Source Information
© the Crown in right of the State of New South Wales and is used under licence with the permission of the State Records Authority. The State of New South Wales gives no warranty regarding the data's accuracy, completeness, currency or suitability for any particular purpose.
About 1828 New South Wales, Australia Census (Australian Copy)
The first census of New South Wales was taken in 1828. Censuses were taken periodically in the colony thereafter. However, few of them still exist. The 1828 census is the only complete Australian census that has survived to present day.
The 1828 census was taken in November of that year. Its purpose was to record all inhabitants of the colony, both convict and free. Inhabitants are listed alphabetically according to surname. Information recorded in the census includes:
- Name of inhabitant
- Age
- Free or bond
- Ship name on which arrived
- Year arrived
- Sentence
- Religion
- Employment
- Residence
- District
- Total number of acres
- Number of acres cleared
- Number of acres cultivated
- Number of horses
- Number of horned cattle
- Number of sheep
Two Copies of the Census:
Two copies of this census were created. One copy remained in New South Wales, the other was sent to the Public Records Office in England. The copy that was sent to England is now available on microfilm from The National Archives (TNA) of the UK. The copy that remained in Australia is available on microfilm from the New South Wales State Archives. This database contains the Australian copy of the census. This is important to note because there are some slight differences between the two copies. For example, the TNA copy contains some duplicate records and misspellings that appear to be omitted in the Australian version. This suggests that the TNA copy is the ‘original’ and that the Australian copy was created later with errors corrected.
