Immigration and citizenship

The National Archives’ collection includes thousands of records documenting Australia’s rich migrant history.

Research your family's migration to Australia, find out more about Australian citizenship and discover a wealth of information about post-World War II immigration.

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Returned Services League sponsored migrants arrive in Sydney, 1947.

Passenger arrival records

Our collection of ship and aircraft arrival records tell us how people moved in and out of Australia.

The Joore family of 13 children arrive from Holland, 1954.

Citizenship records

The National Archives holds naturalisation and citizenship records from 1904 onwards, as well as some earlier records for Victoria and South Australia.

The Arcadia arrives at Adelaide with British migrants, 1963.

Immigration Restriction Act 1901

Known as the White Australia policy, this legislation effectively limited non-white immigration from 1901 until it was dismantled in the 1960s and early 1970s.

Just arrived from England, a family settling in for their first meal in a migrant hostel in Australia, June 1958.

Migrant accommodation camps

Reception and training centres, also called migrant accommodation camps, helped migrants learn English while they looked for a job.

Early group of post-war migrants - building tradesmen for Canberra - being farewelled at London, 1947.

Wartime internment camps

During World War I and World War II, the Australian Government set up internment camps across the country to house prisoners of war and ‘enemy aliens’.

Alien registration records

Between 1916 and 1926, and again between 1939 and 1971, immigrants who were not British subjects had restrictions placed on them in the interest of Australia's national security.