Assessment Books

The Assessment Books provide details of ownership, occupation, construction and value for properties within the City of Sydney local government area from 1845 to 1948. Searchable transcripts exist for all the key Assessment Books in this series.

Assessment Books and related records for Councils previously amalgamated into the City of Sydney can be located through a catalogue search. Of these amalgamated Councils, only the Newtown Assessment Books have searchable transcripts available. 

How to Search the Assessment Books

1. Search for a property using the historic ward boundary maps

• Go to the Historic ward boundaries resource.
• Use the left-hand menu to select a time period, then use the map to select the relevant Ward that the property sits within.
• Select an available Assessment Book to see the corresponding scan and full transcript.
• Use the left-hand Tools menu to download either a full pdf scan of the volume, or a searchable Excel transcript.

2. Search for a name or address using the keyword collection search

• Use the collection search to the right of this page to search for names or addresses across all Assessment Book transcripts.
• For best results when searching for a name, enter only the surname. Multi word search terms will be treated as an exact phrase so you may need to try combinations. For example, when searching for John Edgely, you could also try J Edgely, Jno Edgely or Mr Edgely.  
• For best results when searching for an address, enter only the street number and name. Suburb details are not currently recorded in the Assessment Books. For example, when searching for 377 Riley Street Surry Hills, enter 377 Riley only.
• Select a volume to see all search result page hits within that volume, then select the thumbnail beside it to see the highlighted search terms within the transcript.
• Select the Download option from the vertical Tools menu (to the left of the scan) to download either a full pdf scan of the volume, or a searchable Excel (.xls) transcript.

For more information about the Assessment Books see the Guide - City of Sydney Assessment Books.

A merged Assessment Books dataset for all wards and all years has been released as open data on the City's Data Hub.