Items medium note

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 such passenger'. The form had to be presented to the Deputy Director of Navigation at the principal port in each state or, at any other port, to the chief officer of Customs at the port, Statutory Rules, No. 105 of 1965 repealed the passenger manifests' section.

This series replaced various other passenger lists: Forms 12 and 13 produced under the Immigration Act 1901, Form 11 produced according to British legislation and various forms produced by private shipping lines. The top of the form gives the name of the ship, 'official number', port of registry, shipping line, master's name, tonnage gross and net, port of departure and arrival.

The passengers are listed below and give the port of embarkation, full name, profession/occupation, age, children and infants, country of last permanent residence, nationality, in case of alien country of citizenship country of intended future permanent residence.

At the end of each page totals are given for each column. Further detailed entries give births/deaths on the voyage and summary of British and alien passengers. The forms are signed and dated by the Master. For vessels which landed passengers at more than one port in Australia the port and date are given. The form was amended over the years giving cabin number and race, sex, marital status, purpose of journey to Australia, intended length of stay, period since last in Australia.

The series was superseded by Immigration Department Form M308 in 1965.

The forms are bound in chronological volumes. Earlier volumes are various colours with metal corners and leather spines, later volumes were bound in grey linen. The spine shows 'Passenger Lists Inwards' and date range.

[VOLUME 89] consists of a number of passenger lists which were not bound into the previous volumes. Where a passenger list is missing there is a slip of paper in the bound volume which gives the name of the ship, the date of its arrival and which states 'For complete list see separate folder ofP2s'. This volume was located in 2000 by the Conservators when undertaking a reboxing project. It would appear that these 'missing' passenger lists were filmed in their correct place during the microfilming project in 1962.

The records are duplicated in Australian Archives, ACT Regional Office CRS A907 which holds the lists for all ships arriving at Australian ports and are controlled by the Bureau of Statistics. After 1964 the Department consulted ships' movement files for immediate information about migrant arrivals as they held the nominal rolls.

In 1962 these lists were microfilmed at the Brighton Repository of Australian Archives, Victorian Branch. A negative and a positive user copy were produced. The negative was copied in 1985 and another user copy produced.

In 2017, the microfilm copy of this series was digitized and uploaded to National Archives of Australia RecordSearch database. The digital image can be viewed from the link provided at the appropriate RecordSearch item entry. The reference copy of the series microfilm previously held in National Archives Reading Rooms is no longer available for viewing since the digital images can be viewed online.

Quantity in Archival custody

(1) Original : 13.86m : held by CA1727, Australian Archives, Victorian Branch
(2) Microfilm:
(a) x 1, preservation master held by CA 1726, Australian Archives, Regional Office, NSW;
(b) x 2, positive user copies
(c) x3, diazo user copy held by CA 1727, Australian Archives ,Victorian Branch

Temporary consignment B4397/4 was destroyed on 25 May 2017.

Temporary consignment B4397/7 was destroyed 8 April 2021.

Related series unregistered

Ships registers Department of Customs records