STATE LIBRARY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA

The State Library of South Australia provide a number of relevant guides on its website including:

STATE RECORDS OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA

State Records of South Australia has mostly complete passenger lists for the period 1847 to 1940.  Prior to 1847 these passengers lists are incomplete as not all have survived. A Fact Sheet on Immigration to South Australia is available on their website.

Port Adelaide

This page lists South Australian-related online, networked and microform resources as well as print publications available for use within the National Library of Australia.

Online

Ancestry (Library Edition)

To access Ancestry (Library Edition), visit the eResources portal, click the Browse eResources tab and search for 'Ancestry'. NB: Currently Ancestry provides no South Australian-specific immigration records.

Findmypast (World Edition)

To access Findmypast (World Edition), visit the eResources portal, click the Browse eResources tab and search for 'Findmypast'. Currently, Findmypast has the following South Australian-related travel and migration records available:

  • Emigrants seeking free passage to South Australia 1836-1841
    (9236 entries)
  • Passengers To South Australia on board Buffalo 1836
    (289 entries)
  • South Australia Naturalisations 1849-1903
    (2958 entries)
  • South Australia Passenger Lists 1847-1886
    (165087 entries)
  • South Australia, Immigrant Agricultural Workers 1913-14
    (289 entries)

State Library of Australia

The State Library of South Australia currently hosts the following resources online:

South Australian Maritime Museum

The South Australian Maritime Museum also provides useful resources:

  • Passengers in History
    Provides online access to entries for 328,000 passengers and 20,000 voyages to South Australia between 1836 and 1964 from the passengers data base developed by the SA Maritime Museum. Also includes material from Ian Nicholson's list of ships’ logs and diaries, Log of Logs.

Networked resources in the Library

In addition to those online databases available for use within the Library the following CD-ROM products are also made available:

  • Bound for South Australia: passenger lists 1836-1851
    Provides passenger lists for the 3000 overseas and local ships that came to South Australia between 1836-1851. Includes additional information such as names, ages and occupations for many of the 60,000 local and overseas families and individual passenger arrivals
  • Bound for South Australia : births and deaths on government-assisted immigrant ships 1848-1885
    A complete listing of 323 voyages to South Australia between 1848 and 1885 under the auspices of the South Australian Government. Information for each ship includes the port and date of departure, date of arrival, number of emigrants, and their age-class and regions of origin. Includes a list of births and deaths at sea for these ships.

For more information about these resources, visit the eResources portal, click the browse eResources tab and search for the name of the resource.

Microfilmed and other published resources

The following microfilmed products and published works are available on open access in the Newspapers and Family History zone:

Title Call Number

Index to Register of Emigrant Labourers Applying for a Free Passage to South Australia: 1836-1841
52 microfiche
Also known as The Pike Index
(Use in conjunction with publication 'A free passage to paradise' held in our reference collection at RX Shipping 16)

mc N 492

(See also on Findmypast. To access Find My Past (World Edition), visit the eResources portal, click the Databases A-Z tab and search for 'FInd my past'.)

Official Passenger Lists, Mainly of Immigrants Arriving in South Australia under United Kingdom Assisted Passage Schemes, 1847-1886
144 microfiche
GRG 48 Series 48A
Includes passenger name index at front (Source 313)
mc N 494
Horner Index: index to departures by passenger ship from South Australia directly for overseas (not interstate or intrastate) taken from the Register newspaper
Part 1 1836-1875, Part 2 1876-1887

21 microfiche
Destination and route information are given if available from the newspaper
mc N 1212
(See also
Horner Index to overseas departures by passenger ship from South Australia 1836-1887 on the website of the State Library of South Australia
Alphabetical Index to in-coming passenger lists 1888-1908
GRG 41 Series 34
42 microfiche
Also known as The Burdett Index
mc N 1236
Manifest of Shipping departing from Port Adelaide July 1841-May 1844
GRG 41 Series 10 Parts 1 and 2
4 microfiche
mc N 1237
Index to applications for assisted passage as a domestic helper 1921-30 / 1938-39
GRG 7 Series 15
1 microfiche
mc N 1238
Index to applications for assisted passage as a boy migrant 1927-1929
GRG 7 Series 16
1 microfiche
mc N 1239
South Australian Record Series No. 14 - Arrivals Index Part 1
2 microfiche
This collection of arrivals to South Australia is compiled from a variety of records: obituaries, biographies and other newspaper reports; prison, hospital and other institutional records; Government and Police Gazettes; and other sundry material
mc N 1328
Application by Nominee for Assisted Passage previously paid for by Nominator in South Australia 1911-1917
GRG 7 Series 2
Indexed by Nominee
3 microfiche
mc N 1897
Application for Agricultural Labourers by South Australian Residents 1912-1914
GRG 7 Series 4
Indexed by Labourer
1 microfiche
mc N 1898
Application for Assisted Passage by Agricultural Labourers 1911-1914
GRG 7 Series 3
1 microfiche
Includes miscellaneous correspondence relating to applications
mc N 1900
Newspaper Index: Index to persons arriving in South Australia from overseas (including New Zealand) as recorded in the Adelaide Times, South Australian and South Australian Register 1846 – 1887
GRG 56 Series 68/7
36 microfiche
Key to the Newspaper Index is also provided at the same call number. (3 fiche) The Key provides the date of the newspaper for the reference in the index.
mc N 1901
Alphabetical Index to Persons nominating Relatives, etc. for Free Passage from Europe to South Australia 1876-1879
GRG 7 Series 44
2 microfiche
This is an index to the free immigration certificates and to nominations for free passage to South Australia contained in GRG 7/40 and GRG 7/42 respectively
mc N 1902
List of Certificates issued under the Assisted Passage Regulations
GRG 35 Series 39
3 microfiche
Volume 1 : 31 October 1862 - June 1867, July 1872 - September 1885
Volume 2 :Alphabetical indexes by nominee [and] nominator to list of certificates issued under the assisted passage regulations, 20 September 1878 - 29 June 1885
mc N 1904
A-Z Index of Special List of Naturalisation Records 1853, 1854, 1856-64
GRG 24 Series 55
1 microfiche
mc N 1905
Alphabetical index by applicant [and] nominee to schedule of free immigration certificates for continental and United Kingdom immigrants, September 1876 - April 1879
GRG 7 Series 40
4 microfiche
mc N 1907
Schedule of Free Immigration Certificates September 1876 - April 1879
U.K. Nos. 1-2107, Continental nos. 1-135
GRG 7 Series 40
Indexed by nominee
3 microfiche
mc N 1908
Schedule of Free Immigration Certificates September 1876 - April 1879
U.K. Nos. 1-2107, Continental nos. 1-135
GRG 7 Series 40
Indexed by applicant
3 microfiche
mc N 1909
Schedule of Certificates issued under the Assisted Passage Regulations October 1862 - June 1867, July 1873 - June 1885
GRG 35 Series 39
2 microfiche
mc N 1910
Immigration Application for Agricultural Labourers by South Australian Residents
Nos. 1-232 (1912–1914)
GRG 7 Series 4
Indexed by applicant
1 microfiche
mc N 1915
Alphabetical Index to Persons nominated for Free Passages from Europe to South Australia, September 1876 - April 1879
GRG 7 Series 39 Special List
3 microfiche
An index to the free immigration certificates and to nominations for free passage to S.A. contained in GRG 7/40 and GRG 7/42 respectively
mc N 1929
Image
Detail from Disembarking from a ship, Adelaide, ca 1910

Detail from Disembarking from a ship, Adelaide, ca. 1910 [transparency]  1890

SOUTH AUSTRALIAN MARITIME MUSEUM

The South Australian Maritime Museum in Port Adelaide provides a passengers database which includes entries for 250,000 passengers and 20,000 ships which arrived between 1836 and 1961. The database, which is currently only available onsite at the Museum, also includes over 1000 pictures of ships.

Image
[Port Adelaide, South Australia]

Detail from Gill, Samuel Thomas.  [Port Adelaide, South Australia] [picture] / S.T.G  [184-]  < http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an2984553 >

SHIP DESERTERS

The following resources on microfiche are available on open access:

South Aust. deserters register
1852-1876, 1877-1882, 1883-1890
Call Number mc N 889

Ship deserters : [register for the period of 1891-July 1952]
Call Number mc N 1150

Not sure where to start?