Illuminate Australian society and your family history using census records from 1788 to 1901
No information about individuals survives from Australian censuses from 1901 to 1996. It was government policy to destroy census forms after statistical analysis was completed.
More recently, individuals could choose to have their census forms retained for future use. For privacy reasons, access to these forms will be restricted for at least 100 years.
Statistics are available:
A bird's eye view of Melbourne from Sandridge, September 2, 1885; IAN02/09/85/144
Researchers visiting the Library are often dismayed when they discover that prior to 2001, there are no surviving census returns for individuals in the Colony of Victoria. What were the reasons behind the destruction of our census records? And how did our ‘genies’ save the day?
Read more in our blog: How our 'genies' saved the census.
