This Guide highlights the key records and available indexes, relating to passengers arriving in New South Wales, 1788-1922. While most of the records relate to passengers disembarking in Sydney, records of arrivals in other ports are also included. Records relating to departures are also listed.
Browse through digital shipping lists from 1828-1896.
Research into crew records can often be difficult as there is no comprehensive index to the nineteenth century crew lists. In general, there are few records relating to crew until 1854. The shipping lists from 1854-1922 include the names of the crew members, their position on board and their nationality. As with the unassisted passenger lists, they are not indexed after 1855.
One of the earliest courts established in New South Wales, the Vice Admiralty Court, throughout its long history, remained an Imperial Court whereby directives, instructions, imperial bills and acts changing its structure or procedures as well as rules, regulations and tables of fees were received via dispatches from the Secretary of State. Under this arrangement, local conditions could not be taken into account; as a result, the Court was much maligned, particularly by merchants who felt that both the scale of fees and the relatively slow dispatch of business in the Court were detrimental to merchant shipping in New South Wales as a whole.