NZ Bound Index Search Hints Lists Ports
Migration across the Tasman was and still is commonplace.
Anne Bromell wrote in her book Tracing Family History in New Zealand "Steerage passengers travelling between Australia and New Zealand, army personnel below the rank of lieutenant were rarely named in the newspaper reports. It is therefore more difficult to trace the movements of passengers between Australia and New Zealand than those arriving from Europe. Unfortunately, because of the absence of records, some researchers will never learn the name of the ship that transported their forebears to New Zealand, or establish the date and place of arrival". Anne Bromell d. August 23, 2004, aged 68 years, Auckland.
Many immigrants came to New Zealand via Australia. Steamers use to bring thousands of goldminers over to Hokitika (West Coast, SI) from Melbourne and during the 1860s, the time of the Maori Wars. They traded between Auckland and Sydney delivering troops, English mail and cargo and returned with out going mail and passengers to connect with steamers leaving Australia for England. The main source for lists for immigrants leaving Australia to New Zealand are newspapers and a few have been indexed, 1840-1855 at the New Zealand Room, Wellington Public Library. Lists of those leaving Melbourne during the 1850s and 1860s gold rushes to the South Island are held at the Victorian Public Record Office and on film through LDS Family History Centres. Also check Sydney and Hobart newspapers for departures to New Zealand ports for arrivals before 1840.
National Archives AUS
NSW BDM's
Victoria BDM's
South AUS
Queensland - BDMs, Immigration pdf A1 B1 B2 etc., Archives, Lookups
Assisted immigrants arriving at Moreton Bay-Brisbane, 1848-59
Maryborough, Queensland, AUS. Immigrants from British Isles & Germany 1861-91
List of Ships into Maryborough, a city located on the Mary River in SE QLD, AUS., approx. 300k north of the Brisbane.
"Maryborough" from Liverpool to Pt Denison and Moreton Bay, 1865State Records NSW Go to publications
Tasmanian Pioneer Index
Immigration to Tasmania
National Maritime Museum Sydney Welcome Wall
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour WW2 to date
LISWA resources
Journeys in Timepoll
Ryde Library Sydney: Pathfinder: pdf Shipping and Passenger RecordsPassenger Lists Victoria, Australia Outwards to NZ Available from NZGS
Hall, Nick Vine Tracing your family history in Australia, 1994 General guide to sources available in Australia for family history research. Sections for each State e.g. newspapers, passenger arrivals and departures.
Part 1 1852-1860 $ 7.50 3 fiche
Part 2 1861-1865 $19.80 11 fiche
Part 3 1866-1870 $16.65 9 fiche
Australasian Federation of Family History Organisations. National Register of Shipping Arrivals : Australia and New Zealand / Andrew Guy Peake, 1949- Sydney (N.S.W.) : 1992. 3rd ed. First ed. published 1988. How people arrived, what records were created and where held. Available from Australasian Federation of Family History Organisations, PO Box 30, Blackburn Vic 3130. Indicates where to find records.Shipping Arrivals & Departures, Sydney. (interest to NZ)
Cumpston. Vol. 1. 1788-1825 240pp
Nicholson, Ian. Vol. 2. 1826-1840 357pp
Nicholson, Ian. Vol. 3. 1841-1844 494pp Some 10,000 shipping entries, details of maritime incidents. Separate indexes for ships, persons and places.
Look slowly at the shipping registers of the ships that had come to Sydney from New Zealand ports and roll quickly through the others. The ships had come from all over the world, stopping at various NZ ports on the way to Australia. Some may have gone on to Victoria etc. Look for departures from Sydney to NZ.
Nicholson, Ian Shipping arrivals and Departures Tasmania: Vol. 1 1803-1833 1983 Provides the fullest record of shipping movements, index to ships, vessels and people. Illustrated 326pp
Nicholson, Ian Vol. 2 1834-1842 & Gazetteer 1803-1842 1985 photos, maps, fully indexed 464 pp.Syme Shipping Arrivals & Departures, Vol. 1. 1798-1845 1984 300pp For many Victoria ports. From newspaper reports, Government records, ship's logs, settlers diaries etc Bibliography, indexes, charts, maps & illustrations. Vol. 2. 1846-1855 1987 585pp shipping lists, 3420 vessels & 4850 persons. Maps, illus.
Unassisted Immigrants 1826-1865 shipping list (fiche), Tasmanian, but it only lists incoming passengers and 'soldiers'. e.g Soldiers. 96th regiment (8) per the 'Portenia' Jun 1843 from New Zealand.
- McBeths Genealogical Services fiche related to shipping
- National Library of Australia Ships and shipping NZ family history resources.
- Public Record Office Victoria Archives has subject guides on immigration and shipping
Arrivals from New Zealand 1822-1923: VPR7667- Queensland Public Records Historical Resource Kit Part 1 produced by the Queensland State Archives a Auckland Public Library holding, includes records of the Queensland Immigration Department and also a small quantity of records from the Colonial Secretarys Office. These records record the arrival in Queensland of immigrants who travelled directly from ports in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the European Continent. However, they are by no means a complete coverage of arrivals. Some passenger lists are either incomplete or missing entirely. Inaccurate recording of names does occur and full paying passengers are often not recorded. The records consist of:
passenger and crew lists 1848 - 1915;
a register of immigrant ships arriving at Queensland ports 1848 - 1923;
a card index to the passenger and crew lists alphabetically arranged by name.Bibliography
Carmichael, Gordon Alexander, 1948-. Australia. Bureau of Immigration Research. New Zealand. Immigration Service Trans-Tasman migration : trends, causes and consequences. Canberra [A.C.T.] Australian Govt. Pub. Service, 1993. 435 pp.
Chapman, Henry S. (Henry Samuel), 1803-1881 The New Zealand portfolio : embracing a series of papers on subjects of importance to the colonists. London : [Dunedin : Smith, Elder & Co., Hocken Library, University of Otago, 1843 ; 1969]. Subject: NZ emigration and immigration 1825-1852, description and travel 1840-1876, and colonization. "... a true facsimile of the original edition of 1843, which had been issued in six separate parts during the previous year."
Earp, George Butler. New Zealand : its emigration and gold fields. London : George Routlege, 1853. 260 pp. Subjects: NZ gold mines and mining, description and travel, emigration and immigration. First published in 1849 as: Hand-book for intending emigrants to the southern settlements of New Zealand. State Library of Tasmania Hobart.
Passenger lists, Victoria, AUS outwards to NZ. Part 3 [9 microfiches ] 1866-1870 / compiled by Gaynor Kirkby. Includes: Alphabetical list of passengers and ship information.Price, Charles A. (Charles Archibald) Australian National University. Dept. of Demography Australian immigration : a bibliography and digest, no.4, 1979 / Canberra : Dept. of Demography, Australian National University, 1979, c1980. Subject: Australian and NZ emigration and immigration
Wigglesworth, Roger. Thesis written relating to Trans-Tasman migration. {Where is the thesis located?}
Trans-Tasman Traders - across the ditch
Adela - barque
Albion - steamer
Aldinga - steamer
Alexander - steamer
Alice Cameron - barque
Ariel -
Auckland - steamer
Boomerang -
Claud Hamilton-
Content
Dart - schooner
Daniel Webster -
Francis -
Gazelle - steamer
Gil Blas (for Melbourne)
Gothenburg - steamer
Huia - schoonerIsland City - barque
Kate- barque
Lion -
Lord Ashley - steamer
Lord Worsley - steamer
Moa - brig
Novelty - barque
Otago -
Phoebe -
Prince Alfred - steamer
Scotia - brigantine 1850s
Thomas and Henry
Tieste - barque
Vision - brig
Reference: Shipping Intelligence in newspapers and "White Wings" by BrettThe first steamer to travel from Sydney to New Zealand was in 1854. Reference: NZ Contemporary Dictionary. The average voyage across the Tasman was about seven days. The run from San Francisco to Auckland would take approximately 45 days.
The Emigrant Ships
Those splendid ships, each with her grace, her glory,
Her memory of old song or comrade's story,
Still in my mind the image of life's need,
Beauty in hardest action, beauty indeed.
"They built great ships and sailed them" sounds most brave,
Whatever arts we have or fail to have;
I touch my country's mind, I come to grips
With half her purpose thinking of these ships.That art untouched by softness, all that line
Drawn ringing hard to stand the test of brine;
That nobleness and grandeur, all that beauty
Born of a manly life and bitter duty;
That splendour of fine bows which yet could stand
The shock of rollers never checked by land.
That art of masts, sail-crowded, fit to break,
The life demanded by that art, the keen
Eye-puckered, hard-case seamen, silent, lean,
They are grander things than all the art of towns,
Their tests are tempests, and the sea that drowns.
They are my county's line, her great art done
By strong brains labouring on the thought unwon,
They mark our passage as a race of men
Earth will not see such ships as those again.
John Masefield (1878-1967) English Poet.
Born at Hertfordshire, England. Left an orphan so was sent to join the training ship 'Conway'
at Liverpool, when he was fourteen. For three years he sailed before the mast. Sailed
around Cape Horn in a merchant ship, worked various jobs in New York City, returning to
London in 1897 and was determined to devote himself to writing. His first book of poetry
was Salt-Water Ballards, 1902, contained what has remained his best known short
poem, Sea Fever. His poems describe the ships and the tossing seas that so
recently had been a part of his life.
Otago Witness, 14 September 1904, Page 69
It is these miles of sea that Sir John Hall cited as "the 1200 good reasons" why
New Zealand should not federate with Australia.
Shagroons - The Australian squatter who invaded Canterbury in 1851-2. They always spoke of coming down (not over) from Australia. They were also called Prophets.
Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, 29 May 1852, Page 54
OVERLAND ROUTE TO PORT COOPER.
We print below an extract from a letter received by us from Mr. Lee, dated Lyttelton, April 26, which shows the interesting fact that that gentleman and his party had safely accomplished their journey from Nelson to the Port Cooper Plains with a flock of sheep, without sustaining more than the most trifling loss. As the whole distance between the two places may be traversed in twelve days easily, and the road is such that the journey, except in spots, may be performed on horseback, I think that very many of the Canterbury Pilgrims, and many also of the Nelson Shagroons, may be expected to exchange visit next year.Otago Witness, 19 December 1900, Page 52
MUSTER OF OLD COLONISTS.
The "Shagroons" those who were here before the arrival of the "first four ships"
The "Pilgrims" passengers by the Canterbury Committee's ships
The "Old Colonists" arrivals up to 1861.
"Old Identity"Otago Witness, 15 October 1859, Page 3
When suddenly came the rude unsympathizing "Shagroon" from the north and from the south — and the rough daring "overlander" from Australia to dispel our cherished illusions.Sydney is a pretty big place, more people than New Zealand.