Archives in Australia
Australian Society of Archivists site offers access to the Directory of Archives which lists contact details, access conditions, acquisition focus and web links to a diverse range of Australian archives.
Australian War Memorial. This extensive site is a must for family history research and contains biographical databases, collection databases, extensive digitised records, online Information Sheets plus extensive advice on research and family history. (See Service Personnel for details of databases).
National Archives of Australia holds Australian government records from 1901 plus a significant collection of records transferred from the colonies pre 1901. Online services include RecordSearch - the collection database, PhotoSearch and 250+ Fact Sheets. Records are held for defence service personnel, (See Service Personnel for details), merchant seamen, 20th century passenger arrivals, displaced persons. (See Immigration into Australia: Online Indexes and Passenger Lists for details) and naturalisation (See Naturalisation).
Register of Australian Archives and Manuscripts. An online guide to the collections of personal papers and non-governmental organisational records held by Australian libraries and archives.
Noel Butlin Archives Centre holds the records of industrial organisations, businesses, professional associations, industry bodies and the labour movement. A List of Holdings is available online.
National Film and Sound Archive preserves Australia's moving images and sound recordings.
New South WalesState Records New South Wales, Indexes Online cover: Bankruptcy and insolvency, [surviving] census records; Colonial Secretary's papers; convicts; court (includes divorce), police and prison records; deceased estates and probate; education and child welfare; immigration and shipping; Indigenous Australians; land records; naturalisation; railway employees and registers of firms. Most of these indexes can be searched at once using the KeyName Search. Extensive online guides and finding aids are available. See Aboriginal, Birth, Death and Marriage Records, Census, Convicts, Criminal & Court Records, Immigration into Australia, Maps and Land Records, Naturalisation, Occupations and Wills and Probate for further details on the indexes.
Northern Territory
Northern Territory Archives Service offers online guides to the collections.
Queensland
Queensland State Archives
Online Indexes cover assisted
immigration; Boer War; civil servants; coloured labourers; company
records; consumptive patients; criminals; dental board; divorce;
inquests; Justices of the Peace; land selections; mineral leases;
passports; passage certificates; teachers; trustees plus wills and
probate. ArchivesSearch provides access to the QSA database plus
there are 38+ Brief Guides available. See
Birth,
Death and Marriage Records, Criminal
& Court Records, Immigration
into Australia, Maps
and Land Records, Occupations,
Service
Personnel and Wills
and Probate for further details on the
indexes. South Australia
State Records of South Australia offers online searching using the collection search engine, ArchivesSearch. Records available for name searching include official assisted passenger lists (1845-1886); social welfare records; marine certificates of competency; registers of prisoners; mounted police records; marine and harbors board personnel. See Criminal & Court Records, Immigration into Australia: Indexes, Immigration into Australia: Ships' Crew and Occupations, for further details.
Tasmania
Archives Office of Tasmania
online indexes include 19th century arrivals, the Colonial
Tasmanian Family Links Database
of 19th century birth, death and marriage records plus indexes to
[surviving] census records; Tasmanian convicts with access to digitised records; convict applications
for permission to marry (1829-1857); divorce records (1861-1920);
departures (1817-1867); general index; inquests (1820-1930); naturalisation applications (1835-1905); wills
and letters of administration (1824-1989) plus Tasmanian public works
(1877-1935). See Birth,
Death and Marriage Records, Census, Convicts, Immigration
into Australia, Local History, Naturalisation and Wills
and Probate for further
details. Victoria
Public Record Office Victoria Online Resources. include database indexes and digitised records covering education; health, mental health and welfare; immigration; land places and local government; legal, justice and consumer affairs; registration and licensing; sport, recreation and culture; transport and infrastructure and images online. Records cover asylums, company records, convicts, divorces, insolvency, ships' passengers, teachers, old age pensions, pastoral runs, prisoners, publicans plus wills and probate. See Birth, Death and Marriage Records, Convicts, Criminal & Court Records, Immigration into Australia, Maps and Land Records, Occupations, and Wills and Probate for further details.
Western Australia
State Records Office of Western Australia offers access to a series of useful Collection Guides. Archives Explored Online (AEON) currently provides title information for 2 million+ government records.
© Cora Num 1997-2009. Last updated 6 March 2009