Commonwealth electoral rolls are an alphabetical listing of all persons eligible to vote in Commonwealth elections and referenda, arranged by electoral divisions. They have been produced since 1908.
The Archives office in Perth holds sets of Commonwealth electoral rolls for electors residing within Western Australian boundaries for the period 1914 to 1996. These consist of printed and official versions of the rolls.
Printed rolls are produced for each election. They may also be produced between elections, usually at the request of a particular electoral division.
Bound printed electoral rolls are held for the period 1914 to 1989. They contain the name, address, occupation (omitted after 1983) and gender of each elector. Rolls from 1914 to 1983 are arranged into divisions with a further breakdown into sub-divisions. Maps and descriptions of the boundaries of sub-divisions are usually included. Within sub-divisions the electors are listed alphabetically by family name. From 1984 to 1989 rolls are alphabetically listed for the complete division only.
From 1990 printed rolls have been produced in a single microfiche format which lists electors alphabetically by name for the entire State rather than in separate electoral divisions.
Official rolls are copies of electoral rolls containing annotations by the Australian Electoral Commission which detail changes to the entry for an elector. They also record the elector's death or departure from or arrival in a division. These rolls are then used to produce the next printed copy of the electoral roll. Official rolls are available for public access once they are over 30 years old and provided they do not contain notations about electors which are of a personally sensitive nature (these could include changes of name of electors or some reasons for the exclusion of electors from the roll). No official rolls are available for divisions of Brand or Cowan (both created 1984), O'Connor (1979), Pearce (1989) and Tangney (1973) as they are still less than 30 years old.
The office in Perth holds official electoral rolls from 1929 to 1996. Since 1970 official rolls have been produced as computer printouts.
Title or description of records | Series no. |
Printed electoral rolls * | |
Rolls for the divisions of Brand (since 1984), Canning (since 1948), Cowan (since 1984), Curtin (since 1948), Dampier (1912–1922), Forrest (since 1922), Fremantle (since 1901), Kalgoorlie (since 1901), Moore (since 1948), O'Connor (since 1979), Pearce (since 1989), Perth (since 1901), Stirling (since 1955), Swan (since 1901) and Tangney (since 1973)
| |
Microfilm version of printed electoral rolls, 1990–1996 | |
Official electoral rolls * | |
Rolls for the divisions of Brand (since 1984), Canning (since 1948), Cowan (since 1984), Curtin (since 1948), Forrest (since 1922), Fremantle (since 1901), Kalgoorlie (since 1901), Moore (since 1948), O'Connor (since 1979), Pearce (since 1989), Perth (since 1901), Stirling (since 1955), Swan (since 1901) and Tangney (since 1973)
| PP153/1; PP339/1; PP385/1; PP397/1; PP531/1; PP654/1; PP834/1; K52 |
* Dates appearing after division names indicate the date of the division's creation.
The JS Battye Library of Western Australia, which is part of the Library and Information Service of Western Australia, has a small number of Western Australian Commonwealth rolls as well as the Western Australian State rolls.
A full set of Commonwealth electoral rolls is held by the National Library of Australia, in Canberra.
Other offices of the Archives have have similar holdings of Commonwealth rolls (in paper and/or microcopy formats) to those held in Perth, for divisions within the respective State or Territory in which the offices are located. Contact details for these offices are listed in Fact Sheet 1 – Addresses and hours of opening. You should contact reference staff in those offices direct for details of holdings.
Year | Event |
1901 | First Federal election. Conducted under State electoral legislation. |
1902 | Most men and women over 21 allowed to vote at Federal elections (exceptions were 'Aboriginal Natives of Australia, Asia, Africa or the Pacific Islands except New Zealand'). |
1924 | Compulsory voting introduced for Federal elections |
1949 | Aboriginal people were given the right to enrol and vote at Federal elections provided they were entitled to enrol for State elections or had served in the Defence Forces |
1967 | All Aboriginal people became entitled to enrol and vote at Federal elections and referendums |
1973 | The age for enrolment, voting and candidature was lowered to 18 years. |
1984 | Enrolment and voting for Aboriginals became compulsory. Franchise qualifications changed from British to Australian citizenship |
You can obtain more information about the record series listed above (and the items within the series) fromRecordSearch, the Archives database. Follow the links in the series lists to go directly to information on that series. You can also use RecordSearch to find out about the agencies that created the records and to locate more records on your subject. You might also explore PhotoSearch to find out if there are photos pertaining to your subject.
RecordSearch and PhotoSearch are available online or in all Archives reading rooms. Reference staff are available in the reading rooms to help you, or email ref@naa.gov.au.
Comments or other feedback can be sent to archives@naa.gov.au
updated August 2000