To understand the records we need to understand the process involved in migrating to South Australia. Once a family had resolved to emigrate, they had two options—pay for their passage or seek financial assistance.

If they were wealthy enough to pay their own passage there may be no surviving record of their passage. This is because at the time citizens of the British Empire were free to travel within the Empire and the paperwork to do so was no more onerous than buying an interstate airline ticket today! Such travellers may appear on official passenger lists but these lists have a very poor survival rate indeed as far as South Australia is concerned. To determine the travel of your wealthy ancestors may require broadening your search beyond shipping records. You would be well advised to check the following material:
   • Newspapers
   • Other published material
   • Institutional admissions registers
   • Other government records
These avenues of research will be expanded in the third instalment on this topic.

When it comes to government assisted passage the issue is much more complex although the records are much more likely to be available. This is the material often incorrectly called passenger lists when in fact they are really accounting records associated with government assistance. That is why they do not list the paid passengers. These records are generated by different bodies for differing purposes and usually include:
   • an embarkation list prepared by the agent or emigration agents—called a nominal list and handed to the ship's master at embarkation
   • a passenger manifest prepared by the captain—called a certificate of final departure and handed to the last pilot on leaving UK waters. (Technically this document remained in the UK.)
   • a certificate of arrival prepared for the immigration officials—called a certificate of arrival.
   • sundry lists created for other purposes such as fee-payers, land-holders
For many voyages, none of this material survives and for a few, all survive.
Image 1:

The Nominal List for Art Union's 1864 voyage from Plymouth to Adelaide.

Note the SA State Library original numbering stamp 64/5 meaning the fifth such list for 1864. The State Library still holds copies but the originals are now at SA State Records: GRG 35/48a.


Image 2:

Certificate of Final Departure for the 1855 voyage of Sea Park from Plymouth to Adelaide.

Note this document is numbered 55/20.



Image 3:

Certificate of Arrival for the 1880 voyage of the Corona from Plymouth to Adelaide.






Not all listed on the nominal list necessarily departed and not all those on the final departure list obviously arrived in South Australia. The Nominal List gives marginally more detail than the other lists with occupation and county of origin being named and so we know William Bourke age 26 was a schoolmaster from Co Wicklow (see the top image above) but that is as precise as we can expect and so if you are seeking out passenger lists to determine a person's precise origins you will be unsuccessful except for those free passengers arriving before 1842 where a full address at the time of application is included in the Register of Emigrant Labourers Applying for a Free Passage to South Australia 1836-1841 AJCP CO 386/149-151.

To have some understanding why your ancestors emigrated at a particular time it is important to understand that the assistance scheme was not a single scheme but a series of schemes over time with differing emphases on what type of emigrant was required in the colony. In summary the schemes that operated were:

1.1836–1839: SA Colonisation Commissioners selected emigrants nominated by land purchasers in England. Scheme was funded from the purchase of land. Adults free; children aged 1–7 £3; aged 8–15 £5

2. 1840: Colonisation Land & Emigration Commission select agricultural labourers

June 1840–1845: Assisted emigration suspended due to lack of funds

3. 1845–1848: Colonisation Land & Emigration Commission [CLEC] selects agricultural labs, domestic and farm servants, county mechanics, and miners; married adults U40; boys 14–18; single women all £1; single men £2; children age 1–14 10/-; number of single men on vessel must equal single women.

4. 1848–1851: CLEC Free and Assisted schemes; some employment categories free; children aged 1-13 free for first 3 chn then £7 ea; age 14–40 £5; age 41–50 £7; age 51–60 £9; age 60+ £14; Irish and English female orphans as selected by Poor Law Unions who pay £5 per orphan

5. 1852–1862: Nominated by purchasers of Crown Lands; 1 free passage for every £80 of land purchased (ie 1 section) subsidised by existing settlers; priority given to agricultural lab/servants: age U40 £4; age 40+ £6; age 50+ £12; others: age U40 £8; age 40+ £8; age 50+ £12; Rates varied over the period.

1857 Land Fund closed and General Revenue used

6. 1862–1867: Selected by SA Agents and placed on vessels chartered by CLEC; nominated by colonists; men £4; women £3

July 1867–1872: No scheme

7. 1873–1876: As for 1862–1867

8. 1877–1879: Two year bond to remain in South Australia gainfully employed or £20 fine

1879–1880: No scheme

9. 1881–1883: As for 1862–1867

1883: Existing contracts only honored

1886–1899: No scheme