Australian bound
The voyage to Australia usually began with a letter:
I received two letters from Margaret yesterday morning containing a draught for twenty pounds and a certificate for a passage for Annjane John and myself. She has entered our ages as follows John 36 years Annjane 28 and me 26. Now what I require from Ballymena is a certificate of the day and year I was born. Annjane must have the same and also a Surgeons certificate that she is in sound health and free from any infectious disease that she is neither lunatic idiotic deaf dumb blind or otherwise infirm and she must also have a moral character from either a minister or magistrate of the parish she is in. Now be sure either you or John looks after this as I cannot fill up the papers until I get what I have stated ...
I received two letters from Margaret yesterday morning containing a draught for twenty pounds and a certificate for a passage for Annjane John and myself. She has entered our ages as follows John 36 years Annjane 28 and me 26. Now what I require from Ballymena is a certificate of the day and year I was born. Annjane must have the same and also a Surgeons certificate that she is in sound health and free from any infectious disease that she is neither lunatic idiotic deaf dumb blind or otherwise infirm and she must also have a moral character from either a minister or magistrate of the parish she is in. Now be sure either you or John looks after this as I cannot fill up the papers until I get what I have stated ...
Letter from William Doody in Liverpool to his sister Betty in Ballymena.
Magaret had already settled in Adelaide in the hotel business. (D1384/12).
William was writing from Liverpool, having already taken the first stage of the journey to Australia. View letters on how he and his siblings fared (67KB) 
. Most Irish migrants went from the ports of Belfast, Cork or Derry to either Liverpool or Bristol before transferring to the ship that would take them to the other side of the world, although there were a few ships that offered direct passage from Ireland, such as the Menonah and the Adelaide.
. Most Irish migrants went from the ports of Belfast, Cork or Derry to either Liverpool or Bristol before transferring to the ship that would take them to the other side of the world, although there were a few ships that offered direct passage from Ireland, such as the Menonah and the Adelaide.
The Menonah, moored in Spencer Basin, Dufferin Dock, Belfast,
with the tugs 'Ranger' and 'Protector' alongside.
Irish emigrants, however, were a thrifty lot and usually chose the least expense fare, although the choice of ship could also be influenced by speed, comforts offered, or the reputation of the captain.
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Captain William Reid, Belfast |
Admiral Bridges, Belfast |
Although life on board a ship may have seemed strange at first, the emigrants usually settled into a routine quite quickly and the voyages were relatively uneventful - a far cry from the early days of transportation, when death and disaster were constant companions. Its said that when offered a choice between transportation to Australia or hanging, most convicts would have chosen to swing, such was the reputation of the journey! Yet these same convicts, once settled, were only too keen to send for friends and relatives and these relatives, in their turn, sent for other friends and relations, proving perhaps that the journey was not unendurable.
Part of a handbill of the Green, Robinson &Co Regular Line of
Clipper Ships, c.1860. While this particular poster advertises the
voyage to Auckland, New Zealand, the writing on the side boasts of
the time taken for the same ship to reach Melbourne from
Liverpool (80 days) and from Liverpool to Sydney (85 days).
At an average of three months, the passage in the 1860s was considerably faster than it had been fifty to seventy years earlier but it was still a long, monotonous and, for the most part, dull, voyage. To help relieve the boredom, passengers often kept a diary or a journal or plotted the course taken on one of the route maps issues to them by the ticket vendor.
Two facing pages from a ship's log book, kept during a journey to Australia.
A passengers' track, wind and current map, issued by the Orient Line.
The first sight of land must have come as a very welcome relief to the travellers, even if the anticipation was tinged with trepidation. For most new immigrants arriving after the gold rush period, however, there was already a friend or relative in Australia to meet them at the wharf.
The Railway Pier, Sandridge, Melbourne, c. 1870. (D2412/D/1)
The Irish in Australia were very adept at using the government's free or assisted passage schemes to help their siblings and neighbours. In certain areas, whole villages were transplanted from Ireland, or sections of a town or city would be almost exclusively Irish. According to David Fitzpatrick:
'It appears the Irish, particularly in recently-settled colonies, showed a marked tendency to settle where the British did not. Secondly, unlike other groups they did not avoid agricultural districts. The heaviest concentrations of Irish settlers were found neither in the cities nor the outback, but in relatively populous regions often enclosing major towns. As one hostile observer wrote:
The Irish do not like going into the interior; but like to hold together like cattle, where they can squat down and gossip about all the ins and outs of the neighbourhood and have their priests and chapel in sight. An Irishman out here for twelve months knows more of the history of the people than an Englishman in seven years.
In general, the Irish in Australia were well dispersed and seldom without non-Irish neighbours to gossip about. Even within the cities, Irish ghettoes never developed: as another witness pointed out, 'Melbourne is far too Irish as a whole to have any special "Irish quarter".'
Indeed, the contribution of the Irish to the building of Australian cities was considerable.
