This list includes links to online databases of passenger lists and ships arriving from foreign ports to major ports in Australia. Some links to travel within Australia are also included.
Jump to:
- Australian Capital Territory
- Queensland
- New South Wales
- Victoria
- Western Australia
- South Australia
- Tasmania
- Northern Territory
- National
Australian Capital Territory
Queensland
Queensland Migrant Shipping (1840-1865) - Apart from Moreton Bay (Brisbane), arrivals have been recorded from coastal ports such: as Bowen, Bundaberg, Burnett Heads, Cairns, Cleveland Bay, Cooktown, Hervey Bay, Keppel Bay, Mackay, Maryborough, Port Denison, Rockhampton, Thursday Island, Townsville and Wide Bay
Queensland Archives has compiled indexes of their archival records.
- Assistant Immigration Agent Maryborough 1875 to 1884
- Assisted immigration 1848 to 1912
- Nominated immigrants 1908-1928
- Immigration 1922-1940
- Immigrant Remittances, IMA Maryborough 1864-1905
- Immigrant Remittances, Nanango 1863-1901
- Immigrants (Mackay Immigration Agent) 1884-1911
- Immigrants 1909-1932
- Immigrants and Crew 1860-1864
- Immigrants and Missing Immigrants cards 1920-1945
- Immigrants landed Bowen 1888-1896
- Immigrants Nominated for Passage, Maryborough 1884-1907
- Immigrants, Bowen Immigration Depot 1885-1892
- Immigrants, Maryborough 1871-1915
- Engagement of Immigrants at the Immigration Depot - Bowen 1873-1912
- Oronsay immigration 1914-1972
- Passage certificates 1887-1906
- Passport clearances 1923-1940
- Register of Immigrants 1864-1878
- Immigration Agent Toowoomba 1880 to 1888
- Registers of immigrants 1882-1938
- Registers of immigrants, Brisbane 1885-1917
- Register of immigrants, Bowen 1885-1892
- Registers of Immigrants, Rockhampton 1882-1915
- Brisbane Passenger Arrivals 1913-1915
- Coloured and asiatic aliens in Queensland 1913
- Index to Ships 1848-1990
- Marine Infrastructure and Vessels 1860-2006
- Mariner's certificates 1877-1939
- Migrant Ship and Aircraft files 1947-1976
- Naturalisations 1851-1908
- Farm Lads 1922-1940
New South Wales
- Assisted Immigrants Index 1839-1896 Assisted immigrants arriving in Sydney and Newcastle 1844-59, Moreton Bay 1848-59 and Port Phillip 1839-51
- Assisted immigrants digitised shipping lists 1828-1896
- Naturalization index 1834-1903
- Sentenced beyond the Seas Australia's early convict records - 1788-1801
- Crew and Passengers Index 1828-1841 - names of some passengers who paid their own fare and some assisted immigrants
- Miscellaneous Immigrants 1828-43 - names of some passengers who paid their own fare and some assisted immigrants
- Unassisted Immigrants 1842-55 - free or unassisted passengers, ship's masters, and from 1854, crew arriving in NSW (or try this link Unassisted immigrants index 1842-1855
- Vessels Arrived in Sydney, 1837-1925
- Wages paid to orphans Between 1848 and 1850, around 4,100 young Irish women who came to Australia as part of Earl Grey’s Famine Orphan Scheme. Recruited from workhouses in Ireland, the women became an integral part of the workforce in their adopted country.
- Letters re migration to NSW 1838-1857
- Mariners and Ships in Australian Waters
Victoria
- Assisted passenger lists (1839-1871)
- Coastal passenger lists (1852-1923)
- Outwards passenger lists (1852-1923)
- Post-World War II British immigration (1946-1983)
- Ships’ crew (1852-1922)
- Unassisted passenger lists (1852-1923)
- German Immigrants – Estray Correspondence and Passenger Lists (1849-1950)
Western Australia
- Dead Persons' Society - An entry point to shipping information for all states and features material on convicts and the military.
- Welcome Walls projects - Free Online Search In Fremantle, over 400 panels commemorating the names of migrants who arrived through this area have been erected at the Western Australian Museum - Maritime at Victoria Quay.
- Inward and Outward Passenger Lists - Information pages only
South Australia
Some useful websites dedicated to South Australian history are now defunct, making it difficult to search for records online. The South Australian official archives are also not online however some of their records exist on third party sites such as FamilySearch and Ancestry (both require logins). We are endeavouring to expand our South Australian online records collection at our data site, Gendata.com.au - please visit regularly as we expand our SA collection - it's free and does not require an account. In the meantime you may find the following sites useful.
- The Manning Index of South Australian HistoryThe Index contains many thousands of references to South Australian newspaper and magazine stories for the years 1837 to 1937. It also includes extensive selected text from the indexed publications, other primary and secondary sources and numerous extracts from Mr Manning's own writings.
Tasmania
- Records included in the Names Index
- Arrivals (19th Century). Passengers and ships arriving, mainly in Hobart.
- Convicts (1803-1893). Convicts transported to Tasmania and those convicted locally through the convict system. The Names Index can now tell you all the convicts that have been identified at Port Arthur, Point Puer or the Tasman Peninsula Probation Stations. You can find this information in individual convict records, and by selecting from the Property facet of the Names Index. [1]
- Departures (1817-1887). People leaving Tasmanian ports, mainly Launceston.
- Immigration (1912-1940). Nominations and arrivals of migrants under immigration schemes.
- Land Grants (1832-1935). People who received land grants, and localities where land grants were made.
- Naturalisations (1835-1904). People applying to become citizens.
Northern Territory
The Nothern 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 searced online using the "Archives Navigator" service although it is not straight forward and no indexes are available.
National
- Irish Orphans - Irish Famine, a searchable database of the young women who came from the workhouses of Ireland to Australia between 1848 and 1850 on a special emigration scheme
- First Fleet Online - information about the convicts who were transported to Australia in 1787
- The Ships List
- Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild
- Faye Guthrie's The Ships of the First Fleet 1788 - historic pictures of the first fleet ships
- Australian Register of Historic Vessels - database by the Australian National Maritime Museum
- Australian Association for Maritime History
[Last updated August 2024]