Macquarie Street building temporarily closed for refurbishment. Read more
Convicts: Bound for Australia
- State Library of NSW
- Research Guides
- Family History
- Convicts: Bound for Australia
- Voyage out to Australia
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All users should be aware that some topics or historical content may be culturally sensitive, offensive or distressing, and that some images may contain nudity or are of people not yet identified.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
 |
Log in as a Library member (NSW residents only) or visit the Library |
 |
Visit the Library |
 |
Freely accessible eresource |
Voyage out to Australia
Resources
- Convict ships, 1787-1868 [catalogue record]
Find departure and arrival dates, personnel on convict ships and other information about life on the voyage out to Australia. - Log of logs [catalogue record]Use this guide to find ship's logs held in institutions around Australia. The entry for each ship lists the type of ship and voyages made and where the surviving logs for the voyages are held. The guide covers the entire convict period.
- Musters and other papers relating to convict ships, 1790-1849 [catalogue record | microfilm]Search lists of a ship's population at time of boarding or when disembarking the ship. You will usually find lists of convicts' names and sentences. You might also find reports on behaviour, lists of free settlers and communication about convicts' families.
Best used only if Ancestry is unavailable: Also available on Ancestry Library Edition as New South Wales, Australia Convict Ship Muster Rolls and Related Records, 1790-1849 (only in the Library). - Ships card index [card catalogue]Search the index to find records relating to ships and voyages held at the Mitchell Library. You can learn about those on board, events at sea and life on board from revealing records such as master’s logbooks and surgeon’s journals.
Ask at the Special Collections desk in the Mitchell Library Reading Room to search the card index. - Surgeon's journals, 1798–1856 [catalogue record | microfilm]Search this index for images of medical journals kept by surgeons on the convict ships. Find out what life was like on board, escape attempts, daily rations and routine. You will find that entries vary by journal, but can include details such as the convict’s name, age, native country, crime and sentence term, date and cause of death and sick lists. Crew members might also be included.
Later years available on Ancestry Library Edition (only in the Library) under UK Surgeon Superintendents' Journals of Convict Ships, 1858-1867. - Convict transportation registers database, 1787-1867 [external website]
Find details on over 123,000 of the estimated 160,000 convicts sent to NSW, Van Diemen's Land, Moreton Bay, Port Phillip, Western Australia and Norfolk Island. You can find the convict’s name, date and place of their trial, the length of the sentence, the name of the ship, departure date and the colony where they were sent.
Compiled and indexed from the British Home Office HO11 Convict Transportation Registers by the State Library of Queensland. Also available on Ancestry Library Edition (only in the Library).
Please note during our refurbishment some material may need to be requested at the Family History desk in the Temporary Bashir Reading Room
- Botany Bay [New South Wales, ca 1789 / watercolour by Charles Gore]Digital order number: a2060001
- Log book of the ship Marquis Cornwallis, 1 February to 1 November 1796Digital order number: a1194001