Bad news–Victorian passenger list images no longer on Ancestry

I’m sorry to be the bearer of sad tidings.

I recently found that I could no longer access images for passenger lists to Victoria, Australia on Ancestry. I asked Ancestry where these images had gone and was advised that "The images were placed on the site by mistake for a couple of days, and were removed afterward".

So, no more Victorian passenger list images.

The Ancestry indexes which remain give a little more information than the free indexes on the PROV website, but not much. Certainly not enough to show which people were travelling as a family group.

I'm not so sure about the "couple of days" claim... I think they may have a funny idea of what a "couple of days" means. I've often been taken to task for using the word "couple" when I mean anything other than two, but I've never used the word to describe a quantity greater than all my fingers and toes together…

The presence of these images was one of the deciding factors when I was considering whether to take out an Ancestry subscription for the first time in late 2010. It's frustrating to know that the digital images exist but I can't see them, even through a paid site. Very disappointing. I hope that whatever arrangements are needed can be worked out and they reappear somewhere soon.