Description of series:

Function and Purpose 

BP9/3 consists almost exclusively of form A (42), headed 'Personal statement by alien passenger'. The forms had to be completed by persons arriving in Queensland under Regulation No 4 of the Immigration Act 1901 - 1925. The form states that:

'By Regulation 4 of the Immigration Regulations, this statement must be furnished to the Customs Boarding Officer, or other authorized Officer, at the first port of call in Australia by every alien passenger arriving from overseas.'

Wives and children under 16 travelling with their parents were exempt from filling out the statement.

The statements consist of 21 questions, including the passenger's name, place of birth, nationality, date of birth, marital status, passport particulars, occupation and intention to settle in Australia. Most are signed by the applicant.

A small number of the forms were created by the Netherlands Indies Government and are headed Netherlands Indies Welfare Organisation for Evacuees (NIWOE).

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 passenger's name; nationality; and date, place and means of arrival in Australia. All this information was taken from the administrative forms.

System of Arrangement and Control

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

Albanian
Ambonese
Argentinian
American
Austrian
Belgian
Brazilian
British
Bulgarian
Chilean
Chinese
Chinese New Guinean
Czechoslovakian
Danish
Dutch
Egyptian
Estonian
Filipino
Finns
French
German
Greek
Hungarian
Icelandic
Indian
Italian
Japanese
Javanese
Latvian
Lebanese
Lithuanian
Luxembourger
Malayan/Dutch East Indian
Norwegian
Palestinian
Polish
Portuguese
Rumanian/Romanian
Russian
Siamese
Spanish
Stateless (title includes country of birth)
Swedish
Swiss
Syrian
Ukranian
Yugoslavian

Findings Aids

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

History Prior/Subsequent to Transfer

The records were originally created by Trade & Customs and held by Commonwealth Investigation Service. In 1951 they were handed to Immigration and subsequently transferred to Archives. The use of forms A 42 was discontinued at the end of 1947,being replaced by Forms R.A.

Administrative information
 
The following data was keyed from the paper documentation:
Form number:              CA 17
Creating department:      , TRADE & CUSTOMS, QUEENSLAND,
Transferring department:  , IMMIGRATION, QUEENSLAND, RECORDS & DESPATCH Date of transfer:         03/05/1951
Archives file number:     RWB28/1/4