatches are included in this series, whether or not they are also marked as coming under another category; this however does not apply to Secret and Confidential Circulars, which will be found in GO5, or to purely formal acknowledgments (GO14).

The 1867 edition of the Colonial Regulations laid it down that when responsible Government is established the Governor is generally at liberty to communicate to his Advisers all Despatches not 'Confidential'. This however did not mean that all the despatches in this series were withheld from the Premier and his colleagues; most of them were, confidentially, so communicated, but the Governor had the discretion of withholding them if he deemed that course wise. Though the practice of marking despatches in this way was primarily an office device to ensure that these communications did not stray from the proper channels, the tendency is that most of the matters discussed are of greater relative importance than those dealt with in other series of inward despatches. "Separate" usually indicated that the subject related to personal affairs, either of the Governor himself or of someone in the colony; "confidential" despatches usually related to public affairs, but were thus classified to avoid the embarrassment or confusion that might result if their contents were published; "secret" despatches at first (they began about 1872) are hardly distinguishable from "confidential", but later they tend to become solely concerned with defence and associated matters.

The most common subjects discussed in the series are defence, honours to be bestowed on colonial subjects, diplomatic and trade matters, conment on the Governor's periodical confidential reports, discipline and matters connected with the personal affairs of men connected with the Colony.

These records are part of the holdings of the Tasmanian Archives