The Colony of New South Wales was established as a British penal colony in 1788. Convict Indents may help you trace ancestors transported to the colony but to follow the movements of soldiers and free settlers, census records can be enormously useful. While the purpose of census records is largely statistical - ie to enumerate the number and demographic breakdown of a population for administrative purposes - personal information is collected on the enumeration form. This data is not published for privacy reasons, but in some jurisdictions, e.g. the US and UK, enumeration forms with identifying data are digitised and released 100 years after the date of the original census. Unfortunately, this cannot currently happen in Australia as the vast majority of historical enumeration forms were lost to fire or deliberately destroyed. A few rare census records have survived and there are some very useful alternative data sources available to researchers to work out where people lived in the colony.
Sydney 1795. George St... by Richard Bradley Robinson (1888-1966) - Digitised from the item held in the Samuel Marsden Archives at Moore Theological College.
In 1795, Governor Hunter called the first Muster, a gathering of the community to enumerate the population of the colony of NSW. General Musters were then held annually between 1795 and 1825.
The earliest muster to survive appears to be the 1800 Settlers Muster, which along with the 1788 Victualling book[1] and the 1792-96 Norfolk Island Victualling book[2], constitute the earliest records of this kind for the Colony.[3]
In 1828, after it was accepted the Governor had no legal right to compel free settlers to attend a muster, the first census in NSW was organised with the passage of an Act (9 Geo. IV, No.4) by the Legislative Council of New South Wales[4].
In 1882, a huge collection of original census returns up to and including the 1881 census held the year prior, were lost when The Garden Palace, where the census office was located, caught fire and burned to the ground. Publication of the results of the 1881 Census was already delayed. But, as reported in the Sydney Morning Herald on September 23 1882:
Burning of the Garden Palace, Sydney, September 22 1882, Supplement to the Illustrated Sydney News, October 25,1882 (SLNSW)
All the returns connected with the Census were stored in a portion of the Garden Palace, on the basement floor in the south-eastern part of the building. Mr. John Byron, the compiler of the Census, and his small staff of co-workers-numbering three men only - had completed a large portion of the details of the work embracing particulars concerning the national, educational, religious, and social and conjugal conditions of the people of various towns, and it was to have been placed in the hands of the Government Printer, today… It is probable that the "conspectus tables," which were based on the "summary tables" laid before tho House, will be produced… The latter document did embrace some particulars which it will not be possible to restore, the materials having been consumed.
MHNSW does hold "Census of 1881 compiled by John Bryon; consisting of Report, Summary Tables, Appendices and Conspectus Tables[5]” and other (not digitised) copies of census records from 1891[6] and 1901[7], however only the names of the heads of households are listed. The names of anyone else resident at the address is not identified.
When planning for the 1901 census, Federation was just around the corner, so a uniform census schedule was developed to synchronise data collection for each colony. In 1905, the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia passed the Census and Statistics Act 1905 (Cwlth) and the following year the Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics (CBCS) was created — the precursor to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
The first truly national Australian census was conducted at midnight between 2nd and 3rd of April, 1911. Over 4 million submissions were counted and tabulated by hand. In 1921, census workers used automatic machine tabulation equipment, hired from England. The 1931 census delayed due to the Depression and was held in 1933. The census due to be held in 1941 was delayed by World War II and not conducted until 1947. As a consequence, the government decided to run the fifth census in 1954, as a compromise between 1951 and 1961. The 1961 census was supposed to put the 10-year cycle back on track but the government ran another census in 1966 to ensure they had accurate data.
Under the Census and Statistics Act 1905, while the ABS was not required to destroy the data it collected, it was legally bound to not release identifiable Census data. This was contrary to other jurisdictions, such as the US and UK, where legislators recognised the huge historical value of this data and made provisions for it to be released 100 years after enumeration. This protected individuals privacy while ensuring a rich source of data for future researchers.
Another notable issue with australian census data up until 1971 was the deliberate exclusion of Indigenous Australians. It wasn't until white Australians overwhelmingly voted for their inclusion in a referendum in 1967, that Indigenous Australians were actually counted as part of the general population[8].
In the 1960’s, privacy issues around retention of personal data in the census records sparked furious public debate. Regrettably, following an order issued by the Government in 1971, every census form held in storage was destroyed. For subsequent census, forms were destroyed within 18 months of the census being held, after the statistical data was extracted. As a result, no detailed information about individuals will ever be available for any of those years.
In 1998 the federal government held an enquiry entitled Saving our Census and Preserving our History, which examined the issues surrounding the preservation of census identity data.
The Standing Committee concluded that saving name-identified census information "for future research, with appropriate safeguards, will make a very valuable contribution to preserving Australia's history for future generations". The Government also recognised “the historic value of such information, particularly from the 2001 Census coinciding as it does with the Centenary of Federation, as the dataset would be a valuable commemorative activity and a gift to future generations from the nation of today”[9].
Based on recommendations from the report, in 2001 the ABS initiated the Time Capsule Project[10]. Australians were finally given the opportunity to opt-in to have personal details securely preserved and publicly released in 99 years’ time.
The participation rate in the Time Capsule Project for the 2001 Census was high, with over half the Australian population taking up the opportunity to have their identifying information preserved. The data is held securely by the National Archives of Australia and will be released on 7th of August, 2100. For the 2006 Census, 56.1% or 11,256,886 Australians opted in to the Time Capsule Project. That data is due for release in 2105[11].
The Time Capsule Project is now a regular part of the Australian Census so from 2100 Australian genealogists will have access to an exceptionally rich dataset.
An excellent data source for those researching Australian residents are Commonwealth and State Electoral Rolls. MyHeritage holds a large collection of Australian Electoral Rolls from around the country.
Sands Directory from 1899
Sands, Wise and Hollander Directories are the precursor to the Yellow Pages telephone book. They list business addresses and proprietors. MyHeritage holds an extensive collection of directories from around the Australia.
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