"The title is self-explanatory.  The location of each of the items is given.  Some items located overseas have been microfilmed for the AJCP*, and thus may be accessed in Australia.  The items listed include newspaper accounts of voyages, published volumes, manuscripts, ships' newspapers, surgeons journals and passengers' diaries or letters.  The book includes an index of log-keepers and authors of personal narratives.  Nicholson suggests consulting newspapers for the date of arrival for a possible account of the voyage." [Extract from Searching for Mary Anne:  researching Women Ancestors in Australia , by Lenore Frost ]

You need to consult three volumes, as some ships' voyages in Volume I may have further references in Volumes 2 and 3.

Please note that this book DOES NOT contain passenger lists, it only tells you the whereabouts of logs, journals and other accounts of ships' voyages.

The books are published under the imprint of  the Roebuck Society, 42 Araba St., Aranda, A.C.T., 2614, and they may be contacted for copies.

  Index of Ships' Captains from "Log of Logs", compiled by Jenny Fawcett

"In 1945 an agreement was signed between the Commonwealth National Library and the Public Library of New South Wales that the two libraries jointly microfilm material held in the Public Record Office, London, relating to Australia.  This agreement later expanded to include other manuscript material held in Britain and Europe, with the geographical scope expanded to include New Zealand, the pacific region, most of South East Asia, and Antarctica.

The bulk of the records copied are from the Colonial Office, but the Admiralty, Home Office, War Office, Foreign Office, Privy Council, Treasury, Exchequer, Audit and Board of Trade also held relevant material.  A volume called Miscellaneous contains a variety of non-government sources, such as missionary societies, papers in private hands and county record offices, National Library of Scotland, British Museum, Guildhall Library and the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew.

The microfilm can be accessed by a Guide, published in several volumes.  For the most part these are unindexed, though Part 8 Miscellaneous has indexed the titles of the papers, such as Van Diemen's Land Company, West Sussex Record Office, and the South Staffordshire Regiment, and Part 9 Personal Collections has indexed the papers, such as Carnarvon Papers, 1858-1885, and Pitt Papers 1766-1808.

It is definitely worth familiarising yourself with the contents of this microfilm collection.  There is a great deal of material relating to Convicts.  For example, in Part 3 Home Office there are Criminal Registers, Correspondence and Warrants, convicts transported, Tasmanian Muster of Convicts, Tasmanian Pardons, prisoners in gaols, quarterly list in prisons and on hulks.  In Part 4 War Office there are muster books and pay lists and monthly returns of the military establishment.  In Part 7 Admiralty there are medical journals, Captain's letters and log books.

Board of Trade records contain such things as Registers of certificates of competency of Masters and Mates: Colonial Trade, the Colonial Office contains the records of the Colonial Land and Emigration Board, and a register of births and deaths at sea from 1847 to 1854, indexed by ship.

Getting access to the AJCP might save you a great deal of money you might otherwise pay to a London-based researcher, so do have a look at the guide and see how you might be able to benefit by it." [Extract from Searching for Mary Ann:  researching women ancestors in Australia, by Lenore Frost]

Australian Joint Copying Project (National Library of Australia webpage)

"Charlwood gives a definitive account of the trials of emigration, from the leaving of the old home and arrival at the Emigration Depot, to landfall in Australia.  Charlwood has used eye-witness accounts drawn from diaries and letters to give us a fuller understanding of the drama of nineteenth century emigration". [Extract from Searching for Mary Ann:  researching women ancestors in Australia, by Lenore Frost]