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Series VPRS
947
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Inward Overseas Passenger Lists (see Microfiche Copies: VPRS 7666 United Kingdom Ports; VPRS 7667 Foreign Ports; VPRS 13439 New Zealand Ports)
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| Date Range: |
Series |
1852 - 1923 |
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Series in Custody |
1852 - 1923 |
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Contents |
1852 - 1923 |
| Public Access: |
Open |
| Location: |
North Melbourne |
| Format of Records: |
Physical |
  | Agency which created this SeriesAgency which created this Series |
| Agency currently responsible for this SeriesAgency currently responsible for this Series |
| Description of this SeriesDescription of this Series |
- How to use the Records
Public Record Office Victoria has created microfiche copies of these lists, all of which are available in PROV Reading Rooms. Public Access is through these microfiche copies instead of the physical series. The microfiche copies do not need to be pre-ordered.
For microfiche copies of these lists for vessels arriving from:
- British Ports; refer to VPRS 7666
- Foreign (i.e non British) Ports, not including New Zealand; refer to VPRS 7667, and
- New Zealand Ports; refer to VPRS 13439.
All of the names on the lists in this series have been indexed by PROV volunteers. The index to unassisted passengers is in the form of a database and can be searched online through the Public Record Office Victoria website. Refer to the series entry for VPRS 7666, 7667 or 13439 as appropriate, then select the tab titled "Accessing the Records" and finally select "Other Information" to obtain access a link to the database.
The database records the family (ie surname) and first name of the passenger, their age on arrival, the name of the ship and the month and year of the ship's arrival.
The database also contains fields that direct users to the specific microfiche held in PROV Reading Rooms that contains the name of the passenger. These fields are:
- "Port": This field contains a code that identifies the relevant series of microfiche. (The code B identifies passengers arriving from British ports in VPRS 7666, the code F identifies passengers arriving from foreign ports in VPRS 7667 and the code N identifies passengers arriving from New Zealand ports in VPRS 13439.)
- "Fiche": This field identifies the number of the microfiche (as recorded on the microfiche header) in PROV Reading Rooms within either VPRS 7666, 7667 or 13439 that contains the relevant shipping list, and
- "Page": This field identifies the page number within the list for the ship that contains the indexed name.
- Function / Content
This series holds the lists of vessels carrying unassisted passengers arriving in Victoria from overseas ports.
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 Act to Regulate the Conveyance of Passengers to the Colony of Victoria 1852 (16 Vic., No. XVII) extended these provisions to ships arriving from foreign and intercolonial ports. These and subsequent Acts prescribed the form the passenger list had to take.
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.
- Recordkeeping System
This series is arranged in two sequences of chronologically arranged hardback folders. One sequence holds the lists for vessels arriving from British and Foreign ports and the other holds the lists for vessels from New Zealand ports.
The lists for vessels arriving from British and Foreign ports were placed in folders generally spanning periods of three or six months. Lists are then placed within two paper folders or bundles for each month; one for vessels arriving from British ports and the other for vessels from Foreign ports. It would appear, however, that the separation of these lists in this way was made by Archives staff.
The lists for vessels arriving from New Zealand were placed in folders, each generally spanning a period of two or three years. Lists were then placed within paper folders for each month or year.
Microform copies of these lists have been created by PROV to preserve the original lists in this series. Two series of microfilm were created in c 1982. These were VPRS 3501 (which contained copies of the lists from British ports) and VPRS 3505 (which contained copies of the lists from Foreign and New Zealand Ports). Both of these of microfilm series were progressively removed from PROV Reading Rooms as the microfiche copies (VPRS 7666, 7667 and 13439) were created in a copying and indexing program that began in c1988.
An online index to the lists was completed during 2005. The online index replaced two series of microfiche indexes (VPRS 11448 for vessels arriving from British ports and VPRS 8669 for vessels arriving from Foreign ports excluding New Zealand) which have also been removed from PROV Reading Rooms. These microfiche indexes, in turn, had replaced a card index that was maintained in the PROV Melbourne Reading Room for ships arriving from British ports to the mid 1880s only. All forms of the index were created by volunteers at PROV.
Microfiche copies of some of these lists and portions of the index on CD-Rom and microfiche can also be purchased from PROV. Refer to the PROV website (www.prov.vic.gov.au/publications) for details of products currently available.
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