Australian Historical Statistics
in the
University of Sydney Library
1. Introduction
2. Guides to the Literature 2.1 Bicentennial publications 2.2 Historical statistics monograph
3. Notes on Availability
4. Musters
5. Census Records
6. Statistical Returns
7. Statistical Register and Blue Books 7.1 Blue Books
8. Vital Statistics
9. Year Book
10. Other Australian Colonies and States
11. Australian Commonwealth 11.1 Year Book 11.2 Census
Appendices: Other library publications dealing with government documents Credits
1. INTRODUCTION
This document is a supplement to the Australian Government Internet Guide.
This document covers only the most basic general statistical publications relating to New South Wales and Australia. Emphasis is placed on the early New South Wales material because this is the most difficult to locate in Fisher Library and in the library's catalogues.
This guide mainly refers to items located in the Fisher Library (such as Microform, Audiovisual, Reference, Rare Books) unless otherwise indicated.
No attempt is made to cover specific subjects such as primary production, finance, trade etc. unless they are included in general sources, e.g. the Statistical register.
Publications covering the states or colonies jointly have been included but separate statistical publications for the individual states outside New South Wales are omitted.
You may find the process easier by commencing your search with a set of microfiche entitled Colonial Statistics which was published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 1989. The set consists of microfiche copies of most of the important statistics collected in the nineteenth century, and so contains many of the documents listed in this booklet. The set is accompanied by a guidebook which includes a subject index to topics covered.
MIC319.4 Colonial microfiche (microform)
10 Australia Bureau of Statistics, 1989
(located in a wooden container adjacent to
the A/V shelves at MIC319.4)
Please ask at the Information Desk for help when needed.2. GUIDES TO THE LITERATURE
A clear account of the earliest statistics of the Colony of New South Wales is given in the introduction to the first Commonwealth year book:
R319.4 OFFICIAL year book of the Commonwealth of
4 Australia. Melbourne. No.1, 1908.
Introduction p. 1-16.
R319.4016 FINLAYSON, Jennifer. Historical
2A statistics of Australia; a select list of
(also RL) official sources. Canberra, Dept. of
Economic History, Research School of Social Sciences, 1970.
2.1 Bicentennial publications
R994.005 AUSTRALIAN historical statistics; a 22 bulletin of the Reference Section of Australia 1788-1988:
No. 1, 1980+Although this publication is concerned with planning for the reference volume of historical statistics published as a bicentennial project in 1988, it also contains general articles on Australian historical statistics. See, for example, `Australian official statistics on microfiche', by Margaret Pitt, in Bulletin no.5 May 1982, p.24- 26.
R319.4 Year Book of Australia 1988 4has a detailed history of the recording of statistics in Australia in a special article `Australian Statisticians and the development of official statistics' by Colin Forster and Cameron Hazlehurst pp 1-95
2.2 Historical statistics monograph
The books in this series are catalogued to separate numbers in the library's collection but may be identified in the Online Catalogue under the above heading. The first in the series is:
312.09944 DOCHERTY, J.C. Selected social statistics 13 of New South Wales 1861-1976. Sydney, (RL and History Project Incorporated, 1983 Geosciences) R994 AUSTRALIANS historical statistics 284 Sydney: Fairfax, Syme and Weldon, 1987This is a wide ranging historical survey of population, economics, society, politics and religion.
F911.94 Australians, a historical atlas 1 Sydney: Fairfax, Syme and Weldon, 1987 (RL and U)Sections include urban growth, national origins, gentrification, mortality rates.
3. NOTES ON AVAILABILITY
The earliest statistical records fall into two categories: firstly the musters and census records, and secondly the annual returns sent by the New South Wales colonial governors to the British government. The original sets of these records are held in the State archives of New South Wales, while the Mitchell Library also holds copies of some. See the following publications for guides to their holdings:
from STATE ARCHIVES OF NEW SOUTH WALES
R994.4 CONCISE guide to the State archives of New
37 South Wales. Sydney, Archives Authority of N.S.W.,
1970
This is No. 13 of the Guide to the State archives series. See p.99-103
for a description of statistical records issued by the Colonial
Secretary. See also supplements to the Concise guide
which
give additional information. These are also shelved at R994.4/37
The State archives are available for use by approved persons who are holders of reader's tickets.
from STATE LIBRARY OF NEW SOUTH WALES
R994 MITCHELL Library, Sydney. Dictionary
40 catalogue of printed books. Boston, Hall, 1968. 38v.
Supplement no. 1, 1970.
See v. 24 under the heading: "N.S.W. Statistics" for an indication of
what is available.
The State Library of NSW has historical statistical materials in both the General Reference Library and the Mitchell Library. Users should apply firstly to the General Reference Library, and should they need access to materials in the Mitchell Library will need proof of identity prior to admission.
The most important set of early statistical records held in the Mitchell Library is the Returns of the Colony of New South Wales, 1822-57. 37 vols. These were issued by the N.S.W. Colonial Secretary. Fisher holds a microfiche copy of these at MIC929.394/26.
from UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY LIBRARY
Although we lack the original manuscripts referred to above, what we do have available in Fisher Library are printed copies, extracts and summaries which are included in parliamentary papers and other publications, or which have been reprinted in full at a later date.
Often if is a question of knowing how to extract this information from published sources. For example, it should be expected that governors' despatches will include records of statistics and that governors' despatches will be included in the Historical records of New South Wales.
One example is given below:
994.4 HISTORICAL records of New South Wales. Hunter
to King, 1800-180 , Vol.IV.
P149: Letter from governor Hunter transmitting selected documents,
of which one is on p.186: Result of general muster taken by
Lieutenant Governor King, 18th July -15th August, 1800. (5 pages
of tables)
4. MUSTERS
The Library has acquired reprints of the early musters of the colony. These are:
R929.3944 BAXTER, Carol J (Ed.)
3 Musters and lists: New South Wales and Norfolk Island
1800-1802
Sydney: Australian Biographical and Genealogical Record, 1988.
R929.394 BAXTER, Carol J (Ed.)
91 General musters of New South Wales, Norfolk Island and Van
Dieman's Land 1811
Sydney: ABGR , 1987
R929.3944 BAXTER, Carol J (Ed.)
4 General Muster and Land and Stock Muster of New South Wales,
1822.
Sydney: ABGR, 1988
Musters and lists of arrivals of convicts can be found in:
MIC929.394 Archives Authority of NSW
53 Musters and other papers relating to convict ships 1790-1849.
Sydney: Archives Authority of NSW, 1986.
5. CENSUS RECORDS
Of the census taken before the Commonwealth assumed responsibility, we hold the following:
1828
R312.09944 CENSUS of New South Wales, November 1828
12 Edited by Malcolm R. Sainty and Keith A. Johnson.
Sydney, Library of Australian History, 1980
1841
G.NSW CENSUS for the year 1841; abstracts of the
CVP returns of the population and houses... IN
N.S.W. Legislative Council. Votes and Proceedings. 1841
1851
G.NSW CENSUS of the colony of New South Wales
CVP for the year 1851. IN N.S.W. Legislative Council.
and Votes and proceedings, 1851 vol 2, p.125
MIC328.944
18
1856
G.NSW CENSUS of the colony of New South Wales,
V 1st March 1856. Sydney, Govt. Pr., 1857.
and IN N.S.W. Legislative Assembly. Votes and
MIC328.944 Proceedings, 1857 vol.1
19
1861
G.NSW CENSUS of New South Wales for 1861.
V IN N.S.W. Legislative Assembly. Votes and
Proceedings. 1862 vol.3, p.1-702
1871
G.NSW CENSUS of 1871 IN N.S.W. Legislative
V Assembly. Votes and Proceedings. 1872
vol.2 p.779-1208 (pt.1-3) and 1972/3
vol.3 p.673-1484 (pt.4-6)
1881
G.NSW CENSUS OF 1881 IN N.S.W. Legislative
J Council. Journals. 1882. vol.4 (also
numbered as vol.36 pt.2) p.545
1891
RB1594.95 NEW South Wales.
Government Statistician's Office. The
Statistician's report on the eleventh census of New South Wales.
Sydney, Govt. Printer, 1894
The Statistician's Report on the Eleventh Census of New South
Wales, 1891, is an important document.
Volume 1 deals with census taking in general and with the history of settlement and distribution of population in New South Wales from the earliest times to 1891.
Volume 2 is a detailed analysis of the 1891 census.
1901
G.NSW CENSUS of New South Wales for 1901.
J IN NSW Legislative Council. Journal.
1902. vol.2 (also numbered as vol.64)
p.1117
For the Commonwealth census, 1911+ see the section 11 on
Australian Commonwealth publications.
6. STATISTICAL RETURNS
Of the Returns of the Colony of New South Wales (cited in the notes on the Mitchell Library) we hold a microfiche copy at MIC929.394/26, and in hard copy, we hold condensed versions for the same period, called either Statistics of New South Wales, or Statistical returns. See the following parliamentary papers:
NEW South Wales. Colonial Secretary.
Statistics of New South Wales.
G.NSW (IN NSW Legislative Council Votes and
CVP Proceedings.)
1843 p.445 1822-1842
1844 v.1 p.201 1834-1843
1846 p.201 1836-1845
1848 p.341 1838-1847
1850 v.2 p.159 1840-1849
1853 p.747 1837-1852
1854 p.1467 1837-1853
1855 v.2 p.657 1845-1854
G.NSW (IN Legislative Assembly. Votes and
V Proceedings)
1856/57 v.2 p.605 1846-1855
1857 v.1 p.777 1847-1856
RB1558.25 NEW South Wales. Colonial Secretary's Dept.
Statistics of New South Wales from 1848 to 1857;
compiled from official returns of
the Colonial Secretary's Office.
Sydney, Govt. Printer, 1858.
Responsible government was granted to New South Wales in 1855. From 1856 there are consolidated
indexes to N.S.W. parliamentary papers from which statistical references may be extracted.
R328.944016 CONSOLIDATED indexes to the minutes of the
1 proceedings and printed papers of the New
and South Wales Legislative Council,
G.NSW/IC 1856-1954. 5v.
From 1858 the responsibility for collecting and disseminating statistics was given to the Registrar
General. Use the consolidated indexes, above, to retrieve references such as the following:
G.NSW N.S.W. Registrar General. Annual report.
V 1st, dated August 1857. IN N.S.W.
Legislative Assembly. Votes and Proceedings 1857, v.1.
For returns of the "civil, military and ecclesiastical establishments" (i.e. names of government
employees) see the Blue Book reproduced in parliamentary papers from 1862+
7. STATISTICAL REGISTER and BLUE BOOKS
The most important series produced by the Registrar General is the Statistical Register.
STATISTICAL register of New South Wales.
Sydney, Govt. Printer, 1849-58 to 1972
RB1559.22 1849-58, 1850-59, 1862, 1870, 1877, 1882, 1895, 1899.
RL Imperfect sets held in Fisher Research Library
319.44
7
Issued originally by the N.S.W. Registrar General's Office
From 1855/56 the Statistical Register was issued in 9 separate bulletins.
Details of holdings and a history of this publication are set out in the Serials Catalogue under the name of the latest department to produce it, namely:
Australian Bureau of Statistics. New South Wales Office.
In 1886 the New South Wales Government Statistician's Office was created and it became responsible for the continuation of the Statistical Register, the later censuses, the yearbooks and their predecessors, the Wealth and Progress.
RB1586.28 NEW South Wales. Government Statistician's Office.
Handbook of the statistical register of the Colony of New
South Wales for the year 1885-88. Comp. by T.A. Coghlan.
Sydney, 1886-89. 4v.
319.44 NEW South Wales statistical bulletin
16 Nos. 1-379, 1905-76.
7.1 Blue Books
The statistics found in the Statistical Register prior to 1862 were also published in the Blue Books. For full details of the relationship between the two sources, see Ann Miller's Checklist of nineteenth century Australian colonial statistical sources (R016.3194/2).
A microfiche set of Blue Books of NSW for the years 1822-1894 and for Van Dieman's Land for 1822-1847 is in microfiche located at:
MIC319 National statistical reports: Pacific 1 Leiden, Interdocumentation Co.
8. VITAL STATISTICS
Statistics on births, marriage and deaths are published by the Registrar General as follows:
- Registration. Annual report from the Registrar General. 1856-1866
- Vital statistics. 1867-1894
- Annual report on vital statistics. 1895
- Vital statistics 1896-1898
- Statistician's report on the vital statistics on NSW. 1899-1900
If using the Journals you will need the full reference to the session, volume and page for each year's figures. This can be found in the Indexes under the heading Registrar General. The indexes are located at G.NSW/IC and R328.944016/1.
9. YEARBOOK
319.44 The WEALTH and progress of New South
12 Wales. By T.A. Coghlan, Government Statistician.
Sydney, Govt. Printer.
Nos. 1-13, 1886/87 to 1900/01.
For the year 1893-94 only an equivalent of the Wealth and Progress
was published as
319.44 A STATISTICAL survey of New South Wales
8 1893-94. By T.A. Coghlan, Government
Statistician. Sydney, Govt. Printer, 1895
The Wealth and Progress was continued by the year
book.
R319.44 OFFICIAL year book of New South Wales. 3 Sydney, Govt. Printer. No. (14), 1904/5+This is not always published annually. In some years, such as 1902/3 and 1906/7 no issue was published.
10. OTHER AUSTRALIAN COLONIES / STATES
See the guides listed in Section 2 above for information on other states. For example, some of the other states at one time produced a statistical register similar to that of N.S.W.; this leaflet omits such publications but lists below only those covering the colonies or states jointly.
Rare Books AUSTRALASIAN statistics. Sydney. Collection Government statistician's Office, 1886.Contents:
- Statistical view of the progress of the colony of N.S.W. from the separation of Queensland to the year 1885.
- Relative position and aggregate importance of the Australian colonies at the close of the year 1885.
- Position and importance for each colony for the 10 years 1876-1885.
Rare Books Australasian statistics. Adelaide, Government
Statistician of Victoria. 1894; 1895.
Rare Books Summary of Australasian statistics from 1873 to
1900.
The following publications may be found in the Catalogues under the heading: `N.S.W. Government
Statistician's Office'.
RB1590.71 A STATISTICAL account of the seven colonies
of Australasia. By T.A. Coghlan, Government
Statistician of N.S.W.
Sydney, Government Printer.
No.1 to 5, 1890-94
No.6 to 7, 1895/6 to 1897/8
No.9 , 1901/2
A STATISTICAL account of Australia and New Zealand
No. 10 to 11, 1902/03 to 1903/04
RB1595.29 STATISTICS of the seven colonies of Australasia.
Sydney. 1861/1899.
STATISTICS: six states of Australia and New Zealand.
Sydney.
1861/1900
1861/1901 to 1905
11. AUSTRALIAN COMMONWEALTH
MIC319.4 OFFICIAL statistical publications on microfiche 1901-1984 68 Canberra, A.B.S. 1987This is an extensive microfiche collection which reproduces all Central Office documents 1901-1984. It is accompanied by an index and a users guide.
11.1 YearBook
R319.4 OFFICIAL year book of the Commonwealth of
4 Australia. Canberra, A.B.S.
Nos. 1-34, 1908-41; nos. 35-39, 1942-51; 1953+
This appears in the Library's catalogues under its later title Yearbook
Australia.
11.2 Census
319.4 AUSTRALIAN Bureau of Statistics. Census
11 of population and housing.
Canberra, A.B.S. 1911+
(Earlier title: Census of the Commonwealth of Australia)
From 1971-1986 onwards full Census data is available on microfiche in the Audio-Visual Area at:
- MIC919.40021/8 (1971),
- MIC919.40021/8A (1976),
- MIC919.40021/1 (1981), and
- MIC 919.40021/2 (1986).
Later Censuses are available electronically. For a fuller summary of Census materials held by the Library and of the formats available, see Australian Census Information
Summary booklets of the latest Census are at Ref 319.4/11 and for earlier Censuses at RL 319.4/11.
Census data can also be found in Official Statistical Publications on Microfiche 1901-1984 at MIC 319.4/68. This reproduces all Census data and booklets 1911-1966. It also includes census publications up to 1984 but not the full census data 1971-1981.
Other library publications dealing with government documents are:
- Australian Government Publications
- Australian Public Policy
- Australian Parliamentary Reports Index
- British Government Publications
- United States Government Publications
- International Governmental Organisations
- European Union Publications
Credits
This is a guide to the government publications held in the University of Sydney Library.
Printed versions can be obtained from the Information Desk at Fisher Library.
The text of this document was written by Barbara Brady in 1983 and updated by Ray Penn. It is being constantly revised. Any comments or suggestions should be directed to: Ray Penn, Government Publications Librarian at: r.penn@library.usyd.edu.au.
This document is a supplement to the Australian Government Internet Guide.