Transport – Immigration Records
Records held by Public Record Office Victoria (PROV) provide information about the administration of immigration to Victoria, passenger lists, and the arrival and departure of ships. The records relate to both assisted immigrants and those who came unassisted or were privately sponsored. For passenger lists created after 1923 please contact the National Archives of Australia.
For detailed information about the administration of immigration to Victoria see the following pages on PROV’s online catalogue: VF 8 Immigration - Nineteenth Century, VF 99 Immigration – Monitoring Arrivals, and VF 138 Immigration – Twentieth Century.
Online indexes
Inwards assisted and unassisted passenger lists have been indexed and the indexes are available online. Outward passenger lists are in the process of being indexed by PROV volunteers. The online index to outward passenger lists is updated with new entries annually. The term “unassisted” was used to describe passengers that paid their own fare, to distinguish them from passengers that migrated under sponsorship schemes, known as “assisted” passengers.
The following online database indexes provide references to microform inwards and outwards passenger lists held by PROV and genealogical collections around Australia. For detailed information about using these indexes to access microform passenger lists see PROVguide 50 Locating and Copying Ships’ Passenger Lists.
Index to Inward Overseas Passenger Lists from British, Foreign and NZ Ports 1852 – 1923
Index to Registers of Assisted Immigrants from UK 1839 – 1871
Index to Outward Passengers to Interstate, U.K. and Foreign Ports, 1852 – 1908
Additional online indexes
State Records New South Wales – Assisted immigrants arriving at Port Phillip, 1839-1851: www.records.nsw.gov.au/indexes/searchform.aspx?id=3
Macbeth Genealogical Services – Assisted Immigration to Victoria 1836 to 1879 Ships: www.macbeth.com.au/indexes/assimmsearch.html
Ships’ passengers lists: a select list
VPRS 8794 Microfiche Register of Inward Shipping [Overseas and Intercolonial Ports] 1846 – 1852
This register records the arrival and departure of ships at the Port of Melbourne between 1846 and 1852. Passengers are named in lists from January 1846 to October 1847.
VPRS 7666 Microfiche copy of Inward Overseas Passenger Lists (British Ports) 1852 – 1923
VPRS 7667 Microfiche copy of Inward Overseas Passenger Lists (Foreign Ports) 1852 – 1923
VPRS 13439 Microfiche copy of Inward Overseas Passenger Lists (New Zealand Ports) 1852 – 1923
VPRS 944 Inward Passenger Lists (Australian Ports) 1852 – 1923
VPRS 3506 Microfilm copy of Outward Passenger Lists (Interstate, UK and Foreign Ports) 1852 – 1923
Assisted immigrants
VPRS 7310 Microfiche copy of Register of Assisted Immigrants from United Kingdom 1839 – 1871
VPRS 8811 Assisted German Immigrants. Passenger Lists 1849 – 1850
VPRS 11402 Assisted German Immigrants. Index 1849 – 1850
Registers and indexes of ships
VPRS 3504 Microfiche copy of Inward Shipping Index 1839 – 1900
VPRS 22 Miscellaneous Shipping Registers 1839 – 1898
VPRS 954 Registers of Inward Shipping 1869 – 1924
VPRS 3503 Index to Inward Shipping 1880 – 1924
Correspondence and administrative records
VPRS 2142 Outward Letter Books to Local and Sydney (Superintendent, Port Phillip District)
1839 -1851
VPRS 19 Inward Registered Correspondence (Superintendent, Port Phillip District) 1839 – 1851
To access the correspondence use VPRS 2138 Index to Inward Registered Correspondence 1839 – 1843 and VPRS 2139 Registers of Inward Correspondence 1839 – 1851
To access the correspondence use VPRS 47 Registers of Inward Correspondence 1847 – 1851
VPRS 2878 Inward Registered Correspondence II (Colonial Secretary’s Office, Land Branch) 1851 – 1852
To access the correspondence use VPRS 2879 Registers of Inward Correspondence 1851 – 1852
To access VPRS 115 and VPRS 116 use VPRS 2876 Register of Inward Correspondence [Immigration Branch] 1849 – 1851
VPRS 1189 Inward Registered Correspondence [Colonial Secretary’s Office] 1851 – 1863
To access this correspondence series use VPRS 1411 Index to Inward Registered Correspondence 1851 – 1962 and VPRS 1186 Registers of Inward Correspondence 1851 – 1863
Further information
PROV holds a range of records about immigration on microfiche and microfilm. These records are available in PROV reading rooms and do not have to be ordered. See PROV’s guides to Microfilm, Microfiche and Online Resources at the Victorian Archives Centre, and Microfilm, Microfiche and Online Resources at the Ballarat Archives Centre for more information.
Related PROVguides
PROVguide 54 Ships and Shipping Movements
