Maritime researchers and family historians, who have an interest in their ancestors' immigration to Australasia, will find this little reference book prompts them to explore various archival holdings and the World Wide Web. It also contains statistics of the arrival of convicts to Australia and the dates various colonies accepted them. A brief overview of historical information on emigration to New Zealand and Australia introduces the repositories for those countries. Primary, secondary and other resources are then listed, according to region or State. Included are references to passenger lists of ships, indexes which have been compiled, passenger cards and other records that provide information relating to ship of arrival, e.g. musters and other registers.
Many family historians seek images of the ships that brought their ancestors to Australasia.
Mr Peake advises caution when ordering ships' images, as many vessels carried the same name. He also advises the reader to bear in mind that photography was only developed in the mid-nineteenth century. A listing of collections and published works follows and the section is illustrated with a sketch by renowned maritime artist, Robert Sexton. As well as full postal addresses for various repositories, those who use the internet will find a list of e-mail addresses and website URLs. As a keen collector of shipping information, I thoroughly commend this publication to family historians and maritime researchers.