Australia Voting Records
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Online Resources
- Australia, Electoral Rolls, 1903-1980 ($), index.
- Australia Electoral Rolls, 1893-1949 ($), index
Australian Capital Territory
New South Wales
- New South Wales Electoral Rolls at Findmypast, index and images ($).
- 1842-1864 New South Wales, Australia Historical Electoral Rolls, 1842-1864 at Ancestry, index, browse, and images ($).
Queensland
- Queensland Electoral Rolls at Findmypast Index ($)
- 1959 Queensland, Australia, Electoral Rolls 1959 at MyHeritage, Index ($)
- 1949 Queensland, Australia, Electoral Rolls 1949 at MyHeritage, Index ($)
- 1941 Queensland, Australia, Electoral Rolls 1941 at MyHeritage, Index ($)
- 1934 Queensland, Australia, Electoral Rolls 1934 at MyHeritage, Index ($)
- 1922 Queensland, Australia, Electoral Rolls 1922 at MyHeritage, Index ($)
- 1915 Queensland State Electoral Roll 1915 at MyHeritage, Index ($)
- 1913 Queensland, Australia, Electoral Rolls 1913 at MyHeritage, Index ($)
- 1910 Queensland State Electoral Roll 1910 at MyHeritage, Index ($)
- 1905 Queensland State Electoral Roll 1905 at MyHeritage, Index ($)
- 1903 Queensland, Australia, Electoral Rolls 1903 at MyHeritage, Index ($)
- 1900 Queensland State Electoral Roll 1900 at MyHeritage, Index ($)
Tasmania
- Tasmania Voting Registers at FamilySearch.
- Tasmanian Electoral Rolls
- 1916 Tasmania, Australia, Electoral Rolls 1916 at MyHeritage ($), index.
Victoria
- Victoria Electoral Rolls at Findmypast Index ($)
- 1843-1866 A Few electoral rolls, 1843-1866 at FamilySearch, images.
- 1856-1857 Card index of Victoria lists of electors, 1856-1857 at FamilySearch, images.
- 1856-1857 Electoral roll, 1856-1857 at FamilySearch, images.
- 1870-1882 Burgess rolls, 1870-1882 at FamilySearch, images.
- Electoral rolls : Gippsland Division, 1905 at FamilySearch, images.
- Electoral rolls, Melbourne, 1856-1857 at FamilySearch, images.
- Electoral rolls, Port Phillip district, 1843 at FamilySearch, images.
- Electoral rolls, Port Phillip district, 1848 at FamilySearch, images.
Western Australia
- Western Australia Electoral Rolls at Findmypast - index ($)
- 1903, 1912, 1922 Electoral Roll for the Great Southern Region of Western Australia at cosy.com/au; 12700 records
- 1939-1949 Find your ancestors in Western Australia Electoral Rolls 1939-1949 at Findmypast - index ($)
Voting registers, or electoral rolls, are a census of those who were eligible to vote. They are valuable because a country-wide census wasn't taken until 1911. Early electoral rolls give an individual’s name, residence, status of property occupation/ownership, and the nature of the rateable property.
Voting rights were tied to property ownership; therefore, all men were not eligible to vote in the early years. Full adult male suffrage was not granted in most colonies until the 1850s and later. Women’s suffrage was not granted in the states until around 1900. Non-British subjects, unless naturalized, were not granted suffrage until the 1940s. Aboriginal suffrage was not granted until 1949.
Electoral rolls were published by each state during election years.
- New South Wales began in 1842 and are nearly annual.
- Victoria began in 1843, but most are incomplete.
- South Australia survive for 1851, 1852, and from 1903 (the pre-1903 rolls were destroyed by fire).
- Tasmania date from 1856.
- Queensland from 1859.
- Western Australia date from 1879, although most pre-1900 rolls did not survive.
The following source provides a list of all known surviving electoral rolls for each state:
- Vine Hall, Nick. Tracing Your Family History in Australia: a guide to sources. Second Edition. Albert Park, Victoria, Australia: North Vine Hall, 1994. FS Library Book 994 D23v
Electoral rolls are arranged by electoral district and subdistrict. They are generally not indexed; therefore it is necessary to know the district where your ancestor lived. Districts boundaries or names could change from year to year, so determining the correct district can be difficult. Directories of an area may show an address that will help you determine the district to search. For information on directories, see Australia Directories. No comprehensive guide to districts exists for any state, although some for specific years do exist.
FamilySearch Catalog
The FamilySearch Library has some electoral rolls for New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia. To find the call numbers for the rolls, look in the Place Search of the FamilySearch Catalog under:
AUSTRALIA, [STATE] - VOTING REGISTERS