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During the 20th century more than seven million people made Australia home. The National Archives project Making Australia Home is progressively making migration records available online.
The project will provide easier access to this significant part of Australia's documentary heritage, as well as ensuring preservation of the records for generations to come.
The project involves:
Migration records in the National Archives cover many millions of people who made the journey to Australia, including postwar displaced persons, those who travelled on assisted passage schemes and new arrivals who stayed in migrant accommodation centres like Bonegilla.
The records typically include personal details, such as name, nationality, date and place of birth and information about family members. In some cases there are photographs on the files.
Watch the video introduction to the project – click to play
The first step to finding out whether the National Archives holds migration records about you or your family is easy.
NameSearch, part of our RecordSearch database, lets you search specifically for migration records.
Simply enter the family surname and select 'Immigration and naturalisation records' using the drop-down list. Make sure you try variations of the name if you don't find records on your first attempt.
With Making Australia Home, the National Archives is making online access to migration records a priority. This means that we are undertaking digitisation projects to make digital copies of records available for viewing on the website.
Many migration records have already been digitised as part of this ongoing work. They are identified in RecordSearch with a 'View digital copy' icon.
As well as these proactive digitisation projects, you are able to purchase online copies of records. When you have found a record you want in RecordSearch, simply click on 'Request copy' to order an online copy. The record will be placed onto RecordSearch and you will be notified by email about how to find and view the images.
If you prefer, you can purchase a photocopy of the record, also by clicking on 'Request copy'.
You can see records without charge in the National Archives reading room where the record is held. Find out more about requesting records to view in a reading room.
With millions of items in the collection, many individual migration records are not yet described on RecordSearch. This means that they can't yet be found using NameSearch or by a general keyword search.
If you don't find the record you're looking for there are several things you can do. You can:
You can also read more about finding your family in the National Archives in For family historians.
There is wide variety in migration records held by the National Archives. Some are plain-looking forms or lists of names; others are larger files with personal letters and photographs.
Explore the links below to see examples of migration records.