Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP)

The Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP) is a collection of historical material relating to Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific dating from 1560 to 1984.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander visitors are kindly advised that this website includes images, sounds and names of people who have passed.

All users should be aware that some topics or historical content may be culturally sensitive, offensive or distressing, and that some images may contain nudity or are of people not yet identified. Certain words, terms or descriptions may reflect the author's/creator's attitude or that of the period in which they were written, but are now considered inappropriate in today's context.

Key to library resources

Access anywhere with a library card In the Library (or anywhere with a Library card for NSW residents)
Available to access in the library Only in the Library
Publicly available online Publicly available

The Bigge report

John Thomas Bigge was commissioned in 1819 to report on the Macquarie administration for the Colonial Office and investigate every detail of life in NSW.

He was instructed by Lord Bathurst, Secretary of State for the Colonies, to report on the future of convict transportation and to investigate economic opportunities for the colony.

Bigge travelled through the colony interviewing and gathering evidence for his three reports. The reports were printed by the House of Commons as parliamentary papers in 1822 and 1823 and also appear in the Colonial Office correspondence in the AJCP.


The Bigge report

The Library has print copies and freely available online copies of all three reports in the collection, as well as the parliamentary papers on the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers eresource.

The Library also has a composite index to all three reports in a facsimile edition of The Bigge Report. The index is very detailed with entries for all names, places, and subjects mentioned in the reports. A great tool for accessing the content in the Bigge Reports. 

The thousands of pages of evidence (appendices) were not published but also appear in the Colonial Office correspondence (CO 201 PRO Reel 106-127). These are the original notes taken by Bigge.


First Report: Report of the Commissioner of Inquiry into the state of the colony of New South Wales

Second Report: The Judicial Establishments of NSW and of Van Diemen’s Land

Third Report: Report of the Commissioner of Inquiry on the state of agriculture and trade in the colony of New South Wales