Immigration

We hold records of immigrant ships and their passengers travelling directly to Queensland from Europe from 1848.

In earlier records, some information can be limited and only the name of the immigrant, the date of arrival and the name of the ship may be available. In later records, particularly those created in the 20th century, there is more information available.

Finding immigration records

Search the indexes

The indexes are collections of information from our most popular records (usually peoples’ names) that link to ArchivesSearch catalogue. If you know the name and approximate arrival date of the person you are looking for, you can search the indexes below.

4 Tips to Search the Index to Assisted Immigration 1848-1912

Duration 2:13 |

Hello and welcome to Queensland State Archives.

Our indexes contain information gathered from original records. They’ve been created so people can search for names in some of our most popular records.

Our biggest index is the Index to Assisted Immigration 1848 – 1912. Created from Series 13086 – Registers of Immigrant Ships’ Arrivals, the index provides direct links to digital copies of passenger lists of immigrant ships arriving in Queensland and contains over 250,000 names. To search the index follow these 4 steps

Gather as much information as you can about names, dates and places before you try to search our indexes.

Go to our Search the Records page,

Click on Immigration

Click Assisted Immigration

Enter the name of the person you’re searching for in the search boxes. If you don’t get a result when you enter both names, try taking the given name/s out.

Have a look at the displayed results to see if you have a match. Clicking on the green plus sign will give you more information about you’re results. The information listed will be different for different indexes but will hopefully help you narrow things down.

If you think you have found the person you’re looking for, click on the ‘See image’ link. This will open the digitised copy of the passenger list. Search the page for the name you are interested in. You can now download, print, and/or save the image to your computer for your records.

This is one of a series of videos to help you find information at QSA. For other videos visit our YouTube channel and subscribe to keep up to date with any new additions.

You can also subscribe to our other social media for information about some of the great things held at QSA

If you have any questions or would like to give us some feedback contact us via any of the options on our ‘Contact the State Archives’ page

Thanks for watching

Search the catalogue

ArchivesSearch provides access to QSA’s 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.

There are several reasons why you may have trouble finding an immigration record.

  • Not all passenger lists have survived, especially lists created before the 1860s. Many pre-1893 immigration records were damaged or destroyed by the 1893 floods.
  • Some records damaged by the 1893 floods were late re-written by the Immigration department and may contain transcription errors including incorrect dates for voyages.
  • Our records usually only include people classified as migrants—those receiving land orders or assisted or free passages from the government. If your ancestor paid their own way, there may be no record. Try searching the National Archives of Australia.
  • We don’t hold records of immigrants who disembarked at another colony and then travelled to Queensland. You can try visiting other archives’ websites.
  • Our lists are mainly for immigrants from Europe. If the person you’re looking for travelled from the United States, New Zealand, India, South Africa, or anywhere in Asia or Africa, they may not be recorded.

Contact us

Contact us if you need further help.