Research Guides: Early Australian census records: Census history

Census history

Before you start your research, it is useful to understand why, how and when censuses have been collected.

'The first population counts of Australia were known as musters and were made as early as 1788. Musters involved all members of the community gathering at specified locations to be counted. These were important as a means of matching food and other supplies to the number of people needing them. The first census in Australia as we now know them [recording people at their dwelling] was held in New South Wales in November 1828. Each of the colonies conducted its own censuses until 1886.

On 3 April 1881, the first simultaneous census of the British Empire covering the United Kingdom, India and the Crown Settlements (including Australia) was taken. This census produced the first set of colony population figures for the same day' (source)

The following resources give you further information about the history of census collection in Australia.

Early nineteenth century colonial censuses of Australia
Book. Lists information about all known early censuses. It details:
- who administered each census
- the cost of taking each census
- changes to the legal territory of the colonies (i.e. what colony compiled a census for your area of interest)
- population estimates compared to how many people were counted in the census
- details of how Aboriginal people were considered and/or ignored by the census
Checklist of nineteenth century Australian colonial statistical sources: censuses, blue books and statistical registers
Book. Includes information about district boundaries as used by census collectors and statisticians, for New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia. Includes the exact date of many censuses.
Lost & almost forgotten towns of colonial Victoria: a comprehensive analysis of census results for Victoria, 1841-1901
Book. Includes interesting details about how data was collected and compiled for Victorian towns in the 1841-1901 censuses. It notes omissions and inconsistencies in collection methods. See pp.XVII-XXI.
Victorian year book 1973 (centenary edition)
Book and online. This special edition of the Victorian year book includes a history of censuses in Victoria. It describes collection methods and which authorities were responsible for the census, and traces the introduction of mechanical appliances to speed up processing of information. See pages 11-14.
Censuses and musters
Webpage. Lists early Australian censuses, and indicates what data about individuals and what statistics have survived.
The census in Australia
Webpage. Indicates what early censuses have survived and who has published them, or where they can be accessed. It does not accurately reflect availability at the State Library of Victoria.
The strange history and problematic future of the Australian census by Terence H. Hull
Research paper. Published in Journal of Population Research, May 2007, Vol. 24 No. 1, pp.1-22.
'Explores the history behind the anomalous practice of destroying census records in Australia, and poses questions about the role of the census in the writing of histories of Australian people and Australian communities'.
Political arithmetic: the nineteenth-century Australian census and the construction of the dependent woman by Desley Deacon
Research paper. Published in Signs, 1985, Vol. 11 No. 1, pp. 27-47. Available in the JSTOR database.
'Examines the occupational statistics in the censuses of [Victoria and New South Wales] during the second half of the nineteenth century as social constructs and social agents that developed out of struggles over labor market control'.
Public policy revolt: saving the 2001 Australian census
Research paper, originally published in Archives and Manuscripts, Vol 30 No 2 Nov 2002.
A useful overview of Australia's policy of destroying individually-identified census records.

Census dates

The Australian Bureau of Statistics' website includes the date of each muster or census.

Early Australian census records

Census history

Census dates

State Library Victoria