Record series
Passenger Ship Register Inwards
VPRS 954
1869 - 1924
Open
North Melbourne
Agencies
This record series was created by:
Department of Trade and Customs ( VA606 ): 1869 - 1900
Public Works Department (previously the Department of the Commissioner of Public Works) ( VA669 ): 1900 - 1924
Agencies responsible for this record series: Date Range
Series date range: 1869 - 1924
Series in custody:
1869 - 1924
Contents in custody:
1869 - 1924
Function / Content
This series comprises a record of passenger ship arrivals at Victorian ports. It appears that the record was maintained for the compilation of passenger arrival statistics as derived from the inward passenger lists from overseas (VPRS 947) and other ports in Australia (VPRS 944) and is effectively the control series for both.Entries include the following details:
- port of arrival
- date of arrival
- name of vessel
- tonnage
- port of departure
- numbers of cabin, intermediate and steerage passengers.
All of this information has been derived from information provided on the inwards passenger list in VPRS 947 and VPRS 944. Passenger numbers are derived from the passenger summary which appears on the final page of most lists.
At the end of the entries for each month there is a statistical recapitulation.
It appears that the series is complete. It is unclear if the series commenced in 1869. For the period November 1855 to December 1859 a similar record exists which combines the information recorded for passenger ship arrivals and departures. It is possibly a previous series - refer to VPRS 22/P Units 12 and 13. There are no similar records extant for the period January 1860 to December 1868.
The series ended in 1924 when responsibility for monitoring immigration passed to the Commonwealth.
For the same period consult VPRS 955 for a similar record relating to departures of passenger ships.
This series was previously registered with the series title "Record of Passenger Ship Arrivals". It has been replaced with the current title which is how thE volumes are identified on their original spines (and largely obscured by cloth covers presumably imposed by the archival predecessors to PROV).
NOTE: Units 1A and 6A were incorrectly attributed to this series.
How to use the records
Use the Consignment listing to order the volume for the desired period.Recordkeeping system
Entries are arranged in the volumes firstly by month of ship's arrival, then by a grouping of the ports from which passengers had arrived. The following groupings were used:- Foreign Ports
- British Ports
- New Zealand Ports (usually also including nearby Pacific islands), and
- each individual Australian colony/state.
The lists themselves in either VPRS 947 and VPRS 944 were originally stored in monthly bundles according to the groupings described. Each list was folded and the name of the vessel, its arrival date and the port of departure was written on the fold of the list that was visible when placed upright in the bundle.
If a vessel undertook a voyage that stopped at a number of ports which cut across the various groupings, the filing clerks would place the list in the bundle for the same grouping as that for the port written on the visible fold in the bundle.
Within each of these groupings, ships were listed by the date of arrival in Victoria.
