Australia Emigration and Immigration

Online Records

 * Ireland-Australia transportation database National Library of Australia
 * Genealogical Index To Australians and Other Expatriates In Papua New Guinea at FindMyPast - index & images ($)
 * Australian Contingents To South Africa at FindMyPast - index & image ($)
 * Australia Passenger Indexes archived on the Wayback Machine
 * Australia's First Fleet
 * Australia's Second Fleet
 * Australia's Third Fleet
 * 1786-1849 Australia Convict Ships 1786-1935 at FindMyPast; index & images ($)
 * 1788-1968 Ozships: Australian shipping 1788-1968
 * 1788–1868 Ireland-Australia transportation database National Archives of Ireland
 * Guide to penal transportation records: Ireland to Australia, 1788–1868


 * 1788-1890 Admission, discharge and other records, 1788-1890, images. These are the records of the Royal Philanthropic Society, organized in 1788 "for the admission of the offspring of convicts and the reformation of criminal poor children." Records exist of those who went to Australia.
 * 1791-1850 Index of prisoners and accused persons, 1791-1850 (Sussex Quarter Session Rolls), images. Contains an alphabetical listing of all prisoners and accused persons named in the Sussex Quarter Session Rolls, 1791-1850. Gives name, offense and date thereof, date and place of court appearance, and sentence. Sometimes also includes age, occupation and residence. Prisoners sentenced for transportation during this period were sent to Australia.
 * 1811-1856 Australia, Assisted Emigration at FindMyPast - index & images ($)
 * 1824-1874 Australia Convict Tickets of Leave 1824-1874 at FindMyPast - index & images ($)
 * 1826-1972 Australia, Inward, Outward, & Coastal Passenger Lists 1826-1972 at FindMyPast; index & images ($)
 * 1838-1842 Manifests and lists of crews and passengers of ships arriving at Port Adelaide, South Australia, 1838-1842, images
 * 1845-1886 Inwards assisted immigrants lists 1845-1886, State Archives, Adelaide, South Australia, index and images.
 * 1888-1910 Inwards passenger lists to South Australia 1888-1910, index and images.
 * 1873-1924 Alphabetical register of all inward passengers to Albany, 1873-1924 at FamilySearch Catalog; images only
 * 1888-1910 Outward passenger lists from South Australia 1888-1910, images.
 * 1890-1960 Passenger Lists Leaving UK 1890-1960 at FindMyPast; index & images ($); includes those with Destination of Australia
 * 1904-1914 Germany, Bremen Passenger Departure Lists, 1904-1914 at MyHeritage; index & images ($); includes those with Destination of Australia
 * 1946-1971 Free Access: Africa, Asia and Europe, Passenger Lists of Displaced Persons, 1946-1971 Ancestry, free. Index and images. Passenger lists of immigrants leaving Germany and other European ports and airports between 1946-1971. The majority of the immigrants listed in this collection are displaced persons - Holocaust survivors, former concentration camp inmates and Nazi forced laborers, as well as refugees from Central and Eastern European countries and some non-European countries.
 * Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild Choose a volume and then choose Australia under "Listed by Port of Departure" or "Listed by Port of Arrival".
 * Immigrant Ancestors Project

The Irish Ancestor Periodical
There are many Indexes in The Irish Ancestor, of convicts requesting wife and children to be sent out to Australia, at the government's expense.
 * Indexed in PERiodical Source Index at FindMyPast ($)
 * FIGRS Index to the The Irish Ancestor ($)
 * WorldCat listing of libraries holding The Irish Ancesor collection
 * The Irish Ancestor 1969-1986 Digital Download ($)

New South Wales

 * 1791-1816 List of convict ships and prisoner's names from Ireland to Sydney, 1791-1816 at FamilySearch Catalog; images only
 * 1800-1849 In-letters, 1800-1849, New South Wales Colonial Secretary Includes letters from Norfolk Island, 1833-1835. Requests for removal, transfer, having families brought over. Shipping lists and orders.
 * 1816-1825 Shipping records, 1816-1825, New South Wales, images.
 * 1816-1825, 1898-1911 New South Wales, Australia, Departing Crew and Passenger Lists, 1816-1825, 1898-1911 at Ancestry; index & images ($)
 * 1826-1859 Reports of vessels arrived, 1826-1859, images.
 * 1828-1842 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index & images
 * 1828-1890 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index & images
 * 1828-1890 Assisted immigrants inwards to Sydney, 1828-1890 at FamilySearch Catalog; images only
 * 1837-1925 Inward shipping lists, 1837-1925, images. A list of crews and passengers on ships arriving at ports in New South Wales.
 * 1839-1896 Index to Assisted Immigrants 1839-96, Moreton Bay, 1848-1859, Port Phillip 1839-1851
 * 1842-1851 Index to unassisted Immigrants 1842-1851
 * 1846 New South Wales, Australia, Passengers Arriving at Port Phillip, 1846 at Ancestry; index & images ($)
 * 1848-1873 Register of applications for passages to the colonies for convicts' families, 1848-1873, images.
 * 1850-80s Mariners and Ships in Australian Waters - primarily New South Wales, unassisted records from the 1850-80s, incomplete
 * 1853-1900 New South Wales, Australia, Immigration Deposit Journals, 1853-1900 at Ancestry; index & images ($)
 * 1877-1882 Immigration papers, 1877-1882, New South Wales, images.

Earl Grey Irish Female Orphans Records
Earl Grey's Famine Orphan Scheme transported 4114 Irish orphan girls to the New South Wales colony. At the height of the Irish Famine, the Earl Grey scheme fashioned a plan to ease overcrowding in the workhouses of Ireland, while providing serving staff and a way to help settle the new Australian colony.
 * 1848-1850 Famine Orphans from Cork to Australia 1848-1850
 * 1848-1850 Earl Grey Irish Female Orphans in Australia Passenger Lists
 * 1850 Irish Orphan Girls who sailed on the Eliza Caroline The “Eliza Caroline” arrived in Port Phillip on 31 March 1850.

Queensland

 * 1848-1912 Assisted Immigration 1848-1912
 * 1848-1912 Queensland Assisted Immigration 1848-1912 at FindMyPast; index only ($)
 * 1848-1912 Queensland, Australia, Passenger Lists, 1848-1912 at Ancestry; index only ($)
 * 1848-1972 Queensland, Australia, Immigration Indexes, 1848-1972 at Ancestry; index only ($)
 * 1851-1904 Queensland, Australia, Naturalisation Index, 1851-1904 at Ancestry; index only ($)
 * 1852-1885 Queensland Customs House Shipping 1852-1885: Passengers And Crew at FindMyPast; index only ($)
 * 1864-1940 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index only
 * 1885-1917 Queensland, Brisbane Register Of Immigrants 1885-1917 at FindMyPast; index only ($)
 * 1913 Queensland, Australia, Index to Aliens, 1913 at Ancestry; index only ($)
 * State Library of Queensland

Victoria

 * 1839-1871 Index to Assisted British Immigration 1839-1871; index only
 * 1839-1871 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; images only
 * 1839-1923 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index & images
 * 1839-1923 Victoria, Australia, Assisted and Unassisted Passenger Lists, 1839-1923 at Ancestry; index & images ($)
 * 1851-1928 Victoria, Australia, Index to Naturalisation Certificates, 1851-1928 at Ancestry; index & images ($)
 * 1852-1915 Outward Passengers to Interstate, UK, NZ, and Foreign Ports 1852- 1915
 * 1852-1915 Web: Victoria, Australia, Outward Passenger Index, 1852-1915 at Ancestry; index only ($)
 * 1852-1923 Inwards Unassisted Passengers to Victoria 1852-1923 at MyHeritge; index only ($)
 * 1852-1923 Index to Unassisted Immigration to Victoria between 1852 - 1923
 * 1852-1924 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index & images
 * 1852-1924 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index only

South Australia

 * Passenger Lists Immigration South Australia, index. Immigrant passenger arrivals in South Australia (usually at Port Adelaide) from Australian ports up to 1847, UK & Ireland up to 1850 and Germany up to 1858, totaling more than 2,000 voyages.
 * 1836-1841 Emigrants Seeking Free Passage To South Australia 1836-1841 at FindMyPast - index ($)
 * 1836-1849 Chronological list of passenger lists for ships arriving at South Australian ports from overseas 1836-1849 at FamilySearch Catalog; images only
 * 1837-1866 German Emigrants to South Australia, 1837-1866, index
 * 1849-1940 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index & images
 * 1850-1918 Shipping register at Port Adelaide 1850-1918, South Australia
 * 1852-1923 Passenger list, arrivals in Victoria from foreign ports, 1852-1923, index and images.
 * 1853 - South Australia, Australia, Passenger Lists, 1853 at Ancestry; index & images ($)
 * 1888-1893, 1896-1940 Australia, South Australia, Lists of outgoing passengers departing from Port Adelaide for overseas ports, 1888-1893, 1896-1940 at FamilySearch Catalog; index & images

Tasmania

 * 1823-1845 Ships clearance from Hobart and Launceston 1823-1845, Tasmania, images.
 * 1829-1957 Tasmania, Australia, Passenger Arrivals, 1829-1957 at Ancestry; index & images ($)
 * 1834-1837, 1841-1887 Tasmania, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1834-1837, 1841-1887 at Ancestry; index & images ($)
 * 1841-1884 Tasmania, Australia, Immigrant Lists, 1841-1884 at Ancestry; index & images ($)
 * 1854-1887 Tasmania, Australia, Immigrant Applications and Bounty Tickets, 1854-1887 at Ancestry; index & images ($)
 * 1920-1943 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; images only
 * 1945-1968 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; images only

Western Australia

 * 1852-1930 Western Australia, Australia, Crew and Passenger Lists, 1852-1930 at Ancestry; index & images ($)
 * 1890-1911 Passenger list inwards to the Port of Fremantle, Western Australia, 1890-1911, images.
 * 1897-1963 Fremantle, Western Australia, Passenger Lists, 1897-1963 at Ancestry; index & images ($)

Australia Offices and Archives to Contact
National Archives of Australia National Office Kings Avenue Parkes ACT 2600 Australia Phone:02 6212 3600
 * Ordering digital copies of records
 * Fact sheets
 * Immigration records - Fact sheet 227
 * Records relating to Italian migration held in Sydney – Fact sheet 100
 * Records relating to Italian migration held in Brisbane – Fact sheet 236
 * Records relating to Italian migration held in Brisbane – Fact sheet 207


 * Research Guides
 * Chinese immigrants and Chinese-Australians in NSW, by Julie Stacker and Peri Stewart, revised 2003
 * More people imperative: immigration to Australia, 1901–39, by Dr Michele Langfield, 1999
 * Good British stock: child and youth migration to Australia, by Barry Coldrey, 1999
 * Safe haven: records of the Jewish experience in Australia, by Malcolm J Turnbull, 1999
 * Chinese–Australian journeys: records on travel, migration, and settlement, 1860–1975, by Paul Jones, 2005
 * Citizenship in Australia: a guide to Commonwealth Government records, by David Dutton, 2000

- State Library of South Australia North Terrace and Kintore Avenue Adelaide, Australia Phone us: +61 8 8207 7250 Toll free for regional SA: 1800 182 013 Email us: slsainfo@sa.gov.au Family History FAQ's
 * Guide: Immigration to South Australia: Home

Finding the Town of Origin in Australia
If you are using emigration/immigration records to find the name of your ancestors' town in Australia, see Australia Finding Town of Origin for additional research strategies.

Australia Emigration and Immigration
"Emigration" means moving out of a country. "Immigration" means moving into a country. Emigration and immigration sources list the names of people leaving (emigrating) or arriving (immigrating) in the country. These sources may be passenger lists, permissions to emigrate, or records of passports issued. The information in these records may include the emigrants’ names, ages, occupations, destinations, and places of origin or birthplaces. Sometimes they also show family groups.

Immigration into Australia

 * Between 1788 and 1900 over 1,000,000 people immigrated to Australia. Most of them were from the British Isles, but some were from Europe and Asia.
 * Prior to 1900 there were four classes of immigrants to Australia:


 * Convicts sent to Australia after they were tried and convicted for crimes committed in the British Isles. Tasmania and New South Wales were the states that received most of the convicts before 1830.
 * Bounty immigrants were chosen by Australian colonists to come from the British Isles to Australia.
 * Assisted immigrants came to Australia through the financial assistance of the government, organizations, or wealthy individuals.
 * Paying passengers came to Australia through their own means.

Convicts

 * European migration to Australia began with the British convict settlement of Sydney Cove on 26 January 1788.
 * The First Fleet comprised 11 ships carrying 775 convicts and 645 officials, members of the crew, marines, and their families and children. The settlers consisted of petty criminals, second-rate soldiers and a crew of sailors. There were few with skills needed to start a self-sufficient settlement, such as farmers and builders, and the colony experienced hunger and hardships. Male settlers far outnumbered female settlers.
 * The Second Fleet arrived in 1790 bringing more convicts. The conditions of the transportation was described as horrific and worse than slave transports. Of the 1,026 convicts who embarked, 267 (256 men and 11 women) died during the voyage (26%); a further 486 were sick when they arrived of which 124 died soon after. The fleet was more of a drain on the struggling settlement than of any benefit.
 * Conditions on the Third Fleet, which followed on the heels of the Second Fleet in 1791, were a bit better. The fleet comprised 11 ships. Of the more than 2000 convicts brought onto the ships, 173 male convicts and 9 female convicts died during the voyage.
 * Other transport fleets bringing further convicts as well as freemen to the colony would follow. By the end of the penal transportation in 1868, approximately 165,000 people had entered Australia as convicts.

Bounty Immigrants
The colonies promoted migration by a variety of schemes. The Bounty Immigration Scheme (1835-1841) boosted emigration from the United Kingdom to New South Wales. The South Australia Company was established to encourage settlement in South Australia by laborers and skilled migrants. The First Fleet of South Australia, 1836, different from the First Fleet of 1788, began the organization of purposeful colonization by the South Australian Company. These colonist received financial incentives (bounties) to join the colony.

Unassisted Immigrants

 * The Gold rush era, beginning in 1851, led to an enormous expansion in population, including large numbers of British and Irish settlers, followed by smaller numbers of Germans and other Europeans, and Chinese. This Chinese were subject to increasing restrictions and discrimination, making it impossible for many to remain in the country.

Assisted Immigrants
The scheme initially targeted citizens of all Commonwealth countries; after the war it gradually extended to other countries such as the Netherlands and Italy. The qualifications were straightforward: migrants needed to be in sound health and under the age of 45 years. There were initially no skill restrictions.
 * The government also found that if it wanted immigrants it had to subsidize migration. The great distance from Europe made Australia a more expensive and less attractive destination than Canada and the United States.
 * The number of immigrants needed during different stages of the economic cycle could be controlled by varying the subsidy. Before federation in 1901, assisted migrants received passage assistance from colonial government funds. Few immigrants received colonial government assistance before 1831.
 * The British government paid for the passage of convicts, paupers, the military and civil servants.
 * After World War II, Australia launched a massive immigration program, believing that having narrowly avoided a Japanese invasion, Australia must "populate or perish". Hundreds of thousands of displaced Europeans migrated to Australia.
 * Over 1,000,000 British subjects immigrated under the Assisted Passage Migration Scheme, colloquially becoming known as Ten Pound Poms.
 * Under the White Australia Policy, people from mixed-race backgrounds found it very difficult to take advantage of the scheme.

Jewish Refugees
5000 Jewish refugee families arrived from Germany in 1938.

Humanitarian Program
Australia grants two types of visa under its humanitarian program: Refugee-category visas for refugees under the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, and Special Humanitarian Programme (SHP) visas for persons who are subject to substantial discrimination amounting to gross violation of their human rights in their home country. The cap for visas granted under the humanitarian program was 13,750 for 2015–16, plus an additional 12,000 visas available for refugees from the conflicts in Syria and Iraq.

2019 Statistics for Australian Residents of Foreign Birth
Only nationalities with more than 100,000 Australian residents are listed. Click on each country link to a Wikipedia article detailing history, statistics, localities, and/or motivation for immigrating.

Emigration From Australia

 * About 750,000 Australian expatriates live outside of Australia, mostly business executives and retired people seeking a new place to live.
 * There are large Australian communities in New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and North America; and smaller groups in Europe, Africa (especially South Africa), the Middle East (particularly the United Arab Emirates), east and south Asia (including Thailand and Papua New Guinea), and Latin America (like Costa Rica, esp. Brazil, Chile, and Argentina).

For Further Reading

 * Listen to the podcast: Transportation to Australia Over 162,000 British and Irish convicts were transported to Australia between 1787 and 1868. Roger Kershaw explores the reasons behind the policy of transportation and looks at the experiences of the people who were shipped beyond the seas, using case studies from the archives.
 * There are additional sources listed in the FamilySearch Catalog: