The National Archives of Australia keep all public records and, as determined by the Public Records Act 1967, make them available to the public under what used to be the 50-year rule but now seems to be the 30-year rule.
At present, all those Incoming Passenger cards that visitors and returning residents completed when they entered Australia from 1898 to 1972 are now available to the public. If you or someone you are trying to trace arrived in Australia during that period, you are likely to find their immigration record under "Passenger arrivals":
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Go to www.naa.gov.au Then "Explore the Collection", then "RecordSearch" In the new window, click on "Passenger arrivals" Type in the "Family name" and hit "Search" Having found the right person, click on "Digital copy"
It is sometimes better to try and find someone by simply typing in the "Family Name" and then scrolling through the displayed listing. For example, trying to find someone known to you as John Finch by typing in "Finch" and "John" will not find him if the Archives recorded him under his full name John Charles Paton Finch.
If the displayed listing is very long, change the display window from the default setting of 20 records to 100 or 150 or even 200, and click through it, one page at a time.
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What a great way to spend a rainy afternoon finding your own or some old friend's arrival card as they came to Australia, either by ship or by air, from Papua New Guinea or elsewhere.
Here's my own card when I first arrived in Australia in 1965:
And the next one after I had returned from a trip to the (c)old country:
And there would be countless more but I will have to wait for them until the National Archives release them to the public.
Why not build up your own story? Don't wait for a rainy afternoon!
