The Moreton Bay Courier 16 December 1848 p2 enthusiastically welcomed the Artemisia, the ‘first immigrant vessel direct from England’ to Brisbane. Instead of placing the notice in the shipping intelligence column, the paper provided extensive news about it in ‘a place of honour’.

Why was this vessel’s arrival so significant? What was the preparation and passage like?
What were the passengers coming to?

The main Brisbane government buildings 1848. Colonial Secretary’s letters received relating to Moreton Bay and Queensland A2.17 p831.

The importance of the Artemisia

At the time of the 1846 census the population of the County of Stanley (Moreton Bay), Brisbane and surrounding areas, was only 1599 (not including Indigenous people). Although the settlement had been open to free settlers since the beginning of 1842, business, agricultural or pastoral activity had not really grown. Furthermore, Moreton Bay came under the authority of the NSW Government, which showed minimal interest in developing infrastructure in this place of poorly constructed, deteriorating convict buildings. The main opportunity seemed to lie in increasing the population and skills to a point where Moreton Bay could become self-governing. Settlers had been trickling in from the southern regions of Australia but large numbers direct from Britain and Europe were seen as providing the desirable impetus.

The Artemisia’s departure

The departure of the first immigrant ship to Moreton Bay received attention in England too, most notably by the Illustrated London News 12 August 1848 pp 94, 96. The paper explained it was focused on the contemporary matter of mass migration. It featured two images of the vessel and articles on the ship and Moreton Bay.

The Artemisia, Illustrated London News 12 August 1848 p96

The Artemisia, Illustrated London News 12 August 1848 p96

The ship, a barque, captained by John Ridley, was impressive: new and well fitted. The passengers seemed cared for. A house was rented as an emigration depot at Deptford, one of the two places from which the emigrants would embark, the other being Plymouth. The emigration commissioners paid two shillings a day lodging for each passenger from the time of their pre-arranged arrival until the time of boarding. Preparations took about three days. They were assigned a ticketed berth, organised into messes, and given mess kits, bedding, and bags. A surgeon superintendent on the ship was responsible for their well-being. The visiting journalists described the ‘provisions for the emigrants, the biscuits, beef, and port as of excellent quality’.

The passengers needed the right skills as farm workers, skilled labourers or domestic servants. They were to be of good character, sober and industrious, supply their own clothing and pay £1 for each adult and 10s. for each child as a guarantee they would take the passage.

A passenger’s account

A Journal of a Voyage to Australia in the Ship Artimisia (sic), 1848 available online via the Australian Joint Copying Project and transcribed at State Library as Robert Inglis Journal 1848 provides an insight into what it could take to get to Deptford and what the journey was like. The Inglis family travelled from Glasgow on Saturday 22 July to Edinburgh to board the Trident steamer for London which they reached on the following Monday. They walked to Deptford while the luggage and female passengers went by barge to the Deptford Emigration Depot. They then returned to London to see the sights before going back to Deptford to embark. The ship was tugged to Gravesend where the journalists left, and the ship travelled to Plymouth to collect more emigrants before setting sail for Moreton Bay. The loss of life, particularly of babies, is sad reading but life at sea for these novices was interesting. When they arrived in Moreton Bay a pilot visited the ship then travelled to Brisbane to announce their arrival.

In Brisbane, this influx of numbers by sea had been an organisational priority. Francis Merewether, immigration agent, wrote 16 October (A2.17 pp 182-185) to the Colonial Secretary of the need for a medical officer to be appointed with Captain Wickham to inspect the ship and immigrants on arrival; that the ship would anchor in the bay and a large building would be needed to accommodate them on arrival and to serve as a place to hire them out. On 14 November (A2.17 pp197-198) Captain Wickham informed the Colonial Secretary that the best way to move the passengers and luggage into Brisbane, a distance of 16-18 miles was to hire a river steamer such as the Raven and to land them at the Government Wharf. The ship’s boats would be impossible because of the seasonal strength of sea breezes. Wickham on 14 November (A2.17 p 512) requested articles for the immigration depot from Francis Merewether.

Items for immigration depot. Colonial Secretary’s Correspondence, Moreton Bay (A2.17 p 512).

Reverend Benjamin Glennie’s diary 1848-1860 recorded crisply:
13 (December) Artemisia anchored in the bay.
16 Captain Wickham went in the Customs House boat at 4.am. to the Artemisia.
     The Raven arrived about 6 with Captain Ridley and the immigrants
19 Hiring of immigrants at the Prisoners Barracks.

Moreton Bay settlement

The passengers arrived at the height of a humid summer for a foreign Christmas. The immigration depot was the decaying prisoners’ barracks. However, the Illustrated London News described the settlement as ‘this El Dorado, this fertile and interesting portion of our Australian possessions’. It spoke of ‘the high rate of wages demanded and of necessity given’ (p 94). The new arrivals soon found their illusions shattered. After four months at sea, they were expected to take employment immediately. While they were in demand, the Moreton Bay Courier 16 December 1848 p2 stated, ‘we have been rather startled at the rates of wages said to have been received by some of them previously to their embarkation for this colony’ and calculated they could have been as little as a third of what they claimed.

The Artemisia brought 241 immigrants and news of the Fortitude which arrived in January. It was the first of fifty-two immigrant journeys which would bring thousands more in the following eleven years until Separation from NSW was finally achieved in December 1859.

Find out more…

• Check Trove historical newspapers for further information on the Artemisia and its passengers.
• In Maritime illustration index / compiled by Vaughan Evans, find images and article on ships from the Illustrated London
• News and other newspapers featuring pictorial content.
• Search the Illustrated London News online and on microfilm.
• Familiarise yourself with the Colonial Secretary’s Correspondence Moreton Bay 1822-1860 covering the colony pre-separation and learn about the project to put these primary source documents online.