The Registrar of Births, Deaths, and Marriages was established in 1838. It was located in the Attorney-General’s Department. 1882, it became the Statistical and General Registry Department.
An Act For Registering Births, Deaths And Marriages In The Island Of Van Diemen’s Land And Its Dependencies established the Registrar of Births, Deaths, and Marriages to cope with the registration of births, deaths, and marriages which it had made compulsory.
The Act followed a similar one introduced in England the year before. Tasmania was the first Australian colony to introduce such an act.