Outwards passenger lists (1852-1923)

The search form below is a great place to start when searching for a person who may have departed from Victoria by boat.

Indexers transcribed the names and ages recorded on lists of passengers aboard ships which departed from Victorian ports and were heading interstate or overseas, between 1852 and 1923 (for passengers post 1923, try searching records of the National Archives of Australia). The lists, which were submitted to Victorian customs officials on departure, are formally known as “Outward Passengers to Interstate, U.K. and Foreign Ports” but usually called simply “outwards passenger lists”.

• Consider trying different spelling variations
• Search by any or several keywords you may know (for example, the name, year, ship, and so on)
• Some names may be abbreviated (for example, ' J' Smith or simply 'Mr' Smith)
• Note that young children are sometimes listed as "child with" and their parents' surname.  
• For names with apostrophes, type the name as one word instead (for example, instead of O’Mara, type the name as OMara) or use a wildcard (an asterisk) where the apostrophe would otherwise be (*Mara).

Various immigration regulation bodies kept records of outward passengers between 1852 and 1923. These lists of outward passengers sometimes contain the names of people travelling from Victorian to other Australian ports, if they disembarked before the ship travelled to its overseas destinations.