Australian shipping statistics

From the mid-19^th century onward Australian shipping statistics were compiled in similar form to those described for New Zealand in menu item C6. However, each of the colonial forerunners to the present Australian states compiled theirs independently so there are differences in layout and content even though a general pattern is apparent. Some Australian colonies published more detail of shipping construction and registration than others, notably NSW.

A range of summary shipping, shipbuilding trade and other statistics for the individual colonies to 1900 is included in Australians Historical Statistics, Wray Vamplew, Fairfax, Syme & Weldon Associates, Sydney, 1987, Volume 10 of Australians: A Historical Library. See in particular: tables EC 80-88 (NSW), EC 209-217 (TAS), EC 300-316 (WA), EC 331-343 (SA), and TC 16-35 (NSW, VIC, SA, TAS and WA). However, much greater detail is available in the primary sources and in the individual colony yearbooks and “Blue Books”.

Most Australasian colonial shipping statistics made the sail/steam distinction from about 1875, although New Zealand did not until 1885 and Queensland never did pre-Federation. The layout of the statistics makes it possible to reorganise the information to distinguish intra-state (the colonial coastal figures), Australian or Australasian shipping (by aggregating the relevant totals) and shipping beyond Australia/Australasia (the residual = overseas in post-Federation statistics)

Accordingly, the statistics of those colonies that did make the sail/steam distinction can be used to provide a fairly good substitute for information not otherwise available for the other colonies without necessarily reconstructing it from scratch from the individual shipping movements. It is not possible to get the exact figures in this way because a ship departing one colony in December (or even November) of a particular year might well not arrive until the following year so there will be a slight statistical “slippage” between calendar years but it should be possible to obtain excellent approximations in this way that provide a good indication of trends.

I am working on extracting statistics for shipping movements between NZ and the Australian colonies from the Australian end particularly for the 1875-1885 period which is critical to the transition from Sail to Steam in the intercolonial trade (the modern interstate and trans-Tasman trades). Many of the necessary publications are available in Wellington but there are arbitrary gaps for some colonies for some years. I have filled some of these gaps but am interested in collaboration with researchers who have access to the remaining relevant volumes in Australia and can help me obtain photocopies of the relevant tables (preferably on a mutually convenient barter basis).

Queensland: The same approach I am using to cover the NZ sail/steam distinction in the decade to 1885 is applicable to providing greater detail of Queensland shipping movements in the quarter-century pre-Federation. I will probably compile the relevant statistics eventually as a spinoff from my New Zealand project but as a low-priority project. However, I am potentially interested in exchanging information with Queensland maritime historians. Note that statistics for the sail/steam distinction for Queensland shipping movements beyond Australia/Australasia can be constructed simply by compiling records of the relevant steamship arrivals and departures and subtracting them from the known statistical totals. It appears from listings of passenger arrival lists that steamships were the exception rather than the rule in this trade until well into the 1880’s so the work does not necessarily entail documenting nearly all Queensland pre-1900 shipping arrivals and departures before it is possible to explore the transition from sail to steam statistically.

South Australia: South Australian statistics from 1876 onward do differentiate sail and steam but at least initially, only by nationality rather than origin and destination. The approach of combining origin and destination statistics from the records of the other Australasian colonies therefore also has utility for South Australian research also.

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