Australian Passport - History

History

• The 'X' series passport issued in 1917 is one of the earliest passports. It was during World War I that monitoring and identifying those crossing international borders became critical to the security of Australia and its allies;
• The War Precautions Act 1914–1915 required that all persons over 16 years of age, on leaving the Commonwealth, possess a passport.
• The words Australian Passport replaced British Passport on the cover of the Australian passport in 1949. Two types of passport were issued:
  1. B Series passports were issued (within Australia only) to British subjects who were not Australian citizens. The term "British subject" had a particular meaning in the context of Australian nationality law. The term encompassed all citizens of countries included in the list contained in the Australian Citizenship Act 1948. The list of countries was based on, but was not identical with, those countries (and their colonies) which were members of the Commonwealth from time to time. The list was amended from time to time as various former colonies became independent countries, but the list in the Act was not necessarily up-to-date as far as to constitute exactly a list of countries in the Commonwealth at any given time. This definition of "British subject" meant that, for the purposes of Australian nationality law, citizens of countries which had become republics, such as India, were grouped as "British subjects". This legal category was abolished in 1984 by the Australian Citizenship Amendment Act of that year.
  2. C Series passports were issued only to Australian citizens.
• In 1967 the word "British" was removed from passports. "British subjects" under Australian nationality law continued to be eligible to be issued Australian passports.
• Before 1983, a married woman's passport application had to be authorised by her husband.
• In 1983, the Department partnered with Australia Post to allow the issuance of Australian passports at most Australia Post outlets.
• In 1984, Australian passports included machine readable lines and were the first to have a laminate built into the document. The same year Australian passports begun to be issued exclusively to Australian citizens.
• In 1986, the introduction of Single Identity passports meant children could no longer be included on their parent's passport.
• Until 1988, a woman could apply for and receive a passport in her married name, before she was actually married.
• The 'L' series passport personal data pages initially included a photograph and a cut out piece of paper with the holders signature under a sheet of adhesive laminate
• From approximately 1998, the personal data page for 'L' series passports was colour laser printed and under a sheet of adhesive laminate
• The 'M' series passport was issued from 27 November 2003, which included enhanced security features. The personal data page of these passports is printed by ink-jet onto the adhesive surface of the security laminate, the laminate itself containing a holographic design.
• From October 2005, the 'M' series was issued as a biometric or e-passport. An electronic passport logo was printed under the passport number on the personal data page. The front cover was printed in gold ink.
• Since May 2009 the 'N' series has been issued as a biometric or e-passport. The passport is black instead of blue and has a slight font and case change to the word 'Passport' on the front cover. The front cover printing is now in silver. Additional fraud counter-measures have been included in the passport including a 'Ghost Image' and 'Retro-Reflective Floating Image' on the laminated page. Each page features images of Australia printed throughout the document making every visa page unique and more difficult to reproduce.