Victorian immigration and emigration

Records of migration to and from Victoria after 1923 are held by the National Archives of Australia (Melbourne & other offices). Some earlier records are also held by the Archives. The following online indexes are available:

• Record Search
  Once in Record Search select the Passenger arrivals tab. This index covers passenger arrivals into Western Australia from 1898 - 1972. Many ships bound for the eastern Australian states passed through Fremantle. This index includes all passengers who disembarked in Fremantle and other passengers who travelled further on the same ship and disembarked in other Australian or overseas ports. From 1944, the passenger lists include aircrafts arriving at Perth airport. The lists for Qantas flights usually include brief details for those en-route to other Australian airports. Digital copies of the passenger lists are attached to each record. See the National Archives' fact sheet for tips on searching this collection
  Further records for immigration and naturalization may also be discovered by searching Name Search tab in the same database. Select Immigration and naturalisation records from the drop down box.
   
• Fremantle, Western Australia, Passenger Lists, 1897-1963 (via Ancestry Library Edition)
  Digital copies of the Archives' Fremantle passenger lists are available to search on Ancestry Library Edition, available onsite to Library users. Most European ships stopped at Fremantle before continuing on to other ports, making this a useful database to search, even if your ancestor disembarked at another Australian port.

For inward lists or records later than 1972 and outward passenger lists, you will need to search the original records at the National Archives. Lists for the ports of Geelong and Portland are held only for the years 1965 and 1966. From the 1960s, cards filled in by the passengers increasingly replaced lists, especially for those arriving by air. Contact the National Archives for more information about accessing these records.

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Listing of ships carrying passengers to Victoria 1924-1962
Lists ships arrivals in chronological order, referring to microfilm copies of passenger lists held at the National Archives (Melbourne office). Names of passengers are not included.

How did they get here? Arrivals after 1924
This book provides step by step advice for finding passenger records, both for arrivals in Australia, and departures from overseas. It refers to both free and pay-per-view online sources, and to original records.

Destination Australia: sharing our post-war migrant stories
This website from National Archives Australia includes more than 25,000 images of migrants during Australia’s post-war immigration boom. Users can tag photographs with people they know, add stories or comments.