Convicts, Prisoners and Courts

Australian convicts are some of the most well documented people in history. Follow their journeys here with this growing list of resources dedicated to our colonial convict history. 

Australian Capital Territory

As the ACT was granted self-government in 1989, many useful files are still in the National Archives of Australia a preliminary check of RecordSearch http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/recordsearch.aspx will assist in refining your request by locating agencies that made the files or series information.

Queensland

Queensland Archives has compiled indexes of their archival records. Use these links to get to the page and search the index database by name.

Once you get to the Queensland Archives page, here's how to use it:

  1. Scroll down to "Index Categories"
  2. Click on the appropriate radio button for the type of records you are looking for - this will then expand to show what record sets are available.
  3. Click on the appropriate radio button for the records you are looking for - this will then expand (below the list) to show a search area where you can input names etc.

You may also be able to download the full index using a link that will appear on the top right of the page or below the search box (depending on what device you are using, eg: desktop, iPad etc).

New South Wales

Victoria

Western Australia

South Australia

Tasmania

Tasmanian government records are accessible vis the LINC names index: https://linctas.ent.sirsidynix.net.au/client/en_AU/names/

Other datasets and sites

A number of useful Tasmanian datasets that were once freely available on the Rootsweb website were lost in early 2016 due to technical issues experienced by the site owner, Ancestry.com. A significant number of pages are now inaccessible including those listed below. While disappointing for many genealogists - the hard work of dedicated researchers may be gone forever as Ancestry appears to have acknowledged that the information will never be retrieved. You may like to try Google to find related records to the following:

Northern Territory

The Northern Territory Department of Arts and Museums is responsible for the Northern Territory Archives. A list of collections in the archive is available for download in PDF format (warning: 250+ pages) which can then be searched offline.  The archives can also be searched online using the "Archives Navigator" service although it is not straight forward and no indexes are available. 

National

Looking for Australian records to search?

Try our sister site, Gendata.com.au

 SEARCH GENDATA