On Board an Emigrant Ship at The Time of The
Irish Famine
Overend, William Heysham
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Migration to Australia in the 1830s
By Elizabeth Palmer
In the 1830s, two events happened which
had a significant effect on migration to Australia. The first was the decision to encourage assisted migration to
Australia. The second was the arrival
of Caroline Chisholm in 1838 in New South Wales.
The reason for assisted migration
was to create a balance in the type of people living in Australia. The two main problems were that land-owners
needed workers for their property and that a land in which the ratio of men to
women was 1:3 was a harder, rougher place than the people of Australia wanted
it to be.
What was needed was male and female
members of the working class, but the working class weren’t coming to
Australia. At the same time, largely
because of the industrial revolution, unemployment was widespread in Britain,
especially amongst the rural areas and those people with exactly the same
skills that were needed in Australia.
The irony of it was that just when they needed employment, and just when
Australia needed to employ them, they couldn’t afford the trip.
Assisted migration seemed the
perfect solution. Colonists were
encouraged to sponsor migration, in return for which they would have more
people to work for them. Parishes in
England were also encouraged to contribute to the cost of their parishioners’
passage to Australia, the idea being that this one-off fee would be cheaper
than the cost of looking after them if they remained unemployed for a long
period.
These two schemes had their
effect. In New South Wales, for
example, 3,882 people migrated with assistance from 1832 to 1936 and 43,922
migrated with assistance in 1837 to 1841.
The people were coming to Australia but were they finding the jobs?
Many so-called “perfect” solutions
often have hidden problems. In this
case, one of the problems was that the migrants that were coming to Australia
full of high-expectations did not always end up where they were wanted. Women, especially, found themselves without
employment and, as a result, without money and without housing.
Many of them became destitute,
living on the streets of Sydney. Some
of them resorted to prostitution as a means to survive. There would have been many more who were
either forced to the same, or who died through starvation, if it weren’t for
the arrival of a very special lady who was to have a significant effect on
Australia.
Caroline Chisholm arrived in Sydney
in 1838 with her husband. After seeing
the plight of these women, she sought Governor Gipp’s approval to meet them at
the wharves. Later, in 1841, she
established a Female Immigrants’ Home, again with Governor Gipp’s approval.
At this time, the ratio of males to
females was still very high, particularly in rural areas. Caroline Chisholm decided to try and find
employment for women in these rural areas, and so help her female immigrants’ problems
of financial difficulty and also bring the sobering influence of “God’s police”
to the bush.
Mrs Chisholm became a commonplace
sight on the roads towards the country-towns of New South Wales. She would travel with dray-loads of girls
and would inspect the employment situation herself before leaving anyone. She became admired and respected, not just
because she did something, but because she did a lot – and she cared.
In 1846, Caroline Chisholm returned
to Britain, but her work as the ‘emigrants’ friend’ continued. In 1850 she established the Family
Colonisation Loan Scheme Organization to help finance family emigration.
By the 1940s, the ratio of men to
women had lowered from 3:1 to 1.43:1.
This was no doubt due to the influence of both assisted migration and
the work of Caroline Chisholm. What
effect this had on society is hard to determine, but it can be imagined. Although I do not completely agree with Mrs
Chisholm’s view of women as “God’s Police” I do believe they would have made
the bush a far nicer place to live for both males and females.
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