The following article is from Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright by Richard W. Eastman. It is re-published here with the permission of the author. Information about the newsletter is available at http://www.eogn.com.
Hard-to-find documents detailing the history of Australia’s immigration are becoming more readily available since the National Archives in Canberra commenced digitising its massive collection. The National Archives maintains such a large number of government records that immigration documents alone fill 22 kilometres of shelf space.
Senator John Faulkner launched the “Making Australia Home” project earlier this month -– a plan that will progressively make Australia’s immigration records available on the Internet.
The National Archives has already digitised 74,000 items, providing online access to the details of many of the more than seven million people who have resettled in Australia since the formation of Federation 1901.
The records contain details such as the name of the person who migrated, when they migrated and their place of birth, including those who resettled under assisted passage arrangements and post-war displaced person schemes.
For more information visit http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/explore/migration/index.aspx.
