LibGuides: Immigration to South Australia: Online Passenger Lists 1836-1989

Passenger lists online

State Records of South Australia 1836-1940
Comprehensive indices and lists of ships and assisted and unassisted passengers immigrating to SA from 1836 - 1940 with surviving manifests available to view through the State Records website or through the free Family Search Website. You can search passenger name, year or ship name.
Shipping and immigration 1940-1989: National Archives of Australia
From 1940 immigration came under federal government control. Information for arrivals from this time is available in a number of resources, the most comprehensive records are held by the National Archives of Australia, covering the period up to 1989.
The National Archives Passenger Arrivals Index is searchable for immigration records to 1972.
Information for later arrivals can be obtained by applying to the National Archives.
Trove
The most comprehensive details of shipping arrivals (and departures) for South Australia in the 19th century are found newspapers. South Australian newspapers have been digitised in a partnership between the National Library and State Library of South Australia and are searchable on Trove. A simple keyword search on Trove using the family name and 'arrivals' e.g. 'smith arrivals' will produce a list which can be searched by decade, state, etc.
Passengers in History 1836-1964
The passengers database was produced by staff and volunteers at the South Australian Maritime Museum over 20 years. It includes entries for 328,000 passengers and 20,000 voyages to South Australia.
Ancestry Library Edition
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Ancestry contains collections of coastal passenger records from Victoria as well as incoming and outgoing passenger lists for South Australia 1845-1940. Look under New Collections to see Australian Immigration records. Ancestry Library Edition is available onsite at the State Library and at South Australian Public Libraries.
Bound for South Australia 1836-1851
A free online database compiled by Dianne Cummings.
The Ships List
The Ships List, a free international resource of passenger lists built and maintained by enthusiasts.

Survival of passenger lists

Only between 10 and 15% of the official lists for assisted immigrants arriving in South Australia in the 19th century under the sponsorship of the Colonisation Commission have survived. Also search Trove for newspaper articles announcing arrivals.

Arrivals from interstate

Not all 19th century travellers sailed directly to Adelaide. In the early 1850s many ships sailed directly to Melbourne due to the attraction of the goldfields so many immigrants came to Adelaide via coastal vessels. The Public Record Office of Victoria has Melbourne passenger lists searchable online.

A search of Trove may reveal the person you are researching in newspaper articles listing arrival/departures.

The State Library also has specialised indexes of newspaper articles listing passenger arrivals and departures between Australian Colonies which may reveal names that Trove has not recognised.

Assisted Passengers 1836-1841

Applicants for Free Passage 1836-1841
Graham Jaunay's freely accessible database. Search names of applicants who came to South Australia and names of those who applied but did not travel. Does not list the year or the ship on which they embarked.
Index to register of emigrant labourers applying for a free passage to South Australia, 1836-1841 (Pike Index)
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Alphabetical record by name of applicant. Includes age, occupation, agent, hometown and sex and age of dependants (children). If they did come to South Australia the embarkation number and ship are also listed.

Emigrants on the Hesperus August 1884

List of Emigrants on the Hesperus 1884
This passenger list from the State Records of South Australia shows passenger name, age, accompanying family and occupation.

Immigrants by the Hesperus October 1884

Immigrants by the Hesperus
This is one of a few articles about the voyage of the Hesperus available in Trove. This article lists passengers by family groups and then single men and women. It also lists occupations. Other articles on Trove report immigrants listing themselves as agricultural labourers to get a cheaper berth.

Immigration to South Australia: Online Passenger Lists 1836-1989