Commonwealth Records relating to Child and Youth Migration

Commonwealth records relating to Child and Youth Migration are held by the National Archives of Australia. Within this collection, records related to individual child and youth migrants are essentially those concerned with their entry into Australia, such as evidence of their entry (passenger lists) and their applications for immigration and citizenship. (Records about the day-to-day care of child migrants were kept by State governments and/or the institutions where child migrants were sent.) The Commonwealth records also include correspondence and policy files, which can provide an insight into the operations of the various schemes and homes.

Access Conditions

Access conditions vary.

Records

According to ‘Child Migrants: Accessing records held by Commonwealth and State Archives, March 2010’, the records relating to child and youth migration created by the Commonwealth government comprise:

• Child migration policy files which cover issues such as the various schemes, agreements with governments and private organisations, inquiries and financial arrangements.
• Immigration case files (usually known as migrant selection documents) for most individual child migrants.
• Ship’s passenger lists and ship’s nominal rolls.
• Naturalisation files.
• Photographs.