I visited the Immigration Museum in Melbourne and loved it. About migrating to Australia, Museum Victoria wrote: “Hygiene was poor at the best of times and worse in bad weather. Batten-down the hatches meant passengers on the lowest deck were confined without ventilation or light in conditions that were ideal for the spread of disease. The use of candles or oil lanterns was restricted and sometimes forbidden. Cramped conditions with timber, straw mattresses, hemp and tar caulking, meant a fire could spread alarmingly.
I wondered why anyone would live like that. Convicts had no choice, of course. Once the American colonies* refused to be a dumping ground for British convicts in the 1780s, Australia had to take over. The first convicts ships to the Australian colonies landed in 1788, carrying men sentenced to 7 years for simple crimes like stealing food, and upwards. And the poor souls were almost always transported without their wives or children.
Clearly convicts were not given even the minimal comfort that free passengers in steerage class might have enjoyed. They were chained below deck without light or toilets. By the time the very last convict ship left Britain in late 1867, 166,000 convicts had made the journey to Australia on board 806 ships.
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With the discovery of gold in 1851 and a booming economy, more and more people travelled to Australia by choice, and convicts were no longer the major source of new arrivals. So did Australia accept anyone who wanted to settle here? Until the nation federated in 1901, the colonies of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia made their own decisions on which migrants to encourage and which hopefuls to reject. Tradesmen, professionals and agricultural workers were highly desirable, as long as they were of good moral character and free from all physical or mental defects. Due to the severe gender imbalance in the colonies, young single women of good character were warmly encouraged to travel to Australia, marry and be the mothers of the next generation.
As a result, all Australians were/are migrants from somewhere else, with the exception of indigenous Australians.
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I wondered why anyone would live like that. Convicts had no choice, of course. Once the American colonies* refused to be a dumping ground for British convicts in the 1780s, Australia had to take over. The first convicts ships to the Australian colonies landed in 1788, carrying men sentenced to 7 years for simple crimes like stealing food, and upwards. And the poor souls were almost always transported without their wives or children.
Clearly convicts were not given even the minimal comfort that free passengers in steerage class might have enjoyed. They were chained below deck without light or toilets. By the time the very last convict ship left Britain in late 1867, 166,000 convicts had made the journey to Australia on board 806 ships.
Ford Madox Brown
Last of England, 1855
Birmingham Museums and Art GalleryAs a result, all Australians were/are migrants from somewhere else, with the exception of indigenous Australians.
Modern families interested in tracing their ancestors’ experiences often have little more than the name of the ship and its departure and arrival dates. Sometimes we are lucky enough to find a diary or letters written on the ship. But how typical was any particular diary? Was there a shared experience that linked all those sea journeys to Australia?
Roslyn Russell wrote High Seas & High Teas: Voyaging to Australia (NLA 2016), the book that used passengers’ diaries to describe their experiences en route from the UK to Australia. She used thirty-three diaries penned by C19th passengers and crew, selected from among the 100 sailing diaries in the Manuscripts Collection of the National Library of Australia. Were they literate and interesting diaries? Yes indeed, particularly when written by first class male passengers. The trouble was that second and third class passengers were under-represented in the Manuscripts Collection, even though they were over-represented on the ships. The Jews, Chinese, Germans and every other group of migrants were also under-represented; only the English and Irish diaries were tapped.
In the C19th, the journey to Australia was always long, often dangerous and utterly tedious. In calm weather an ordinary sailing ship could have been at sea for four long months. Then clippers started to show advanced technology. With their streamlined hulls and huge sails, a well-run clipper ship with favourable winds could make the journey in just two months. And then by the 1850s, immigrants could make the journey by auxiliary steamer, using a combination of steam and sail.
The sailing routes from the UK to Australia varied. Early C19th routes went along the coast of South America via Rio de Janeiro, then across to Africa and south to the Cape of Good Hope, and on to Perth and the more easterly ports in Australia. From the 1830s passengers preferred to travel across the Mediterranean by steamship to Cairo; then by land to Suez, and by steamship again to Bombay. There they connected with the sailing ships that were heading for Australia. By mid-century a third, more dangerous route opened up. Clipper ships travelled south of the Cape of Good Hope to pick up the strong winds that blew in the southern hemisphere – faster but more dangerous. Lots of passengers must have blessed the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 which made the journeys both faster and safer.
Even so, the book gives evidence of at least four emigrant ships which sunk en route to Australia. At least 300 people drowned. And epidemics like scarlet fever killed even more travellers, especially those stuck in the rather fetid steerage spaces.
Roslyn Russell wrote High Seas & High Teas: Voyaging to Australia (NLA 2016), the book that used passengers’ diaries to describe their experiences en route from the UK to Australia. She used thirty-three diaries penned by C19th passengers and crew, selected from among the 100 sailing diaries in the Manuscripts Collection of the National Library of Australia. Were they literate and interesting diaries? Yes indeed, particularly when written by first class male passengers. The trouble was that second and third class passengers were under-represented in the Manuscripts Collection, even though they were over-represented on the ships. The Jews, Chinese, Germans and every other group of migrants were also under-represented; only the English and Irish diaries were tapped.
In the C19th, the journey to Australia was always long, often dangerous and utterly tedious. In calm weather an ordinary sailing ship could have been at sea for four long months. Then clippers started to show advanced technology. With their streamlined hulls and huge sails, a well-run clipper ship with favourable winds could make the journey in just two months. And then by the 1850s, immigrants could make the journey by auxiliary steamer, using a combination of steam and sail.
The sailing routes from the UK to Australia varied. Early C19th routes went along the coast of South America via Rio de Janeiro, then across to Africa and south to the Cape of Good Hope, and on to Perth and the more easterly ports in Australia. From the 1830s passengers preferred to travel across the Mediterranean by steamship to Cairo; then by land to Suez, and by steamship again to Bombay. There they connected with the sailing ships that were heading for Australia. By mid-century a third, more dangerous route opened up. Clipper ships travelled south of the Cape of Good Hope to pick up the strong winds that blew in the southern hemisphere – faster but more dangerous. Lots of passengers must have blessed the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 which made the journeys both faster and safer.
Even so, the book gives evidence of at least four emigrant ships which sunk en route to Australia. At least 300 people drowned. And epidemics like scarlet fever killed even more travellers, especially those stuck in the rather fetid steerage spaces.
Tom Roberts
Coming South, 1886
National Gallery of Victoria
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Because my husband and his family were immigrants on board ship coming to Australia in 1951, I was particularly interested in the boarding process, the accommodation and food provided during the ship journey and the migrants’ reception in Australian posts. Although the post-Holocaust ships were crowded and inelegant, at least the five members of Joe’s family were given a small cabin together. I imagine the single men in 1951, who were placed in dormitories on bunks, were not treated with a great deal more respect than their predecessors had been back in 1851. {Joe and his brother were too young to remember much; their older sister remembered it all].
Each section in the High Seas & High Teas book commences with a concise biography and then a transcript of one immigrant’s diary that illustrates the topic being discussed. The reader then finds a double-paged photo of that diary entry. Some immigrants reappear often; others are cited only once.
Not for the first time in history, it becomes clear that social class was the determinant of how passengers experienced the long voyage. Those with money could travel the ocean in style, dining on fresh meat at the captain’s table; the lower classes forced down mutton fat pudding while gagging on the stench from the ship’s bilges.
Four more excellent sources.
1. Don Charlwood’s The Long Farewell was published by Burgewood Books in 2015. Using 120 diaries kept by immigrants on the long trips to Australia and letters the settlers wrote home, Charlwood analyses the reasons for emigration, the routes chosen, accommodation on board, health care, meals and pastimes.
2. Resident Judge of Port Phillipblog.
3. Exiles and Emigrants: Epic Journeys to Australia in the Victorian Era was an extraordinary catalogue that accompanied the 2006 exhibition of the same name. Put on by the National Gallery of Victoria, the exhibits were displayed under the following headings: The Last of England; The Final Farewell; Women and Children Last; The Voyage; The Arrival; News from Abroad; and News from Home.
4. A world map* showing where the French, British, Spanish and Portuguese empires sent their convicts. It illustrates the number of convicts sent to each receiving country, but does not specify in which years the convicts were transported.
Coming South, 1886
National Gallery of Victoria
John Dollman
The Immigrants’ Ship, 1884
Art Gallery of South Australia
Each section in the High Seas & High Teas book commences with a concise biography and then a transcript of one immigrant’s diary that illustrates the topic being discussed. The reader then finds a double-paged photo of that diary entry. Some immigrants reappear often; others are cited only once.
Not for the first time in history, it becomes clear that social class was the determinant of how passengers experienced the long voyage. Those with money could travel the ocean in style, dining on fresh meat at the captain’s table; the lower classes forced down mutton fat pudding while gagging on the stench from the ship’s bilges.
Four more excellent sources.
1. Don Charlwood’s The Long Farewell was published by Burgewood Books in 2015. Using 120 diaries kept by immigrants on the long trips to Australia and letters the settlers wrote home, Charlwood analyses the reasons for emigration, the routes chosen, accommodation on board, health care, meals and pastimes.
2. Resident Judge of Port Phillipblog.
3. Exiles and Emigrants: Epic Journeys to Australia in the Victorian Era was an extraordinary catalogue that accompanied the 2006 exhibition of the same name. Put on by the National Gallery of Victoria, the exhibits were displayed under the following headings: The Last of England; The Final Farewell; Women and Children Last; The Voyage; The Arrival; News from Abroad; and News from Home.
4. A world map* showing where the French, British, Spanish and Portuguese empires sent their convicts. It illustrates the number of convicts sent to each receiving country, but does not specify in which years the convicts were transported.