We present a catalogue of previously unpublished optical and infrared photometry for a sample of 162 emission-line objects and shell stars visible from the southern hemisphere. The data were obtained between 1978 and 1997 in the Walraven (WULBV), Johnson/Cousins (UBV(RI)c) and ESO and SAAO near-infrared (JHKLM) photometric systems. Most of the observed objects are Herbig Ae/Be (HAeBe) stars or HAeBe candidates appearing in the list of HAeBe candidates of Thé et al. (1994), although several B[e] stars, LBVs and T Tauri stars are also included in our sample. For many of the stars the data presented here are the first photo-electric measurements in the literature. The resulting catalogue consists of 1809 photometric measurements. Optical variability was detected in 66 out of the 116 sources that were observed more than once. 15 out of the 50 stars observed multiple times in the infrared showed variability at 2.2 mu m (K band). Based on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory, La Silla, Chile and on observations collected at the South African Astronomical Observatory. Tables 2-4 are only available in electronic form at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via http:/ /cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/380/609