Immigrants details to go online

A project that aims to produce an online catalogue of the millions of people who have immigrated to Australia has been launched in Canberra.

The Making Australia Home project was launched on Wednesday along with special citizenship ceremonies in Canberra and Brisbane, arranged to mark Constitution Day.

The National Archives has already digitised 74,000 items, providing online access to the details of many of the more than seven million people who have resettled in Australia since Federation.

The records contain details such as the name of the person who migrated, when they migrated and their place of birth, including those who resettled under assisted passage arrangements and post-war displaced person schemes.

Cabinet Secretary Senator John Faulkner, who launched the project, said much of the story of Australia's migration history, from a government perspective, is told in the records held by the National Archives.

That rich history would now be accessible to all Australians, Senator Faulkner said.

"The records reflect changing attitudes towards migration and the evolving patterns of population movements over the 20th Century," he said.

"They are of immense historical and personal significance."

The migration records catalogued to date can be found on the National Archives website at www.naa.gov.au .

Source: AAP