Search Trials
Search 150 years of Australian criminal trial records
Scope of collections
The Prosecution Project databases include material from courts, police and prison records. The focus of the project was originally on Supreme Court records, relating to trials conducted for the more serious offences. Later collections include indexes to prisoners tried and discharged as published in police gazettes, as well as prison registers and records of penal settlements.
Searches are conducted within a ‘register’. The current list of registers, date range and sources is here.
| Register abbreviation | Collection | Data collected | Date range | Main source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NSWCCJ | NSW Court of Criminal Jurisdiction | Persons tried | 1788-1833 | NSW State Archives |
| NSWSC | NSW Supreme Court | Persons tried | 1831, 1838-1943 | NSW State Archives, NSW Supreme Court |
| VICSC | Victorian Supreme Court | Persons tried | 1841-1943 | Public Record Office Victoria |
| SASC | South Australia Supreme Court | Persons tried | 1845-1943 | State Records South Australia, SA Police Gazette |
| QLDSC | Queensland Supreme Court | Persons tried | 1850-1943 | Queensland State Archives |
| WASC | Western Australia Supreme Court | Persons tried | 1830-1943 | State Record Office Western Australia |
| TASSC | Tasmanian Supreme Court | Persons tried | 1824-1943 | Tasmanian Archives and Heritage Office |
| NTSC | Northern Territory Supreme Court | Persons tried | 1872-1941 | NLA Trove Digitised Newspapers |
| QLDMBC | Queensland Moreton Bay Penal Settlement | Persons confined in penal settlement | 1825-1839 | Queensland State Archives |
| QPG | Queensland Police Gazette | Persons discharged from prison | 1872-1900 | Queensland Police Gazette |
| VICPG | Victoria Police Gazette | Persons discharged from prison | 1857-1906 | Victoria Police Gazette |
| NSWPG | NSW Police Gazette | Persons discharged from prison and persons tried | 1864-1931 | NSW Police Gazette |
| TASPG | Tasmania Police Gazette | Persons discharged from prison | 1854-1924 | Tasmania Police Gazette |
| VICFP | Victoria Female Prisoners | Persons in prison | 1855-1934 | PROV |
Users should be aware that all data has been transcribed from original manuscript or printed records. Errors in transcription as well as in the original source may be found in any of these collections. Duplicate records may also be found within the same register. At this time it is not possible to search across the entire database.
Searching the database
Searches can be conducted for any case in which a trial was listed before 1943. Owing to archive restrictions on some records we cannot provide a search facility beyond this year for now.
The search returns data including name of accused, date of trial, the first offence listed, the verdict, sentence, location of trial and links to newspaper records (accessing the Trove digitised newspapers).
A trial date of 1970 (or 0000) indicates that data may be missing an exact date, or that the case was dismissed before it went to trial.
Sources of data - these vary from state to state and include original court registers (the majority of records), court calendars, trial briefs and police gazettes.
Researchers wishing to access the database for research purposes are invited to contact the Prosecution Project to discuss their project needs.
You may search for multiple keywords by separating them with a comma (,).
Wildcards ('?' for a single, and '*' for multiple characters) are also supported.
Use '^' and '$' to delineate the start and end of an entry. e.g use '^smith$' to exactly search for the string 'smith'
The Prosecution Project publishes data transcribed from historical records held in Australian cultural institutions. Some data is provided as a resource to support private research and study. Researchers wishing to access the database for research purposes are invited to contact the Prosecution Project to discuss their project needs.