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From: "Joan Fawcett" <>
Subject: [AUS-VIC-West] Immigration to W.bool direct? NO
Date: Sat, 28 Feb 2004 17:39:14 +1100


Warrnambool never had any ships come in to port which specifically carried selected immigrants from international ports.

International immigrants (from England, Ireland ,Scotland etc) usually arrived at Portland, Geelong or Melbourne, and then came overland to Warrnambool.

But Warrnambool did have an immigration agent, as did Port Fairy and Portland.

There was a lot of competition between the towns of Portland, Port Fairy and Warrnambool.

1835-1842. Portland and Port Fairy sister settlements. Common interests, common goals.
greater majority of settlers,migrants, mechanics, labourers etc were all out of Tasmania.

Because of their growing success the twin towns attracted the attention of the wealthy Sydney merchants.
James Atkinson and William Rutledge had been granted Special Surveys (5120 acres). Rutledge acted as Atkinson's agent (and also agent for a bloke called Campbell). These three men laid out their land grants in such a manner that they became the principal land owners of all properties between Port Fairy and Warrnambool.
Then they began the push to attract immigrants, business , etc, to the reason for civic development.
At this time division grew between the two towns, as the Henty's had already been backing the same ideals for their region.

The division between the two towns was heightened by the editors of newspapers, who published inflammatory stories about each town being individually selected as the new major city outside of Melbourne....literally the star in the west.

But meanwhile back in Port Fairy problems were rearing their ugly little heads. The locals who had been resident in Port Fairy from the 1835 time frame were horrified at Atkinson's taking up all the land which was the former township of Port Fairy.Atkinson renamed his township Belfast. The locals began a push for a government township on the dunes east of the old township.

Local small business men and tenant farmers soon found their rents, their business and their opportunities were all controlled by two men (Atkinson and Rutledge) wereas over at Portland free trade was still available.

Disgusted residents soon began eyeing off nearby Warrnambool Bay as the new township of the west, as land was impossible to obtain anywhere west of that place.....squatters to the north and north west and Atkinson's, Rutledges and Campbell's land grants
nullified most opportunities.

So it was that in 1847 Warrnambool township came into existence.


Each of these three ports were dependant upon the sea for trade, communication and immigration. Portland Bay was the safest anchorage, Belfast to a lesser degree but plans were in place to build a breakwater and offer protection to vessels, but Warrnambool was far from a safe harbour.

Because of this, vessels traditionally preferred Portland, but it as the most distant place.

Prior to the late 1840's. the main immigrations scheme which brought immigrants to these three towns was a colonial based scheme operated under the auspices of the Geelong and Portland Bay immigratioon society. Basically the squatters and business men were desperate for labour....they banded together and subscribed a sum of money, a secretary was appointed and also agents in Tasmania, and ex convicts and tradesmen were encouraged to migrate over to Victoria, under inducement that their voyages were free (sometimes a small fee applied), and most importantly they could choose their own employer. Some variations to the scheme allowed for food and lodging....advertisements were placed in Tasmanian newspapers and candidates encouraged to contact local agents. The first wave of migrants came direct to Geelong and were housed in the immigration accomodation there. Somewhere around 3000 Taswegians migrated over between 1845-1847.
Not all of these stayed...some just used the opportunity to knock up big wages and then headed back to Tasmania, or on to NSW, NZ etc.


Both Atkinson, Rutledge and Campbell brought migrants down from NSW for work, again, these were intercolonial vessels.

Also ,Portland and Port Fairy both ran small Taswegian schemes but only for a brief period of time.


Different emigration/immigration schemes have operated over the years, and whilst each of these agents, and some of these agents did operate specifically out of Port Fairy, Warrnambool and Geelong, no vessels came direct to Warrnambool .

The most common avenue of entry was at Portland or Geelong, often an agent for local employers would head down to the docks where the boat arrived, and he would pick migrants as directed by his employers (eg....irish tenant farmers would ask for irish labourers, english merchants might request an english or scottish maid for their wife, ) and he would then organise their passage to Port Fairy or Warrnambool (usually by coastal steamer. or ship).

The more skilled the migrant, the more chance of higher wages and good living conditions. Those less skilled often had to be content with a contract as a day labourer for local councils/road boards etc.
Many of these migrants when far into the hinterland regions of Victoria.....squatters well to the north selected their staff from vessels out of these three ports.

But one has to quantify the status of an immigrant to truly state that no immigrants ever arrived.......as really, all were migrants.....just some were immigrants and some emigrants <s>

best wishes
Jenny

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