Australian passport

Australian passports are travel documents issued to Australian citizens under the Australian Passports Act 2005 by the Australian Passport Office of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), both in Australia and overseas, which enable the passport bearer to travel internationally. Australian citizens are allowed to hold passports from other countries. Since 1988 over a million Australian passports have been issued annually, and it reached 1.4 million in 2007, and increasing towards a projected 3 million annually by 2021. As of July 2023, Australian citizens had visa-free or visa on arrival access to 186 countries and territories, ranking the Australian passport sixth in the world in terms of travel freedom according to the Henley Passport Index. Since 24 October 2005, Australia has issued only biometric passports, called ePassports, which have an embedded microchip that contains the same personal information that is on the colour photo page of the passport, including a digitised photograph. As all previous passports have now expired, all Australian passports are now biometric. SmartGates have been installed in Australian airports to allow Australian ePassport holders and ePassport holders of several other countries to clear immigration controls more rapidly, and facial recognition technology has been installed at immigration gates. As of May 2023, it was regarded as "the most expensive travel document in the world", at a cost of AUD$325 per passport. History Before 1901, Australia consisted of six separate British colonies. Passport usage was not common, and if required British or other national passports were used. In the 19th century, paroled convicts were issued a type of internal passport called "ticket of leave", which enabled them to move freely between the colonies. In 1901, the six colonies joined to form the Commonwealth of Australia, although Australians retained British nationality. It was only in 1912 that the first federal passport regulations were introduced, and the passports issued by the Australian government still bore the words "British Passport" on the cover until 1967. During World War I, the monitoring and identifying of those crossing international borders was regarded as critical to the security of Australia and its allies, and the War Precautions Act 1914 required all persons over 16 years of age, on leaving Australia, to possess some passport.