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Key Resources

Indexes

Public Record Office Victoria (PROV)

The easiest way to find passengers to and from Victoria is by using the online indexes at the Public Record Office Victoria website which cover the period 1839 to 1923:
PROV's Digitised Records and Online Indexes
It is important to note the reference numbers which will help you find the passenger list itself. We recommend that you read one of the following guides for full instructions:
PROVguide 50 Locating and Copying Ships' Passenger Lists
PROVguide 52 Immigration Records.

The Library also holds some indexes on CD-ROM or microfiche:
Index to unassisted inward passenger lists, British and foreign ports, 1852-79 [CD-ROM]
Index to unassisted inward passenger lists, British and foreign ports, 1852-1923 [microfiche]

Passenger Lists

Note: use the indexes listed above to find a reference before you go to the passenger lists. The Library holds the following copies of original passenger lists for Victoria on microfilm or microfiche:
Inward passenger lists, British and foreign ports 1852-1923
Inward passenger lists, New Zealand ports 1852-1923
Registers of assisted immigrants 1839-1871

Other Resources

Ancestry Library Edition
Ancestry has Assisted and Unassisted Passenger Lists, 1839-1923 for Victoria. This dataset includes passengers arriving in Victoria from the UK, New Zealand and other foreign ports.
Note: these are transcriptions only, not images.

Indexes to passenger arrivals in newspapers

Trove
The Digitised newspapers section of Trove covers the period up to 1954 and is a very useful source for passenger arrivals. We recommend using Advanced search and selecting Victorian newspapers.

The Library also holds a variety of indexes to passenger arrivals appearing in newspapers:
Argus passenger index 1846-1851
Argus passenger index 1852-1855
Argus passenger index 1856-1860
Argus passenger index 1861-1865
Argus shipping movements index 1846-1851 (supplement to Argus passenger index)
Argus shipping movements 1852-1855 (supplement to Argus passenger index)
Argus shipping movements index 1856-1860 (supplement to Argus passenger index)
Argus shipping movements index 1861-1865 (supplement to Argus passenger index)
Argus shipping movements index 1866-1868 (supplement to Argus passenger index)
Port Phillip Herald passenger index 1840-1846
Port Phillip Herald shipping movements index 1840-1846

What other information can I find?

Use our catalogue to find other material relating to passenger lists in Victoria. For example, we hold quite a few lists of people emigrating from specific places, such as Scotland or Germany, to Victoria.

Try searching using the keywords victoria or port phillip and one or more of the following:
emigration
immigration
immigrants
passenger lists

Don't forget to look at our SLWA Family History Bookmarks under headings such as:
victoria-passenger.lists
australia-passenger.lists
great.britain-emigration

Related Pages

Passenger Lists
Ships