VPRS 948 Outward Passengers to Interstate, U.K. and Foreign Ports (Refer to Microfilm Copy VPRS 3506)

Full description

This series holds the lists of vessels carrying unassisted passengers departing from Victoria for ports elsewhere in Australia and overseas.

Laws relating to the carriage of passengers by sea (15 & 16 Vic., No. XLIV [1852] ss. XIII and XIV), set out the records which each ship's master was to keep of passengers on vessels leaving British Ports. It was required that "two lists.....correctly setting forth in the Manner therein directed the Name and other Particulars of the Ship, and of every Passenger on board.....when countersigned by the Emigration Officer, ..... shall be delivered by the Master to the Office of Customs from whom a clearance of such Ship shall be demanded...."

The lists recorded information about the ship, details of each passenger and a summary of the passengers carried. The amount of information given for each passenger varied over time. Marital status, age and sex were usually recorded; nationality and occupation were frequently included.

This series ended in 1923 when the responsibility of monitoring immigrant arrivals passed from the State to the Commonwealth. Lists submitted after this time are held by the National Archives of Australia.