Victoria

ASSISTED IMMIGRATION

Assisted arrivals to Victoria commenced in 1839 whilst Victoria was still a part of the colony of New South Wales. The immigrant’s fare was paid, in part or completely, by the colonial government, funded by land sales in Victoria.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE OF VICTORIA

The Public Record Office of Victoria provide a guide on Ships and Shipping on its website.

USING THE PROV MICROFICHE IN THE LIBRARY

To use this material you should first locate the relevant passenger on either the Index to Assisted British Immigration 1839-1871 on the Public Record Office of Victoria website or on Ancestry.com.

Each entry for a passenger in the Index will give a book and page number. With this information just look for label on the microfiche with the correct Book and Page numbers, eg: 'Bk 4 Pg 46-93', as this will contain a copy of the relevant page on the original ship's passenger list.

These passenger lists may include each persons' name, age, occupation and place of birth.

NB: Some individuals may have multiple entries on the Index for the same ship. This generally indicates that there is more than one list of passengers for the ship.

This page lists Victorian-related online, networked and microform resources as well as print publications available for use within the National Library of Australia.

Background

The Port Phillip District officially separated from New South Wales to become the colony of Victoria on 1 July 1851.

In 1852 the new Legislative Council of Victoria passed into law the following Acts relating to passengers and immigration into Victoria:

Laws relating to the carriage of passengers by sea (15 & 16 Vic., No. XLIV [1852] ss. XIII and XIV),

The Act to Regulate the Conveyance of Passengers to the Colony of Victoria 1852 (16 Vic., No. XVII)

These laws include a description of the official schedules (forms) upon which the masters of ships were to record the names of passengers and which were to be delivered to the Office of Customs. It is these generally these forms which have been transcribed, indexed, microfilmed and/or digitized and made accessible.

Online

Ancestry (Library Edition)

To access Ancestry (Library Edition), visit the eResources portal, click the Browse eResources tab and search for 'Ancestry'. Ancestry currently provides the following Victoria-related immigration and travel resources via its online database:

Victoria, Australia, Assisted and Unassisted Passenger Lists, 1839–1923

New South Wales, Australia, Passengers Arriving at Port Phillip, 1846

Findmypast

To access Findmypast, visit the eResources portal, click the Browse eResources tab and search for 'Findmypast'. Currently, Findmypast has the following Victoria-related travel and migration records available:

Passenger Lists Leaving UK 1890-1960

Victoria Inward Passenger Lists 1839-1923

Victoria Outward Passenger Lists 1852-1915

Births At Sea, 1854-1960

Deaths At Sea, 1781-1968

Marriages At Sea, 1854-1972

Public Record Office of Victoria

Currently, the Public Record Office of Victoria has the following freely accessible indexes available online:

Index to Unassisted Inward Passenger Lists to Victoria 1852-1923

Index to Assisted British Immigration 1839-1871

Index to Outward Passengers to Interstate, U.K. and Foreign Ports, 1852-1923

Networked resources in the Library

In addition to the Library's subscription databases, the following shipping and passenger-related CD-ROM resources are available for access within the Library:

Marine Births, Deaths and Marriages, Victoria 1853-1920

This resource contains an index to and images of records of births, deaths and marriages on board international and coastal ships bound for Victoria between 1853 and 1920. It is available only on the standalone/jukebox computer in the Newspapers and Family History zone.

For more information about these resources, visit the eResources portal, click the Browse eResources tab and search for the name of the resource.

Microfilmed and other published material

The following microfilmed products and published works are available on open access in the Newspapers and Family History zone:

Public Record Office of Victoria (PROV) microfiche

In addition to those indexes and digitised records available online via Ancestry or the PROV website, the Library has the following PROV "Immigration to Victoria" series of records on microfiche:

Title	Call number
Registers of Assisted Immigrants 1839-1871 134 microfiche	mc N 761
Immigration to Victoria Overseas and Intercolonial Ports 1846-1852: a guide to the Register of Inward Shipping and Index (8 fiche) Inward passenger lists, foreign ports 1852-1859 (fiche 001-069) Inward passenger lists, foreign ports 1860-1869 (fiche 070-127) Inward passenger lists, foreign ports 1870-1879 (fiche 128-179) Inward passenger lists, foreign ports 1880-1889 (fiche 180-255) Inward passenger lists, foreign ports 1890-1899 (fiche 256-337) Inward passenger lists, foreign ports 1900-1923 (fiche 338-514) Index to Inward passenger lists, foreign ports 1852-1859 (1 fiche) Index to Inward passenger lists, foreign ports 1860-1869 (1 fiche) Index to Inward passenger lists, foreign ports 1870-1879 (1 fiche) Index to Inward overseas passenger lists, foreign ports 1880-1889 (1 fiche) Index to Inward overseas passenger lists, foreign ports 1890-1899 (1 fiche) [Introduction to] Inward overseas passenger lists, foreign ports 1900-1923 (1 fiche) NB: If the letter “F” appears in the 'Port' column of the relevant online indexes, then the above passenger lists should be consulted.	mc N 1135
Immigration to Victoria : index to inward passenger lists British ports 1852-1923 Inward passenger lists, British ports 1852-1859 (45 fiche, including introduction) Inward passenger lists, British ports 1860-1869 (27 fiche including introduction) Inward passenger lists, British ports 1870-1879 (18 fiche) Inward passenger lists, British ports 1880-1889 (41 fiche, including introduction) Inward passenger lists, British ports 1890-1899 (129 fiche, including introduction) Inward passenger lists, British ports 1900-1923 (977 fiche) If the letter “B” appears in the 'Port' column of the relevant online indexes, then the above passenger lists should be consulted.	mc N 1655
Immigration to Victoria : inward passenger lists, New Zealand ports 1852-1923 390 microfiche If the letter “N” appears in the 'Port' column of the relevant online indexes, then the above passenger lists should be consulted.	mc N 2256

Other (non-PROV) microfiche

Title	Call number
Coastal Passengers to Port Phillip 1839-1845 7 microfiche	mc N 1351
Victorian Deserters from Ships Index 1853-1880 This index was compiled from the weekly Victorian Police Gazettes; the information was listed under the headings of “Deserters from Merchant Vessels” and “Deserters from H.M. Service” 1 microfiche	mc N 1560
Victorian Sponsored Immigration Index 1856-1858 2 microfiche	mc N 1408

Shipping Intelligence from Newspapers - Passenger Indexes

Title	Call number
Port Phillip Herald Passenger Index 1840-1846 2 microfiche	mc N 1390
Argus Passenger Index 1846-1851 3 microfiche	mc N 1391
Argus Passenger Index 1852-1855 6 microfiche	mc N 1126
Argus Passenger Index 1856-1860 5 microfiche	mc N 1139
Argus Passenger Index 1861-1865 6 microfiche	mc N 1392

Shipping Intelligence from Newspapers - Shipping Movements

Title	Call number
Port Phillip Herald Shipping Movements Index 1840-1846 2 microfiche	mc N 1390
Argus Shipping Movements Index 1846-1851 (supplement to Argus passenger index) 2 microfiche	mc N 1392
Argus Shipping Movements 1852-1855 (supplement to Argus passenger index) 2 microfiche	mc N 1127
Argus Shipping Movements Index 1856-1860 (supplement to Argus passenger index) 2 microfiche	mc N 1140
Argus Shipping Movements Index 1861-1865 (supplement to Argus passenger index) 6 microfiche	mc N 1392