Victoria, Australia Genealogy

Guide to Victoria, Australia ancestry, family history and genealogy birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, and military records.

Historical Background

 * After the founding of the colony of New South Wales in 1788, Australia was divided into an eastern half named New South Wales and a western half named New Holland, under the administration of the colonial government in Sydney.
 * The first British settlement in the area later known as Victoria was established in October 1803. It consisted of 402 people (five government officials, nine officers of marines, two drummers, and 39 privates, five soldiers' wives and a child, 307 convicts, 17 convicts' wives, and seven children).
 * In 1826, Colonel Stewart took a number of convicts and a small force and landed at Settlement Point (now Corinella),which was the headquarters until the abandonment of Western Port about 12 months afterwards.
 * Victoria's next settlement was at Portland.
 * On 1 July 1851, the absolute independence of Victoria from New South Wales was established proclaiming a new Colony of Victoria.
 * Days later, still in 1851 gold was discovered near Ballarat, and subsequently at Bendigo. Later discoveries occurred at many sites across Victoria. This triggered one of the largest gold rushes the world has ever seen. The colony grew rapidly in both population and economic power. In 10 years, the population of Victoria increased sevenfold from 76,000 to 540,000.
 * Immigrants arrived from all over the world to search for gold, especially from Ireland and China. By 1857, 26,000 Chinese miners worked in Victoria, and their legacy is particularly strong in Bendigo and its environs.

New South Wales Archive Resources Kit, Including Records for Areas now in Victoria
"The ARK is held by 40 community access points across NSW. The majority of access points are libraries. The ARK consists of microfilm copies of our most popular and heavily used colonial records. Included are records relating to convict arrivals, assisted immigrants, births, deaths and marriages, publicans' licences, electoral rolls, naturalisation, returns of the colony ('Blue Books'), land grants, and the wide range of functions of the Colonial Secretary (1788-1825).
 * Archive Resources Kit
 * Community Access Points A list of libraries and archives which hold microcopies of the Archive Resource Kit records A list of libraries and archives which hold microcopies of the Archive Resource Kit records

"The ARK was a result of our Access for All initiative to provide people in regional and rural NSW with better access to the State's archives. The Kit contains over 1565 items (962 fiche and 604 reels) of our most popular and heavily used colonial records. It builds on a genealogical research kit issued in the 1980s and already held by some of the community access points. The Kit includes explanatory material and links to information available on our website.

"You may find that the ARK (or parts of it) are held at a library near you."