Early Australian census records

Please note: From 1854 to 1901, Victorian detailed household forms (census records which included the names of individuals) were destroyed once demographic data had been extracted. (Source) The records listed below are the only known surviving census records of individuals. As a lot of key muster and census records are now missing or destroyed, try other records to find similar information.

Records relating to Aboriginal Australians and Chinese Australians may be inaccurate.

1803-1804 Sullivan Bay (Sorrento, Vic)

Print

• You can find some information about the people who briefly settled in the British convict settlement at Sullivan Bay, including names, occupations, and records of some births, deaths and marriages in the book: Land musters, stock returns and lists: Van Diemen's land 1803-1822. 

1836 Census

Online

• The Public Records Office of Victoria (PROV) has digitised the 1836 census and it can be viewed online. There is no index available.

Print

• Transcript available in The Early Development of Melbourne 1836-1839 (Historical Records of Victoria series, vol. 3) on pages 422-426.  Includes name index listing date of arrival in Port Phillip District, information about cultivation of their land, description of residence, number of livestock. Sometimes includes additional remarks relating to livestock and land ownership and management. 
• See also digitised article 'Scraps of early Port Phillip history' by Thomas O'Callaghan in Victorian Historian Historical Magazine, vol 11 no 4, June 1927, p 231

Microfilm

• Copies of the original handwritten census records are held in the Library's Manuscripts Collection, and also on microfilm in the Newspapers and Family History Reading Room at call numbers IN 65 and IN 72.

1838 Census (March) 

This census was restricted to residents of Melbourne. Around 135 people were listed out of an estimated population of around 600.

Print

• Transcript available in The Early Development of Melbourne 1836-1839 (Historical Records of Victoria series, vol. 3) on pages 428 431. Document includes name of the head of each household, number of males, females, bond and free servants, and often the street the person resided in. 

1838 Census (September)

General census of the Port Phillip District*.  

Online

• The Public Records Office of Victoria (PROV) has digitised the census and it can be viewed online. No index available.

Print

• Transcript available in The Early Development of Melbourne 1836-1839 (Historical Records of Victoria series, vol. 3) on pages 434 – 448. Includes names and indication if person was in 'bond' (that is, an assigned servant)

Microfilm

• Copies of the handwritten census also available on microfilm at IN 65 and IN 72.

1841 Census

Note: This census recorded the name of the head of the household only. General numerical details about other members of the household were included. The original census returns are held by State Records New South Wales.
Online

• Name index available to browse on Port Phillip Info website.
• Census available to search by name on Museums of History NSW website. If you conduct a search for Port Phillip, you can also browse the list of names from Port Phillip. 
• Also available to search or browse on the Ancestry Library Edition database here at the Library.  

1851 Census

According to the Public Records Office of Victoria (PROV) and State Records NSW, no records from this census survived.

1852 Return of occupants of Crown Lands within the Colony of Victoria

Microfilm

• Available to view on Certificates, records, ca. 1962 [microform]. in the Family History and Newspapers Rooms
• A statement of all occupants of Crown Lands in the Settled, Intermediate and Unsettled Districts of Victoria in the Year 1852 is available from the Public Records Office of Victoria  (PROV) (series number VPRS14481)

*Prior to separation in 1851, Victoria was known as the Port Phillip District of NSW. 

Please note that statistics relating to Aboriginal people may be inaccurate. Chinese people were also excluded from some censuses (see census reports, reproduced in the Colonial statistics, for more information).

Melbourne from the falls. From a sketch October 1838 by Robert Russell; H3882 

This table indicates if information about individuals is available from a particular census. Most Victorian censuses only name the head of the household, rather than everyone living at an address.

*Returns of occupants of pastoral lands from 1852 are available at the Public Records Office of Victoria (PROV).

Please note: From 1854 to 1901 (inclusive), Victorian detailed household forms (census records which included the names of individuals) were destroyed once demographic data had been extracted. This was done for privacy reasons. Other records can include similar information to what would have been recorded on these forms.

A birds eye view of Melbourne from Sandridge, 2 September 1885; IAN02/09/85/144

Researchers visiting State Library Victoria are often dismayed when they discover that there are no surviving census returns for individuals who lived in the Colony of Victoria from 1854 up until 2001. Why was this allowed to happen, and how did our 'genies' save the day? Read our blog: How our 'genies' saved the census to find out. 

Censuses, musters or returns took place on:

Geelong in 1842. Watercolour by Charles Norton; H2011.72

Transcription of 1836 Census from 'Scraps of early Port Phillip history', Victorian Historical Magazine, p 231

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