Australia and New Zealand records - findmypast
 

Launched last month, but I've only just heard about it:

http://www.findmypast.com.au/about-us.php

*prepares to dive in*

Hmmm, as far as I can see, although searching is free, if you want to view records you can have a 24 hour free trial and then have to buy a subscription. The monthly option works out at about £4.50 per month in UK money and as far as I can see, you could cancel after a month if you want. I think I'll have the 24 hour free trial when I've got some time free to make the most of it.

To be honest with you I didn't find anything useful most of the records don't go that far back for it to be useful to anyone with migrators before 1890 unless I was looking in the wrong place!

I did find my friend's school records and also her siblings though and three of them are younger than me!

That's weird considering how strict the Australian and NZ laws on privacy are regarding the BMD indexes!
I do have a lot in my tree who emigrated before 1890 and I could see on the free search there are a lot of likely matches but like I said, I must wait until the right time to start my 24 hours free trial.

Well when I couldn't find anything that interested me I thought mmmm how weird but looking at the time frame of the records it's probably why.

So just for the fact I had a free trial and I know a lot about my friend's family I did a bit of searching and I found those school records and also some stuff with with her father on. It surprised me actually. By the way she was born in 1961.

Was that New Zealand or Australia, Maggie?

Queensland, Australia.

I did the free trial; there wasn't an awful lot I was interested in, but the Police Gazettes were quite useful. You may find the names of victims as well as criminals there.