Australia was first settled in 1788, when the British government established a penal colony at Port Jackson, Sydney Bay. As a result, records about convicts transported to Australia are numerous and play a major role in Australian family history research.

New South Wales holds more convict records than any other state. Of the approximately 150,000 convicts transported to Australia from Great Britain between 1788 and 1850, nearly 90,000 of them went to the region of New South Wales, which then covered a substantial portion of Australia. Tasmania received more than 60,000 convicts from Great Britain in addition to convicts from other colonies. Western Australia received approximately 10,000 transported convicts between 1850 and 1868. South Australia never received convicts.

Victoria and Queensland did not become separate, self-governing colonies until after convict transportation to eastern Australia ceased. Thus, these areas do not have convict records.

By 1829 convicts or ex-convicts made up approximately 65 percent of the population of New South Wales. The ex-convicts had received either a ticket of leave, a certificate of freedom, or a pardon.

Tickets of leave were issued to convicts having served about half of their sentences with good behavior. These tickets allowed convicts to seek employment as they wished, limited their movement to a certain district for the remainder of their sentences. Prior to 1828, bench magistrates granted tickets of leave and approved applications for convicts to marry. The actual ticket of leave was issued to the convict; the government retained the ticket of leave butts. Ticket of leave butts listed the convict’s name, ship, and date of arrival, native place, trade or calling, date and place of trial and sentence, a physical description, and the district to which he or she was confined.

Certificates of freedom were issued to convicts on completion of their sentence or when they received a pardon. Certificates were generally given to convicts whose original sentences had been for 7 to 14 years. The government retained certificates of freedom butts, which were similar to ticket of leave butts. Pardons, both conditional and absolute, were generally granted to convicts with life sentences. Conditional pardons required that the ex-convict never return to the British Isles or his or her pardon would be void. Absolute pardons allowed an ex-convict to return to the British Isles if he or she wished. Pardons contain information similar to tickets of leave.

Convict indents are lists that were made when convicts arrived on transport ships. Information given in indents is similar to that in tickets of leave but also includes a convict’s marital status and number of children and whether the convict was literate. An index to convict indents for 1788–1842 is held by the Archives Office of New South Wales. For the address, see the “Archives and Libraries” section of this outline.

The following is a guide to the convict records held by the Archives Office: