Our collection

Convicts and early settlers

We hold records of early settlers pre and post separation from the colony of New South Wales in 1859, as well as convict records from Moreton Bay, St Helena and Toowoomba.

Finding records about convicts and early settlers

Research guides

Search the indexes

If you know the name and location of the person you are looking for, you can view our records on convicts and early settlers by searching the indexes below.

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Search the catalogue

ArchivesSearch provides access to our collection of records, including documents, letters, land orders, maps, plans and images. For help searching, read the ArchivesSearch help guide.

  • Spelling of names was not as consistent as it is today, so be sure to check alternatives—e.g. Thompson and Thomson.
  • Names may have been incorrectly indexed as the handwriting is sometimes difficult to read or the ink has faded.
    • The capital letters L, T, F and S are often confused as lower-case letters n, m, u and w. This means that Taylor may indexed as Laylor or Brum may be indexed as Bruin.
    • The use of double ‘s’ (ss) often looks like fs, so Ross will be indexed as Ross but may appear in the record as Rofs.
  • Names may have been written in the record phonetically as the clerks wrote the names as they heard them. Think about how it could be spelt as it was heard.
  • Some given names are abbreviated as they appear in the original record
  • Some records are restricted for several years.
  • Some records have not survived.
  • A blank cell indicates that there is no information recorded in the original.

Contact us

Contact us if you need further help.

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For help searching:

Archival research terms

Record—information of permanent and historic value, often in paper-based form (e.g. a letter, photograph, a map), but can also be a CD, a film or a digital file

Item—a single record or many records, e.g. an item may be a single architectural drawing, a 500-page leather-bound book, or a bundle of correspondence (letters, telegrams, reports)

Series—a group of related items created, received, or used in the same activity

Agency—the Government Agency responsible for creating a series. For example, the Department of Education is the Government agency who created a series of School Admission registers for Runcorn State School. An admission register for Runcorn State School would be considered an item within that series.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples

The records held at QSA may contain names and images of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who have died. The terms found in the records reflect the period in which they were created. As such, some words and descriptions may be culturally insensitive. Records may also contain offensive and derogatory terms which are unacceptable today and may cause distress.

Last updated:
1 September 2023