The National Archives of Ireland holds a wide range of records relating to transportation of convicts from Ireland to Australia covering the period 1788 to 1868.  In some cases these include records of members of convicts' families transported as free settlers.  To mark the Australian Bicentenary in 1988, the Taoiseach presented microfilms of the most important of these records to the Government and People of Australia as a gift from the Government and People of Ireland.

The records from which the transportation database was compiled, transportation registers and petitions to government for pardon or commutation of sentence, are incomplete.  While the collection of convict petitions dates from the beginning of transportation from Ireland to Australia in 1791, all transportation registers compiled before 1836 were destroyed.  Therefore, if the person being researched was convicted before 1836, but was not the subject of a petition, he or she will not appear on this database.