Summary heading
A907 - Ships passenger registration records - Inwards (Form P2)
Function and purpose
This series contains forms listing the incoming passengers on ships arriving in major and minor Australian ports between 1924 and 1964 (with gaps).
In accordance with the Commonwealth of Australia Navigation Act, ship’s masters were required to list all incoming and outgoing passengers to and from Australia. The Department of Immigration provided forms for the registration of all passengers. The incoming passenger (P-2) forms are significant as they list many of the people who immigrated to Australia from the British Isles, Europe, Asia and the Pacific between 1924 and 1964.
Under the Navigation (Passenger) Regulations/Statutory Rules No. 124 of 1923 “The master of every ship, whether British or foreign, bringing any passenger from any place out of Australia to any place in Australia, shall within the time allowed by law for reporting the vessel inwards, furnish to the proper officer, in Form P-2, a true return in duplicate, in regard to each passenger”.
The passenger lists in this series are one copy of the incoming passenger lists that were either presented to the Deputy Director of Navigation at principal ports or the Chief Officer of Customs at other ports on arrival in Australia. The other copy was retained at the port of each ship’s arrival. The incoming P-2 forms indicate that immigrants not only entered Australia via the main port in each state or territory – Fremantle, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney , Brisbane, Darwin, and Hobart, but also came into minor ports such as, Carnarvon, WA; Cairns, Qld; Whyalla, SA, and Burnie, Tasmania. A representative sample of the Australian ports entered in this period is identified in the Series Links for A907.
Following the completion of each ship’s journey the passenger lists in this series were transferred to the Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics (the Bureau) to be used for the collection of census data about people entering Australia.
Another layer of information and recordkeeping was added by the Bureau. This information is comprised of a multiple number code reflecting an imposed order according to each ship’s arrival at each state and port for each month and other indiscernible codes as well as statistical codes overlaying the typed or handwritten lists of passengers. Earlier records, from 1924 to 1933, were bound in bi monthly volumes by the Bureau using the imposed code order and arranged chronologically. After gathering census information, the Bureau transferred the records to the National Archives.
The P-2 incoming passenger forms detail various aspects of the ship, the voyage and the passengers. Information relating to the passengers include: name, nationality, racial origin or country of origin, sex, age, marital status, occupation, port of embarkation, and date of arrival in Australia. Passengers were generally listed alphabetically according to the port in which they disembarked.
The P-2 form also contains details of each ship and voyage – the port of disembarkation, the name of the ship, official number, port of registry and steamship line, the master’s name, the gross and net tonnage, the date of arrival and the ports of embarkation as well as the destination. Births and deaths during the voyage were also recorded and the ship’s master made a declaration on the last page of each form, under the Commonwealth Quarantine Act, declaring that all the passengers disembarked in good health and state of mind.
During WWII the arrival of immigrants slowed down considerably, and passengers entered Australia mainly via the larger ports. By the late 1940s the registration forms show a steep increase in passenger arrival at Australian ports, both large and small.
There are significant gaps in the series. Details of these gaps are as follows:
- September 1937 to July 1941 – except for November and part of December 1940
- July to September 1945
- August 1948 to December 1950
- July 1960
Copies of the passenger lists were also retained in the states of embarkation and are held in other series in the state offices of the National Archives. In some cases it is possible that the gaps in A907 may be covered by series and microfilm in these offices. National Archives of Australia Fact Sheets list passenger records held in each state office – see Fact Sheets 38 (Canberra), 56 (Perth), 64 (Sydney), 172 (Melbourne), 184 (Hobart), and 190 (Brisbane).
By 1951 the P-2 form had been amended slightly. Until then the form demanded that 1st, 2nd, and 3rd class passengers must be entered on the registration forms as separate groups, and that race merely be specified by country. The amended version no longer required that the classes be entered as separate groups, but racial origin was listed as European, Asian, African or Polynesian. Marital status has become conjugal condition, with divorce added to the previous options of married, single, and widowed. In 1958 further amendments were made, and two new headings were added to the form: purpose of journey, and proposed length of stay in Australia, thus distinguishing between immigrants and travelers.
The ship’s passenger list were discontinued in 1964 and superseded by ship’s passenger cards which from a new series A1197 – Incoming ship’s passenger cards 1965 – 1978. Ship’s passenger cards were trialed for one ship’s journey, the Orsova, in October 1963. These cards were found in amongst A907, but form a separate series.
Using the series
Items in this series are in RecordSearch and are described by the name of the ship, the port of arrival and the day, month and year of arrival. A title convention has been imposed on the items by the National Archives of Australia.
Thus items in this series can be searched by any aspect of the title – by ship, port and date of arrival in the General Search screen of RecordSearch. Individual names on each passenger list are not indexed but are recorded mostly in alphabetical order.
As an example – a general search on a ship’s name in one year, will narrow the search to a few records. If the port or month is included as well this could narrow the results to one or two records.
Related legislation
Commonwealth of AustraliaNavigation Act, 1912-1919.
Physical characteristics
The cover page is a single large format (43 x 34 cm) printed registration paper form with the following headings and subheadings: Commonwealth of Australia, Navigation Act, Form P-2, Passenger list - incoming passengers: return of passengers brought to the port of [port] from places outside Australia. The caption for the main part is: Names and descriptions of passengers. Then, copied from the 1964 version of the registration form, follows the titles of the fifteen information columns: Line Number; Class; Port of Embarkation; Surname and initials; Nationality; Country of Birth; Sex; Age; marital status – Married ,Single, Divorced Widowed; Usual Occupation; Country of last stay for 12 months or more; Country of next intended stay for 12 months or more; Purpose of journey; Intended length of stay (subdivided into 3 columns – years, months and days) and Period since last in Australia length of stay in Australia (subdivided into 3 columns – years, months and days).
There are entry spaces, numbered in the Line Number column from 1 to 26. Additional pages were added to allow space for passengers over this number. On the larger ships, there were sometimes a few hundred passengers disembarking at the major ports and the lists have multiple pages. Each additional page is numbered in the top right corner.
On the reverse side of the cover page are tables to record Births and Deaths on the Voyage. For births, the name of the infant, sex, names of parents and nationality could be recorded; for deaths – name, sex, age, occupation, nationality and cause of death were recorded. In neither table is there provision for recording the date. There was a separate return form to be made for each birth death or marriage that happened on board ship.
The reverse page also includes a summary of passengers including the number of adults, children and infants according to sex, and a total for each of these categories. The master was required to certify that the information was correct and the passengers were in good health, fill in the name of the port of disembarkation and sign and date the form.
There is a specific additional page used to list corrections to passenger lists which were added to the main list if used.
System of arrangement and control
There is no evident system of control imposed by the Department of Immigration or by the ship’s masters or the port authorities who collected the forms.
The Bureau of Census and Statistics imposed a multiple number code, possibly a control system, on all the incoming ships’ passenger lists transferred to them as statistics were gathered from the lists.
One number of the code, in tens from 10 to 70, was allocated to major ports; minor ports were allocated numbers following in ones according to the state they are in. The following table lists the ports for which the Archives have been able to ascertain a code number. The other numbers in the Bureau’s code or control symbol appeared not to be chronological. They are recorded on the top page of each list.
Bureau of Census and Statistics code Port
10 Sydney
11 Newcastle, Ballina
12 Port Kembla
20 Melbourne, Williamstown
21 Geelong
30 Brisbane
31 Bowen
32 Cairns
33 Gladstone
34 Mackay
35 Rockhampton
36 Thursday Island
37 Townsville
40 Adelaide
42 Port Lincoln
43 Port Pirie
44 Wallaroo
46 Whyalla
50 Fremantle
51 Albany
52 Broome
53 Bunbury
55 Derby
56 Geraldton
58 Carnarvon, Onslow, Kwinana
60 Hobart, Risdon
61 Launceston, Beauty Point, Tamar, BellBay
62 Burnie
70 Darwin
The earliest records in the series, 1924 to 1933, were transferred from the Bureau of Census and Statistics in 57 bound volumes. They were bound bi-monthly and allocated a volume number (see the table below). Within each month the records were sorted according to port and date order. Later records, 1933 to 1964, were boxed in monthly or bi monthly bundles and were predominantly arranged according to the year, month, port and date within each month, reflecting generally the order of the bound volumes.
Volume Control Symbol
1 JUL – AUG 1924
2 SEP – OCT 1924
3 NOV –DEC 1924
4 JAN – FEB 1925
5 MAR – APR 1925
6 MAY – JUNE 1925
7 JUL – AUG 1925
8 SEP – OCT 1925
9 NOV –DEC 1925
10 JAN – FEB 1926
11 MAR – APR 1926
12 MAY – JUNE 1926
13 JUL – AUG 1926
14 SEP – OCT 1926
15 NOV –DEC 1926
16 JAN – FEB 1927
17 MAR – APR 1927
18 MAY – JUNE 1927
19 JUL – AUG 1927
20 SEP – OCT 1927
21 NOV –DEC 1927
22 JAN – FEB 1928
23 MAR – APR 1928
24 MAY – JUNE 1928
25 JUL – AUG 1928
26 SEP – OCT 1928
27 NOV –DEC 1928
28 JAN – FEB 1929
29 MAR – APR 1929
30 MAY – JUNE 1929
31 JUL – AUG 1929
32 SEP – OCT 1929
33 NOV – DEC 1929
34 JAN – FEB 1930
35 MAR – APR 1930
36 MAY – JUN 1930
37 JUL – AUG 1930
38 SEP – OCT 1930
39 NOV- -DEC 1930
40 JAN – FEB 1931
41 MAR – APR 1931
42 MAY – JUN 1931
43 JUL – AUG 1931
44 SEP – OCT 1931
45 NOV- -DEC 1931
46 JAN – FEB 1932
47 MAR – APR 1932
48 MAY – JUN 1932
49 JUL – AUG 1932
50 SEP – OCT 1932
51 NOV- -DEC 1932
52 JAN – FEB 1933
53 MAR – APR 1933
54 MAY – JUN 1933
55 JUL – AUG 1933
56 SEP – OCT 1933
57 NOV- -DEC 1933
The National Archives of Australia has imposed a system of control on the whole series. This system of control adheres to the arrangement established by the Bureau – that is chronologically by year and month and then by port within each month. Within each port for each month, the Archives has arranged the lists in chronological order where possible and allocated a single number reflecting the total number of lists for each month from all ports.
For example control symbol 1933/6/121 means the list is for a ship that arrived in 1933, in June, and the item is the 121st passenger list for the month arranged according to port and then date. 1942/12/10 – means the ship arrived in 1942, in December, and the item is the list for the 10th passenger ship to arrive in December. This last number does not specify the date of the day in December the ship arrived.
Relationships with other records
Passenger registration records from before 1924 may be held at state archival authorities.
Related series include several series of P-2 forms that were retained in the major and minor Australian ports of arrival during 1924 to1964. These series are listed in the Series Links for A907. A1223 – Incoming ship’s passenger cards, 1948 to 1950, may provide information regarding on of the main gaps in the A907 records.
Subsequent series include A1227 – Inwards Passenger manifests – Ships (Form M308) and A1197 – Incoming passenger cards.
Finding aids
All items in this series are registered in RecordSearch.
Microfilm for lists from 1924 to 1933 are available in all National Archives of Australia reading rooms. NAA Fact Sheet 220 gives information about the index to passenger arrivals in CRS K269 – Inward passenger manifests for ships and aircraft arriving Fremantle 1898 – 1978.
Access conditions
The series has been access-examined and declared Open by the National Archives of Australia.
Series history
Incoming Ship’s passenger Lists were first transferred from the Bureau of Census and Statistics to the Archives Division of the Commonwealth National Library from 1952. These were registered as various accessions.
In May 1966, the accessions for the incoming passenger lists were registered as Commonwealth Record Series A907 and a Custodial Agreement for transfer as permanent archives was made between the Bureau of Census and Statistics and the Commonwealth Archives Office.
The ship’s lists from two main time spans were transferred as A907 – 1924 to 1948 and 1951 to 1964.
In 2003, the National Archives of Australia commenced an arrangement and description project to preserve the records, increase accessibility to the records as well as facilitate the digitization of each passenger list. A control system was imposed on the lists, with each list becoming an individual item. One third of the lists were registered in RecordSearch and one year of lists digitized and repackaged. The project was temporarily put on hold but work recommenced in 2005 when repackaging, registration and preservation work was carried out on the remainder of the series. The passengers lists in the 57 bound volumes were released due to preservation concerns that the bindings were damaging the paper records. Work on the series was completed in September 2007 with a total of 42,200 items at passenger list level repackaged and registered.
Provenance
The incoming ship’s passenger lists, Form P-2, supplied by the Department of Immigration, were recorded by ship’s masters under the regulations of the Commonwealth Navigation Act. One copy of each list was transferred to the Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics via the port authorities representing the Department of Immigration in Australian ports.
The Bureau of Census and Statistics transferred the lists to the custody of the National Archives of Australia (as the Commonwealth Archives Office) as permanent records from 1952 to 1966. The National Archives Collection Review section deemed the series Valuable Discontinued Records in 2005.
Quantity in agency custody
317.86 metres in Canberra, ACT. Microfilm of 1924 – 1933 lists held in national and state offices.