Australia Newspapers

The first newspaper in Australia, the weekly Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, began publication in 1802. Other newspapers soon followed. Notices of births, marriages, and deaths; obituaries, military, government and business notices; and news of the day were printed in these newspapers. The Historic Australian Newspapers, 1803 to 1954 project is digitizing many early newspapers.

Google news has put the Sydney Morning Herald on-line. The images start with 1854 and continue to the present. It is not a complete run but still worth your time. It is free to use and view the newspaper but you cannot print or copy the image.

Some compilations have been made of the genealogical information found in early newspapers. The following is an example for Queensland.

Grinly, Merle, and Margaret Belcher, Editors. Crosse- Dunleavy index: births, marriages, and deaths, 1846–1860. Stones Corner, Queensland, Australia: The Genealogical Society of Queensland, 1985. (Family History Library book number .)

Online Resources

 * 1800s-current Australia, Newspapers.com Marriage Index, 1800s-current at Ancestry, index only ($), also at Newspapers.com images ($)
 * Trove digitized newspapers
 * Australian Newspapers, ($), index and images.
 * Australia Newspaper Vital Notices, 1851-1997, ($), index, incomplete.
 * Australian Lutheran, ($), index.
 * Finding Information in Newspapers

Ryerson Index

 * http://www.ryersonindex.org

"The Ryerson Index is an index to death notices appearing in current Australian newspapers. It also includes some funeral notices, probate notices and obituaries.

"Because the Index was originally created by the Sydney Dead Persons Society, it concentrates on notices from NSW papers. However, the representation from papers from other states continues to grow, with additional papers being regularly added, so that the Index can now truly be considered an Australian index....

"The index itself cannot by definition be considered a primary source of data, but is purely a research aid to direct the researcher to the original source of a notice."

Family History Library Collection
To find newspapers and compilations available in the Family History Library, look in the Place Search of the FamilySearch Catalog under:


 * AUSTRALIA, [STATE] - NEWSPAPERS

Bibliographies of existing newspapers are also available. The following is an example:


 * Newspapers in Australian Libraries: A Union List. Fourth Edition. Canberra, Australia: National Library of Australia, 1984–1985.

To find newspaper bibliographies, look in the Place Search of the FamilySearch Catalog under:

AUSTRALIA - NEWSPAPERS - BIBLIOGRAPHY

AUSTRALIA, [STATE] - NEWSPAPERS - BIBLIOGRAPHY

Websites

 * Newspapers.com.au Guide to Australian Newspapers
 * Ryerson Index to death notices and obituaries in Australian newspapers
 * National Library of Australia
 * National Library of Australia Newspapers
 * Trove a collaboration between the National Library of Australia and hundreds of Partner organisations around Australia
 * State Library of New South Wales Newspapers and media
 * State Library of Queensland Newspapers
 * State Library of South Australia SLSA Newspapers
 * State Library Victoria