The Registry provides access to historical data relating to birth, death and marriage records. We refer to this published information as ‘historical indexes’.
Historical indexes can be accessed by anyone if the event occurred in the following periods:
| Births | – From 1788 to 1905 |
| Deaths | – From 1788 to 1945 |
| Marriages | – From 1788 to 1945 |
You can search the historical indexes for the following information:
| * First name |
| * Last name |
| * Year the event was registered |
| * District (place the event was registered) |
| * Unique registration number |
If you wish to obtain more information about a particular record, you can purchase a full birth, death or marriage certificate.
As the records of the Registry contain sensitive and personal information about you and your family, and as a safe guard against identity fraud, indexes are restricted to the above years.
At this stage there are no short term plans to extend the historical index years beyond those which are currently available. However, Australian Registrars are considering a national approach to which indexes can be released in the future, taking into account the need to protect an individual’s privacy and the need to minimise the potential for fraud.
Please note the registration date represents the year the event was registered, not the year the event occurred. Therefore the registration date may be later than 1905 for births and 1945 for deaths and marriages.