Function and Purpose

BP4/3 contains forms of application for registration of Aliens; which was carried out under the War Precautions (Alien Registration) Regulations of 1916. Under the Regulations, all non-British persons had to register upon arrival in Australia, and notify authorities upon changing address. 

Forms A1 and A2, 'Form of Application for Registration' were most commonly used for recording details of registration. These forms are foolscap size; and show alien name, nationality, birthplace, date of birth, place of residence, occupation, name of vessel, port of embarkation and disembarkation, date of entry into the Commonwealth, personal particulars such as eye and hair colour, and signature, mark or thumb print. 

Other forms include Form E, a 'Notice of Change of Abode' form (which was filled out upon each change of address); and Form C, an orange card headed 'Conviction of Alien' detailing any criminal offences committed, and punishment received. 

Some items contain material other than that described above, such as correspondence initiated by the Queensland police. Many items simply consist of a piece of paper which has written on it just the alien's name. 

The legislation requiring registration of aliens was suspended in 1926. A number of persons documented in the records came to Australia after this date, and these latter records generally contain some details of naturalisation. The vast majority of material in the series was created between 1916 and 1920, however there are a small number of files created in the 1930's and 1940's in the series as well; hence the later contents end date.

Using the series

As the records consist of individual administrative forms, an imposed system of titling was applied to these records in the aim of achieving consistency and best enabling retrieval of the records. Where possible, the titles include the applicant's name, nationality, alien registration certificate number, and date and place of issue of certificate; with all information being taken from the administrative forms. 

System of Arrangement and Control

The records are arranged firstly by nationality, and then alphabetically by surname within each nationality. The list of nationalities is as follows:

* American
* Austrian
* Chinese
* Danish
* Dutch
* Filipino
* French
* German
* Greek
* Italian
* Japanese
* Javanese
* Jugoslav
* Malay
* Norwegian
* Russian
* Spanish
* Swedish
* Swiss

Two of the original boxes filed between 'Malay' and 'Norwegian' contained nationalities arranged under the heading 'Miscellaneous'. These nationalities are:

* Albanian
* Argentininian
* Bavarian
* Belgian
* Bohemian
* Brazilian
* Bulgarian
* Czechoslovakian
* Chilean
* Estonian
* Hungarian
* Latvian
* Lithuanian
* Luxembourger
* Mexican
* Persian
* Peruvian
* Portuguese
* Romanian
* Russian-Finnish
* Russian-Polish
* Russian-Jewish
* Serbian
* Siamese
* Sicilian
* South American
* Syrian
* Tahitian
* Turkish
* Venezuelan

One folder filed under 'Miscellaneous' was headed 'Nationality Doubtful'; these items have been intersorted by nationality into the rest of the 'Miscellaneous' items.

Finding Aids

As of April 2005, all the records in this series are on the Archives database RecordSearch at item level. 



Administrative information:
 
The following data was keyed from the paper documentation:
Form number:              CA 17
Creating department:      DEPARTMENT OF DEFENCE, MILITARY INTELLIGENCE SECTION
Transferring department:  ATTORNEY GENERAL'S, COMMONWEALTH INVESTIGATION 					  SERVICE,
Date of transfer:         21/02/1951
Archives file number:     RWB7/1/4