Guide to Convict Records in Australia

From January 1788 through January 1868, Britain used Australia as a penal colony for British convicts. Over those 80 years, about 164,000 people were shipped from Britain to various locations in Australia to serve their sentences.

 

Original images of documents

When you find a record containing the name of the person you're looking for, view the image of the document itself. The information likely includes the name of the convict, the date and location of their trial, the length of their sentence, and the name of the ship they were transported on.

The date and place of the trial can provide you with a link to more sources—such as newspaper reports and trial records—that can help establish details of the convict’s origins.

 

Convict transportation registers, 1787–1868

The British government recorded information about the people they transported to Australia, and that information is available in four databases:

  • The First Fleet set sail from England on May 12, 1787 and landed in Australia on January 26, 1788. On the ships were 191 female and 568 male convicts, and several government officials. There were 11 ships in the First Fleet:
    • Alexander
    • Borrowdale
    • Charlotte
    • Fishburn
    • Friendship
    • Golden Grove
    • Lady Penrhyn
    • Prince of Wales
    • Scarborough
    • Sirius
    • Supply

 

  • The Second Fleet consisted of six ships:
    • The Lady Juliana set sail from England on June 29, 1789, carrying 226 female convicts. It landed in Australia on June 3, 1790.
    • The Guardian set sail from England on September 12, 1789, and struck an iceberg off the coast of South Africa and never made it to Australia. However, 21 convicts survived and were sent to Australia on another ship. Fourteen of the 21 were pardoned due to their conduct in helping the ship stay afloat until they were spotted off the coast of the Cape of Good Hope.
    • The Surprise, Neptune, Scarborough and Justinian set sail from England on January 19, 1790, and landed in Australia at the end of June 1790. The four ships were carrying 931 male and 78 female convicts.

 

  • Most of the 11 ships in The Third Fleet set sail from England on March 27, 1791, and landed in Australia during July, August, and September of 1791. These ships carried 25 female convicts and 3,714 male convicts:
    • Active
    • Admiral Barrington
    • Albemarle
    • Atlantic
    • Britannia
    • Gorgon
    • Mary Anne
    • Matilda
    • Queen (Sailed from Ireland)
    • Salamander
    • William and Ann

 

  • The other fleets & ships that set sail from 1791 through 1868 are in the fourth database of convict ships from Britain.

 

If you're searching for someone transported by these ships and you know about when they arrived in Australia, try searching from the database that covers that period. If you know only their name, try searching the card catalogue and narrowing your search to Australian convict records.

 

Convict musters and convict lists, 1787–1849

The collections of Convict Musters 1806 – 1849 and Convict Lists 1787 – 1834 contain additional details about people sent to New South Wales and Tasmania, the two main convict areas. Like the registers, they contain the names of the convicts, the ships that transported them, and the dates and places of their trials. Sometimes, information like ages and occupations were also recorded.

The musters were created to keep track of the convicts, many of whom were employed around the colony. The musters also included ex-convicts whose sentences had been served and who remained in the colony. The convict lists and musters often also included the free settlers who had migrated to New South Wales and Tasmania and were living there when the record was compiled. Many of the records were written in wide ledger books, and due to the way the documents had to be digitized, it may be worth checking the page after the one the person appears on, since information about them may have been recorded on the next page too.

 

Convict pardons and tickets of leave, 1834–1859

The collection of Convict Pardons and Tickets of Leave 1834 – 1859 for New South Wales and Tasmania contains documents related to tickets of leave. A ticket of leave could be granted to a convict after a certain percentage of their sentence had been served. It allowed the person to live in the community and work for their own wage throughout the rest of the sentence.

Tickets of leave contain the person's arrival date and place of conviction. Sometimes, they also recorded a convict's birthplace, physical description, and the reason a pardon was granted. However, most of the entries contain little information. When looking at the documents, look through earlier pages to find the beginning of the list; the first page will usually contain the date.


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