Warrnambool, Vic.--first hand accounts etc.?

[speleobat2]

Hi all,

I just uncovered another branch of the family that left Scotland and settled in AU, this one in Warrnambool, Vic. and it got me wondering does anyone know of any books giving first hand accounts of life for the immigrants anywhere in AU?

I looked up Warrnambool on Wikepedia and there wasn't much settlement there until the late 1840's and early 1850's. My relatives arrived around 1855 so I'm wondering what it must have been like for them.

Carol

[Alan SHARP]

Greetings from NZ.

Those in the first wave of pioneering settlors were confronted with hard 'yaka' to achieve a future for themselves. There was land aplenty, so it was a case of mastering the elements in/of the new land, and knuckle down to building the habitation and services deemed most essential. Unfretted in terms of land tenure and hierarchal restraints of home, most started with their bare hands and a few hand tools, that they brought with themselves to the new country. In this environment "help thy neighbour" really came to the fore, and is still a strong ethic, especially in the rural communities.

That was the case for our William SHARP and his bride Jane DUNBAR who landed at Auckland NZ, in October 1842. This being the era before Gold was discovered in both countries. I believe it was very similar in Australia, but I have every confidence that Alan [currie] will hunt out some good references for us.

Alan SHARP.

P.S. GOLD RUSH.
I knew my SHARP families came out before the Gold rushes took a hold, and was of the opinion that the gold finds, sparking the rush in both New Zealand and Australia were in the late 1850’s and early 1860’s. Now upon looking it up, I see that the Australian finds were; 1851 Ballarat & 1852 Bendigo, while in New Zealand the years were 1852 Coromandel, 1856 Takaka & 1861 Otago.

In just two years from the discovery of gold in Victoria, Australia, the State's population grew from 77,000 to 540,000!

Lost a relative in 1852 ? Try looking down under.

[trish1]

Hi Carol

I'm sure I would not have survived life at this time in most parts of Australia. Your area was mainly a farming area & at that time many folks were leaving for the gold fields. There are many books on the history of the district - a search of the ANL catalogue would find much - but finding the books outside of Australia may be difficult. If you are looking for a general history of Australia at that time - the list is probably endless & you may find some locally. Manning Clark is a well know Australian Historian & you may easily find his books outside of Australia
http://books.google.com/books?id=NlGLho ... bs_ViewAPI
http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Search/Home ... ts=&page=1

I did a quick search on the newspapers at the library with not alot of useful information on the first page of hits - although some would be pleased to see that in the 1850s they voted against paying renumeration to the town councillors
http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/search?adv=y

The Local Family history group is putting it's journals online - so there may be some early stories to be found
http://home.vicnet.net.au/~aigswbl/

Gould Books has a CD for sale with the history of Warrnambool 1847-1866 - perhaps google books has some early information available free of charge - Alan is much more successful at finding some of these than I have been.

At that time in Australia, except for the West, the transportation of convicts had stopped. If your immigrants were "assisted" they would have been found employment and probably provided with some type of accommodation - but it would have been very primitive & they probably would have built their own home - using local materials - asap. If they were Unassisted immigrants they would have been left to their own devices, although land was abundant and not overly expensive. My Scottish ancestors came to Australia - at their own cost - twenty years earlier. From my research it seems land was very important to them - I have always thought this was because those who owned the land back in Scotland, had all the power. This was not so much the case in Australia - although the "landed gentry" certainly became the backbone of the country for the first 150 years of european settlement.

If you can find your immigrants here - you can separate the assisted/unassisted. There is other information you may find useful on the PROV site
http://www.access.prov.vic.gov.au/publi ... ide023.jsp

I have found some folks missing from the ancestry lists - and their BDM records are not complete either, as compared to the official site. If you would like any information on these let me know.

Trish

[Currie]

Hello Carol,

I think I may have passed through there once on my way to passing through Melbourne and it looked pretty average.

Warrnambool seems to have been fairly well established by the mid 1850s. Life there was probably similar to what it was in any other newly settled coastal town located in a farming area. By then, for most people, it was probably a whole lot better and no less safe and not much less comfortable than the life they had left behind.

Here’s a description in “Handbook to Australasia” published 1859, and it looks reasonably civilised. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=VcU ... ol&f=false

In the Australian Newspaper Archives a search for “Warrnambool Correspondent” sorted by date may bring up some early news sent to the big city papers. http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/resul ... by=dateAsc

Hope that’s useful,
Alan

[speleobat2]

Hi all,

Many thanks to both Alans and Trish for your suggestions and comments! Looks like Google is going to get another work out today!

I was too young to know 3 of my 4 grandparents so I never got a chance to ask why they emmigrated, but just looking at the records of their lives in Scotland gives many clues. They could own nothing back home and were barely feeding themselves. Places like the USA and AU were huge wide open countries with both land and jobs available. My Clerihew grandparents were some of the first people in their families to actually own a house! Over here, you could not only own a house, if you decided that you wanted to live somewhere else, you could sell the first one and move because there were not only plenty of houses available, but there were plenty of jobs available also. It is interesting that in the current surveys home ownership is still the number one goal of the majority of US families.

Carol

[graham0105]

Hi All,
I'm new here and intrigued by the interest in Warrnambool, Victoria. I grew up and went to school in Warrnambool. The city was the centre of the local dairy industry - still is really. There used to be a regular shipping service to Melbourne and Geelong but no longer as the harbour silted up.
The local historical society haa a wonderful collection of documents relating to the "early days". It's located at the Flagstaff Hill Maritime Museum , Merri Street Warrnambool, Victoria 3280.
Cheers
Graham
Melbourne, Vic.

[Currie]

Hello Graham, and welcome to TalkingScot.

I see that Trove has now digitized the Warrnambool Standard newspaper, only the WW1 years so far but probably lots more to come. I think they are trying to get as much WW1 stuff done ASAP because of the centenary of WW1 coming up. There was lots of censorship during those war years but a least there will be more chance of finding info about dead and wounded soldiers in their local newspapers. http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/title/227

All the best,
Alan

[graham0105]

Thanks Alan, I've just "found" the Trove site and discovered a report in the Portland paper of the arrival of the John Davies, the ship on which my g/g gandparents sailed. Looks like another great source of information.
Cheers
Graham